2026 March | penitents

Confraternity of Penitents Newsletter -- March 2026

Church Regulations: Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence from meat. Fish is permitted. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence. No meat on those days plus smaller amounts of food should be eaten. One full meal and two smaller meals that, put together, do not equal the full meal in size. No solid food between meals. Beverages are permitted. However, liquifying solids to make a beverage is not permissible.

Confraternity of Penitents Regulations: In line with the Rule of 1221, the original rule for penitents, the Confraternity of Penitents has stringent fasting and abstinence requirements for those at the Novice 3 level and above. In general, abstinence (no meat) on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays as is always done in the CFP unless a Solemnity falls on those days. In addition, fasting every day during Lent beginning with Ash Wednesday (Sundays and other Solemnities excluded). Fasting means one full meal and one partial meal per day or, if a bite to eat is needed, the bite and the smaller meal together should not equal in size the full meal. No solid food between meals although beverages are allowed. Liquifying solid food to create a beverage is not permitted. Please consult the CFP Constitutions and Appendix A for greater detail. For those not yet at Novice 3 level and for Affiliates, in addition to following the Church regulations for Lent, an additional penance should be selected, A good starting point is to consult the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy for inspiration. The Works of Mercy are listed in Appendix D of the CFP Rule and Constitutions.

INSIGHT FROM THE SPIRITUAL GUARDIAN: PERSEVERANCE IN JOY: GUARDING THE PENITENTIAL VOCATION AGAINST ACEDIA AND STRENGTHENING FRATERNAL BONDS ACROSS DISTANCE- INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Eight hundred years after the holy death of our Seraphic Father, the Church gives us more than an anniversary. She gives us a mirror. The Jubilee of 1226–2026 is not a celebration of medieval history; it is an examination of present fidelity. It is as though the Church gently asks us: What has become of the fire Francis lit? And more personally: What has become of the fire in your own heart?

You, as members of the Confraternity of Penitents, stand in direct spiritual lineage from the lay penitents who gathered around Francis in 1221. The Primitive Rule itself begins with a phrase that should always move us: “The memorial of what is proposed for the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, living in their own homes… is as follows.”

You are not an imitation of religious life; you are the lay penitential form of Franciscan life, planted by the Gospel right inside ordinary homes. You are married and single men and women—parents and workers, widows and students, priests, deacons—committed to a simpler life, a fervent prayer life, works of mercy, intercession, and disciplined eating. You live the Gospel without the visible reinforcement of monastic bells or convent walls.

And hidden vocations require guarded joy.

I want to offer an expanded meditation that draws explicitly from the Primitive Rule of 1221 and from the juridical and spiritual foundations expressed in the Constitutions you have shared—while also drawing on the wider Franciscan family: St. Francis, St. Clare, St. Bonaventure, St. Anthony, and Franciscan saints who lived penance as joy, not as gloom.

Our theme is twofold:

1. Guarding the penitential vocation against acedia—that quiet, respectable, rationalized discouragement that slowly cools the soul.

2. Strengthening fraternal bonds across distance—because the Rule assumes communion, and communion is an antidote to acedia

The April newsletter will continue this reflection. Meanwhile, the Confraternity asks you to pray about and reflect on these themes. Please share your thoughts on them in your local gatherings and in on line Zoom meetings or with your formator, CFP brother or sister or Regional Minister.

DON’T GET DISTRACTED

It is so easy to get distracted in this day and age. So many things to take us away from what we were doing. “I couldn’t help it!” you say… “it wasn’t my fault I’m late”, or “not done the washing up”, or “not ready to go out”. There are hundreds of reasons why we got distracted… “it was the radio”, “TV”, “somebody rang”, or “I just had to do something, and the time just disappeared, I don’t understand it!”

Life can be interesting and boring all at the same time, and we can get through a day just going from one ‘important’ job to another and the list just gets longer and longer and never ends! That is if we dare to even make a list in the first place!

We are all prone to distraction in some way or another. But the question is what are we being distracted from? Where is God in your life of lists? Is he at the top or not on your list at all? Think about it!

