Christ the King - St. Stephen Parish
Christ the King - St. Stephen Parish
WELCOME TO
ST STEPHEN CATHOLIC CHURCH
(Christ the King - St. Stephen Parish)
We're glad you came!
Outdoor Stations of the Cross
Audio Stations in English
Audio Stations in Spanish
Lent / Easter Schedule
Ash Wednesday - Feb. 14
Masses at 8 am & 6 pm
Fridays in Lent - Stations of the Cross
Noon, Guided Stations in the Church
Noon - 6 pm, Self-Guided Outdoor Stations
Parish Mission / Lenten Retreat - Feb. 26-29
Presenter: Sr. Cecilia Canales
9 am Mass followed by Reflection @ CTK
6:30 pm Mass followed by Reflection @ St. Stephen
Lenten Bible Study on the Life of Biblical King David
Mondays: Mar. 4, 11, 18, 25
Presenter: Kathy Roberts
10 - 11:30 am, St. Stephen Parish Hall
7 - 8:30 pm. St. Stephen Parish Hall
Register here
Parish Reconciliation Service - Friday, Mar. 15
6 pm Reconciliation
Palm Sunday - Mar. 23/24
Usual weekend Mass times
Holy Thursday - Mar. 28
7 pm Mass
8:30 - 10 pm, Adoration of Blessed Sacrament in Parish Hall
Good Friday - Mar. 29
All services held at CTK, except:
6 pm, Outdoor Guided Stations with Fr. Paulson
Easter Vigil - Sat. Mar. 30
7:30 pm Mass
Easter Sunday - Sun. Mar. 31
9:30 am Mass
(See Bulletin for Additional Mass times at CTK.)
Liturgy Times / Information
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About Us
Weekend Masses at St. Stephen are Saturdays 5:00 pm and Sundays 9:30 am. Additional, you can attend our weekday Masses held in our Chapel (Room 1), Monday-Friday at 8:00 am.
Confessions are available on Saturdays at 4:30 pm.
For the health of our parishioners, we encourage everybody attending Mass to wear a mask. Masks are available on the bulletin boards by the church entrances.
Click on this link to update your family information.
Contact Us
We would love to hear from you. Feel free to give us a shout and connect with us.
St. Stephen is a small, but vibrant, Catholic community located in the hills behind Palos Verdes Mall in Walnut Creek. On April 23, 2023, we merged with Christ the King Church in Pleasant Hill and continue as one parish with two worship sites.
A MESSAGE
FROM
FR. PAULSON
Dear Friends:
This Monday, March 11th we welcomed Winter Nights homeless families into our church campus. There are….people living with us, and I am so grateful to John Alonso and his team of volunteers for ministering to these precious families. We currently have 4 families, with the youngest being a 2 month old infant. I know that many of you have volunteered to cook, to teach or just be there for these families. Thank you.
In 2018, one of our parishioners, Craig Lazzeretti, wrote the following article titled, “Every child in our country should sleep in a warm bed” in the Mercury News, which I would like to share with you.
“Each year, my parish in Pleasant Hill takes part in a wonderful program in Contra Costa that houses homeless families at local churches. For two weeks, families pitch tents in our church gymnasium while members of the church community take turns preparing meals and offering spiritual and material sustenance. At the end of the two weeks, the families pack up and move on to another local church.
I took part recently in the Winter Nights program at Christ the King Catholic Church, where I had the privilege of helping serve a Mexican-themed meal to the families, who, despite their challenging circumstances, smiled broadly and expressed a degree of gratitude that I found moving.
As rewarding as the experience was, it was also troubling and difficult to see children without a permanent place to call home. This just wasn’t right. Every child in our country should lie down to sleep at night in a warm bed, not in sleeping bags in a church gym or worse. As the richest state in the richest society in the world, we can and must do better.
As I talked to the program director over dinner, I saw a portrait of the homeless in our community that flew in the face of preconceptions I’ve often had over the years. In many cases, these are hard-working, dedicated parents who either have jobs or want them and yet they simply don’t have the resources to put a roof over their head. While it’s easy to associate the homeless with mental illness or substance abuse, an increasing number are victims of the cruel lack of affordable housing in the Bay Area.
It’s not uncommon, I was told, for parents to have stable jobs but be relegated to living out of their cars because their incomes simply can’t pay for the sky-high rents in the area. One bad break in life can leave them and their children on the streets.
As we talked, I felt angry thinking about how much could be done to solve this problem if only we committed to building sufficient affordable housing in our communities...
It’s a shame that those who so vigorously fight attempts to bring low-income housing into their communities don’t see first-hand the results of their actions: families living in cars or in tents in church gymnasiums. If they witnessed what I witnessed during the Winter Nights program, I wonder if they might have a change of heart?
Maybe, maybe not. In so many arenas today, entrenched ideology and beliefs seem to have trumped compassion and pragmatism. The sad reality is that too many people in our communities are afraid of the impact affordable housing will have on their quality of life.
Then again, there’s no better way to spark action than to put a human face on a problem. If children sleeping in tents in church gymnasiums isn’t enough to bring about change, I’m not sure what will.”
I spoke to Craig recently, and he told me how much he was inspired and transformed by the Winter Nights program. May Jesus who was born in a manger and lived in exile as a child, bring blessings upon all who work to bring JOY to the poor and the needy.
Compassion. Resilience. Determination. Three words to describe one of the greatest women of the 19th and 20th centuries with an inspiring film running in theatres from Angel Studios, Cabrini.
I invite you to watch the movie in one of our theatres near you; her rags-to-riches story as she rose to entrepreneurship; her mission to lift the poor and orphaned; her fight against misogyny, bigotry, and classicism; and why this stunning biopic will be one of the most inspiring watches of the decade. Who was the titular character of Cabrini? Cabrini’s real name is Francesca Xavier Cabrini (also referred to as Frances Cabrini.) A nun serving under Pope Leo XIII, and the daughter of a farmer from Lombard, Cabrini hailed from Italy and immigrated to New York, where she completed the bulk of her service. After her death, Cabrini attained sainthood as an American citizen, and has hereafter become known as Mother Cabrini or the Patron Saint of Immigrants. (Taken from Angel studios).
Fr. Paulson
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