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As Catholics, we are encouraged to make the Sacrament of Confession a more significant part of our spiritual life during Lent.
Check out our confession guide if you haven't been in a while.
Click below to view the Lenten penance times in your area.
PENSACOLA | FORT WALTON | PANAMA CITY | TALLAHASSEE
Lent is the observance of prayer, fasting and abstinence, and almsgiving before Easter. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, Catholics prepare their hearts for the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord. During Lent, many Catholics choose to go the extra mile and “give up” something like candy, TV, or late-night snacks. The only prescribed days of fasting and abstinence are Ash Wednesday, every Friday of Lent, and Good Friday.
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:
Days of Abstinence
No meat can be eaten on Ash Wednesday and all of the Fridays during Lent. This applies to all Catholics 14 and older.
Days of Fast
Only one full meal is permitted on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday for Catholics between 18 and 59. Two smaller meals are permitted, but the small meals should not equal a second full meal. Drinking coffee, tea and water between meals are allowed. Snacks between meals are not allowed.
Days of Lent
Looking for a wonderful new way to experience Lent in 2021?
Click here.For a comprehensive guide to the 2021 Lenten season, with suggested prayers, devotionals, calendar, and other interesting information,
check out the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. -
POPES AND SAINTS SPEAK
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God (Rm 8:19)
MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS FOR LENT 2019
Lent is a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Him Who is the fount of mercy. It is a pilgrimage in which He Himself accompanies us through the desert of our poverty, sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy of Easter. Even in the “valley of darkness” of which the Psalmist speaks (Ps 23:4), while the tempter prompts us to despair or to place a vain hope in the work of our own hands, God is there to guard us and sustain us. Yes, even today the Lord hears the cry of the multitudes longing for joy, peace, and love. As in every age, they feel abandoned. Yet, even in the desolation of misery, loneliness, violence and hunger that indiscriminately afflict children, adults, and the elderly, God does not allow darkness to prevail. In fact, in the words of my beloved Predecessor, Pope John Paul II, there is a “divine limit imposed upon evil”, namely, mercy (Memory and Identity, pp. 19ff.).MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR LENT 2006
Our primitive rule states that we must pray without ceasing. If we do this with all the care possible — for unceasing prayer is the most important aspect of the rule — the fasts, the disciplines, and the silence the order commands will not be wanting. For you already know that if prayer is to be genuine, it must be helped by these other things; prayer and comfortable living are incompatible.
St. Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection
Now the soul who wishes to rise above imperfection should await My Providence in the House of Self-Knowledge,with the light of faith, as did the disciples, who remained in the house in perseverance and in watching, and in humble and continual prayer, awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit. She should remain fasting and watching, the eye of her intellect fastened on the doctrine of My Truth, and she will become humble because she will know herself in humble and continual prayer and holy and true desire.
Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena
The efforts of Christians to promote justice, their commitment in defence of the powerless, their humanitarian work in providing bread for the hungry and their care for the sick by responding to every emergency and need, draw their strength from that sole and inexhaustible treasury of love which is the complete gift of Jesus to the Father. Believers are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who, in perfect obedience to the will of the Father, emptied himself (cf. Phil 2:6 ff), and humbly gave himself to us in selfless and total love, even unto death on a cross. Calvary eloquently proclaims the message of the Blessed Trinity’s love for human beings of all times and places.
Saint Augustine points out that only God, as the Supreme Good, is capable of overcoming the various forms of poverty present in our world. Mercy and love for one’s neighbour must therefore be the fruit of a living relationship with God and have God as their constant point of reference, since it is in closeness to Christ that we find our joy (cf. De Civitate Dei, X, 6; CCL 39:1351ff).
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II FOR LENT 2003
Looking for Liturgical Guidelines for Lent? Follow this link.
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2021 Lenten Penance services
Please continue checking back for updates.
Pensacola
St. John the Evangelist School, Pensacola – February 24, 9:30 a.m.
Holy Spirit, Perdido - March 8, 6:30 p.m.
St. Rose of Lima, Milton - March 16, 7 p.m
St. Paul Catholic Church, Pensacola - March 17, 6:30 p.m.
St. John the Evangelist - March 18, 6:30 p.m.
Little Flower Catholic Church, Pensacola – March 24, 6 p.m.
Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Pensacola – March 27, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
St. Mary Catholic Church, Pensacola - TBD
Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, Pensacola – TBD
St. Anne Catholic Church, Bellview - TBD
St. Ann Catholic Church, Gulf Breeze - TBD
St. Jude Thaddeus, Cantonment - TBD
St. Thomas More, Pensacola - TBD
OTHER TIMES:
Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel, Pensacola - Confessions: M-W & Fri. 11-11:45 a.m., Sat. 10-11 a.m.
St. Sylvester, Gulf Breeze - Eucharistic Adoration & Confessions every Thursday during March, 6-7 p.m.
St. John the Evangelist, Pensacola - Holy Thursday, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Good Friday, 5-5:45 p.m., Holy Saturday, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
St. Rose of Lima, Milton - Confessions: Every Saturday, 1:30-3:00 p.m. in the Chapel, First Monday, March 1 and April 5, 5:30-7 p.m. in the Chapel
St. Thomas More, Pensacola - Confessions: Every Tuesday, 5 p.m., Every Saturday 3 p.m., Every Sunday, 6 p.m.
St. Mary, Pensacola - Every Saturday of Lent, 2-3:30 p.m.
Please continue checking back for updates.Fort Walton Area
Resurrection, Miramar Beach – February 24, 4-5 p.m.
Resurrection, Miramar Beach – March 3, 10-11 a.m.
Resurrection, Miramar Beach – March 10, 4-5 p.m.
Resurrection, Miramar Beach – March 17, 10-11 a.m.
Resurrection, Miramar Beach – March 24, 4-5 p.m.
Resurrection, Miramar Beach – March 31, 11 a.m., 4-5 p.m.
Our Lady of Victory, Crestview – TBD
St. Mary, Fort Walton Beach – TBD
St. Rita, Santa Rosa Beach – TBD
St. Peter, Mary Esther - TBDEglin Airforce Base – TBD
St. Mary School, Fort Walton Beach – TBD
St. Margaret of Scotland, Defuniak Springs – TBD
OTHER TIMES:
Christ Our Redeemer, Niceville - Confessions: Saturdays during the month of March, 3-5 p.m.
Please continue checking back for updates.Panama City Area
St. Anne, Marianna - Feb. 24, 6 p.m.
St. Dominic, Panama City - March 8 at 6 p.m.
St. Theresa, Sunny Hills - March 8, 5:30 p.m.
St. Joseph, Port St. Joe - March 10, 5:30 p.m.
St. Bernadette, Panama City - March 17, 6 p.m.
St. Francis of Assisi, Blountstown - TBD
St. John the Evangelist, Panama City - TBD
St. Joseph the Worker, Chipley - TBD
St. Peter and Paul, Panama City - TBD
St. Patrick, Apalachicola - TBD
Our Lady Queen of Peace, Fountain - TBD
Please continue checking back for updates.Tallahassee Area
St. Louis Parish, Tallahassee - March 17, 6 p.m.
Immaculate Conception, Perry - March 18, 6:30 p.m.
Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More, Tallahassee - March 25, 7 p.m.
St. Eugene Chapel, Tallahassee - March 27, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Crawfordville - TBD
St. Thomas the Apostle, Quincy - TBD
Blessed Sacrament, Tallahassee - TBD
OTHER TIMES:
Good Shepherd, Tallahassee - Saturdays during Lent: Car reconciliation, 10-10:30 a.m., 3-4 p.m.