Distraction is a powerful thing, as the dictionary says; ‘Distraction, a thing that prevents someone from concentrating on something else.’ Or, to put it another way; a distraction is anything that stops you concentrating on God, and your journey with “The Big Boss”.

None of us can afford to be distracted from our relationship with God. We must learn to be focused on the Lord, even when we are doing other things…including the washing up!

It must become a normal mindset in our lives, that we stay focused on living in God’s presence.

God is with us, always, but are we with God?

We can live our lives doing lots of things, which is great, but we can never forget our relationship with God.

Don’t get distracted from God, we need Him!

Peace and Goodness be with you, Be Bold Be Strong. God Bless,

Pastor Tony Billings, CFP Affiliate

NO GREATER LOVE: THE TUNIC AND THE VINEGAR

St. John’s Gospel tells us that the soldiers who crucified the Lord divided His clothing among themselves. However, His tunic they did not tear since it was seamless and all in one piece. “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” (Jn 19:24) Since it is known that the High Priest also wore a seamless tunic, the early Church could see Jesus as the true High Priest. Right before this, in John 17, Jesus prays His “High Priestly Prayer” for the Church which He had founded. In this Prayer, Jesus especially prays for the unity of the Church (Jn 17:20-26) Jesus did not only desire the unity of the Church, He also gave the means to bring it about. “In these days he went out to the hills to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles.” (Lk 6:12-13)

The Lord knew that He had to set up a hierarchy in order to maintain the unity of the Church that He was founding. This hierarchy began with the Twelve Apostles who were hand picked by Jesus after a night of prayer. However, this hierarchy rested on the “Rock” of Peter. “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (Mt 16:18) All four Gospel writers give Peter preeminence among the Twelve Apostles. This is not because Peter was the “holiest” of the Apostles. The human side of Peter is evident in the Gospels. Yet, he was chosen by the Lord to be the peak of His hierarchy. It is the Lord’s will that each individual come to Him, not through any sort of direct line, but through the mediation of the Pope, the Magisterium, the clergy, and others who teach what the Church teaches. This is the seamless garment of the unity of the Church.

In fact, this tunic, which was not torn by the Roman soldiers, has been torn by us. In around 1054 AD, the primacy of Rome was rejected by the eastern churches, and thus we now have the many Orthodox Churches separated from Rome. Starting in 1517, with the Protestant Reformation, the Church, which the Lord founded, was further fragmented into even more pieces. Once hierarchy was rejected, as it was by the Protestant Reformation, the unity, which the Lord desired in John 17:20-26, is no longer possible. Of course, some believe that the “one true church” is invisible and consists of all true believers in Christ no matter to which denomination they belong. The visible unity which the hierarchy of the Church provides is not needed.

Just as we have failed to provide the Lord with the seamless garment of unity, we have also failed to respond to the love He has given us through His Passion and death on the Cross. In John’s Gospel we read: “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of vinegar on hyssop and held to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (Jn 19:28-30) When the alcohol in wine is exposed to the oxygen in the air, it oxidizes to acetic acid, which is the chemical component of vinegar and has a sour taste.

At the last supper, the Lord gave His Apostles wine to drink. “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mt 26:27-28, Mk 14:23-24, Lk 22:20) This was the good wine of the Passover, but He gave them much more than wine. He gave them His Blood. This is the Blood of the New Covenant.

However, what was the Old Covenant? In the book of Exodus, we read how oxen were sacrificed to God. “And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood and 0threw it upon the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with these words.’” (Ex 24:6-8) In the Old Covenant, if the Israelites obeyed the Mosaic Law (the book of the covenant) God would bless them in the promised land. Of course, much of Israel did not keep the Mosaic Law and fell into idolatry and other sins.

