Lent 2023

Ash Wednesday is February 22, 2023

Things to Remember for Lent

ABSTINENCE: All Catholics who have reached their 14th birthday are bound to abstain totally from meat on the following days: Ash Wednesday, all Fridays of Lent and Good Friday.

FASTING: All Catholics between their 18th and 59th birthdays are also bound to observe the Law of Fast on the following days: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. This practice involves limiting oneself to a single full meal and avoiding food between meals. Light sustenance may be taken on two other occasions in the course of the day.

EASTER DUTY: After they have been initiated into the Most Holy Eucharist, all the faithful are bound by the obligation of receiving Communion at least once a year. This precept must be fulfilled during the Easter season, unless for a good reason it is fulfilled at another time during the year. This obligation may be fulfilled between February 26th (First Sunday in Lent) and June 4 (Trinity Sunday).

RITE OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION OF ADULTS: The Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion will occur on the First Sunday of Lent, February 26th at 3:00 pm at St. Joseph Cathedral.

Lenten Reminders from the Office of Worship

THE FOLLOWING SHOULD ALSO BE NOTED:

RECONCILIATION: Catholics are bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year (Canon 989).
OTHER FRIDAYS OF THE YEAR:Catholics should be reminded that all other Fridays of the year remain as days of penance, in prayerful remembrance of the Passion of Jesus Christ.
OBLIGATION: The obligation which we have as members of the Church to do penance is a serious one. Furthermore, the obligation to observe, as a whole or “substantially,” the penitential days specified by the Church is a serious one.
While no one should hold himself or herself lightly excused, one should not become unduly scrupulous. Failure to observe individual days of penance is less serious than the failure to observe any penitential days at all or a substantial number of such days.
From the beginning of Lent until the Paschal Vigil, the Alleluia is not said or sung.
Ash Wednesday will be celebrated on February 22, 2023. On Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, which is observed everywhere as a fast day, ashes are distributed.” (General Instruction of the Roman Missal, nos. 27-29) 
Ashes are blessed and imposed after the homily. These ashes are of branches of the olive tree, or, according to custom, of the palm tree or other trees, which have been blessed the previous year. Ashes may be imposed on a person’s forehead in the usual manner or by means of the European custom of sprinkling ashes on the crown of a person’s head.

AN INVITATION: In the name of peace, and in union with the Bishops of our country, the faithful of this Diocese are invited to add voluntary fasting to the practice of penance during the Fridays of the year. Together with works of charity and service toward our neighbors, this practice would become a sign of our commitment to conversion, reconciliation and peace. (The Challenge of Peace, Art. 298)