The Calgary Roman Catholic Diocese is initiating a new Diocesan Wide Sacrament Preparation program beginning this fall 2018 for First Reconciliation and First Communion combined.  The program has begun for this season.

Children in grade 2 and up will be prepared for and celebrate First Reconciliation before being prepared for and celebrating First Eucharist.  There are four (4) monthly sessions and a retreat to prepare for First Reconciliation, as well as four (4) monthly sessions and a retreat to prepare for First Communion. Parents attend concurrent 90 minute sessions.  Please direct any questions you may have to OLRSacraments@outlook.com

Children who have received First Communion and wish to receive the Sacrament of First Reconciliation only will join the First Reconciliation sessions in the First Reconciliation and First Communion program.

Requirements:

1. The child must be in Grade 2 or older.  ​
2. Baptism Certificate.  If your child was baptized in Canmore the certificate will be on file at the office​

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The Sacrament of Penance is the first of two sacraments of healing. The Catechism of the Catholic Church also calls it the sacrament of conversion, Penance, confession, forgiveness and Reconciliation. It is the sacrament of spiritual healing of a baptized person from the distancing from God resulting from sins committed. 

The sacrament involves four elements:

1. Contrition (the penitent's sincere remorse for wrongdoing or sin, repentance, without which the rite has no effect);
2. Confession to a priest who has the faculty to hear confessions – while it may be spiritually helpful to confess to another, only a priest has the power to administer the sacrament;
3. Absolution by the priest; and,
4. Satisfaction or penance.

​The Eucharist, also called the Blessed Sacrament, is the sacrament (the third of Christian initiation, the one that the Catechism of the Catholic Church says "completes Christian initiation") by which Catholics partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and participate in his one sacrifice. The first of these two aspects of the sacrament is also called Holy Communion. The bread (which must be wheaten, and which is unleavened) and wine (which must be from grapes) used in the Eucharistic rite are, in Catholic faith, transformed in their inner reality, though not in appearance, into the Body and Blood of Christ, a change that is called transubstantiation.