In Isaiah, chapter 5 we find the parable of the vineyard. In this parable, the prophet speaks of his “beloved”, the Lord. “Let me sing for my beloved a love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” (Is 5:1-2) In this parable, Israel is the vineyard. God blessed it, cared for it, and gave it all kinds of gifts. Yet Israel did not give the Lord the obedience He expected. They worshiped other Gods and did evil and unjust acts. They gave the Lord not the good grapes used to make wine, but the tiny wild grapes which are useless. God showered blessings and victories on Israel. When they strayed, He sent them prophets. Yet they did not listen to their prophets and even killed them. Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, saying ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.” (Mt 23:29-31)

The Old Covenant did not work, so Jesus gave us a New Covenant. At the Last Supper, the Lord gave us the new wine. However, this was not just wine. It was “my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Mt 26:28) The wine He gave to the Apostles was not just a symbol the New Covenant. What was promised on Holy Thursday was delivered on Good Friday when He underwent His Passion and Death. In the Lord’s New Covenant, He saves us from our sins, but we have to respond. We need to have faith in Him, but we also need to respond to the graces He bring us by our obedience to His Word.

Pope Benedict, in Jesus of Nazareth, gives us the meaning of the Lord’s cry, “I thirst”. Just as Isaiah's song portrays God's suffering over people in a way that far transcends the historical moment, so too the scene at the Cross far transcends the hour of Jesus' death. It is not only Israel, but the Church, it is we ourselves, who repeatedly respond to God's bountiful love with vinegar-with a sour heart that is unable to perceive God's love. "I thirst": this cry of Jesus is addressed to every single one of us. When the Lord cries out “I thirst”, He is crying for much more than water. He gave all that He had to us; He did not give us the blood of an oxen, a ram or a lamb. He gave us His own blood. At the Last Supper He gave the Apostles wine, which was His Blood. Most of the Apostles gave Him back the wine of their martyrdom. Not only the Apostles, but countless Christians of the early Church and down to the present time have also given Him the wine of their martyrdom. They have refused to disown Him regardless of the cost. The same is true for many others whom God has not called to martyrdom but has called to the suffering of obedience. They have given Him the wine of their suffering in response to His Suffering.

As Pope Benedict points out, however, it was not wine which was given to the Lord on the Cross. He was given vinegar. His Suffering is caused by all of us to the extent that we have broken the New Covenant. How many Catholics receive His body at Sunday Mass without really understanding what they are receiving? His giving of His Body and His Blood has been dumbed down to a “cosmic banquet”. Many receive the Eucharist to show that they “belong” to the Church. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has become just a communal meal even though it was thought of as a sacrifice from the beginning. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the chalice, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Cor 11:26) Others receive the Eucharist while openly violating the teachings of the Lord. “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgement on himself.” (1 Cor 11:27-29)

Postulants in the Confraternity of Penitents are required to make a nightly examination of conscience followed by an act of contrition, and that practice is to continue throughout their entire life as penitents. A nightly examination of conscience is necessary to ensure that we do not receive the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin. We need to give the Lord the wine of our repentance and not the vinegar of mortal sin. – Jim Nugent, CfP

HUMOR

When I was a kid, there were no cell phones or tablets. We read cereal boxes at breakfast.
I saw an audiologist today, but I’m going to get a second opinion. Why would I need a heron egg?
If you’re feeling too good about yourself, ask a five year old to guess your age.
April Fools Day is cancelled this year because no prank can top the reality going on right now.
Welcome to adulthood where you get irritated when they rearrange the grocery store.
This can’t be the same 90 degrees I used to run around outside in as a kid.
Where do bad rainbows go? To prism. It’s a light sentence, but it gives them time to reflect.

FRANCISCAN PHOTO ALBUM

CFP AFFILIATE STEVE TALBOTT, INVESTITURE AS A KNIGHT OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE

The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, also called the Order of the Holy Sepulchre or Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, is a Catholic order of knighthood under the protection of the Holy See with the pope as the order’s sovereign. An internationally recognized order of chivalry, its primary mission is to "support the Christian presence in the Holy Land". The order has approximately 30,000 knights and dames in 60 lieutenancies around the world. The Confraternity of Penitents is humbled to have one of those knights, Steven Talbot, KHS, as a faithful Affiliate of the Confraternity of Penitents.

Recently, the Confraternity of Penitents received a beautiful Mass card which reads:The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be offered for Deceased Members of the Confraternity of Franciscan Penitents. The North Central Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem has arranged with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem to have Mass offered in a church or special shrine in the Holy Land where our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was born, preached, died, and rose from the dead and redeemed mankind. The Mass has been requested by Sir Steven L. Talbot, KHS

FROM THE ALESSANDRO PRISON MINISTRY: CHANGED BY FIRE: EXHORTATION NOTES ON ISAIAH 6:1-8 (IN APPLICATION OF 1 PETER 1:15-16)

"Be holy, because I am holy." The words echo down from God's message to his newly rescued people Israel in Leviticus to Peter speaking to God's newly redeemed Church. Then, somewhere in between these time frames, we have all that Isaiah experienced. "It's all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man" (v. 5).

Have you ever run face first into the reality of God? Have you stumbled unexpectedly into his goodness? His power? His holiness? His kindness? His love? Has even a glimpse of him ever hit you full force?

The collision is one that demands a life. Either you will break, and, like Isaiah, realize that you cannot go on as you have been and die to yourself, or, as some do... as some here today may be attempting even now... you can try to keep going like nothing has happened. Ultimately, this second path leads to its own kind of losing of a life. The holiness of God demands a life.

Back to Isaiah. He was immediately convicted in his soul of being a man of "filthy lips." God, in his mercy, had the Seraphim cleanse the prophet's lips with a burning coal. It was so hot the angel had to use tongs. Have you ever been burned clean by God? There's a word for it: refining.

When I was a teenager I took a jewelry making class. We learned what was called the lost wax process. You make whatever you want out of wax. I made a ring. You then encase the wax in a mold, a crucible, that has a hole in one side. After that, you put the crucible in a spinner. On the other side of the spinner you pour in molten metal, in my case: Silver. You let the spinner spin. The metal shoots into the hole and vaporizes the wax, replacing it. When you break the mold open you now have a metal ring, not a wax one.

I wonder. How many here want to be wax rings forever?

God's call is to be Holy. What kind of wax are we clinging to in our lives? What are we afraid of letting go? Don't worry about the metal. Jesus took that for us. Because, you see, he knew that holiness demands a life.

There's going to be flames either way. Isaiah would tell you that if he were standing with us today. I'm sure he'd urge and beseech us to choose the refining fire of the Holy Spirit. This standard of holiness demands a life. And we just don't have any life without him. We can only live because he is the very breath within us. We can only meet his call to be holy because he is the holiness within us.

So now what? What does this mean for how we live?

Look at Israel. God said "Be holy" as he was saying "Go" into the promised land.

Look at Isaiah. God burned him clean before sending him to his people.

Look at the Church. From Peter's day to this morning God is sending his Spirit. It is not so we can sit around and play like we're holier than the next guy. It is so we will follow where he leads.

Some of us here today need to die. However well-intentioned, we've sought to save our own lives rather than living the one God has for us. Let us repent right now of that.

Likewise, some of us here are ready and willing for whatever God has -- but we're not quite sure either of what that is or if we are able to do it if we are called.

A. He will show you what he wants.
B. Never put more stock in your opinion of yourself than you do in God's opinion of you.

Finally. Some here know exactly what God is doing in your lives. This is a beautiful thing. I pray the Spirit sets you even more on fire. – Robert Messer, CFP Novice 1, Alessandro Prison Ministry

CFP HOLY ANGELS GIFT SHOP

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All proceeds support the Confraternity of Penitents

Prepare for Good Friday

Stations of the Cross for Penitents and Those Trying to Overcome Sin, Addictions, Fears, Worthlessness, Etc. $3.95

Stations of the Cross Wallet Prayer Card – 25c

Way of the Cross, Stations of the Cross, by Saint Alphonsus Liguori: $1.95

Way of the Cross for Children: $2.95

Way of the Cross for Greater Trust: $2.50

Saint Francis of Assisi: Stations of the Cross: $5.29

Way of the Cross for Those Who Pray for Priests: $6.95

Short Way of the Cross used in Franciscan Missions: 50c: