Merry Christmas, to my dear people of God!

320 W. Garvey Ave. Monterey Park, CA 91754
Saint Stephen Martyr
Catholic Church
Merry Christmas, my brothers and sisters! In our Advent journey we have been accompanying the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph
as they make their pilgrim way to Bethlehem. Today we have reached our destination. It is Christmas! Today, we rejoice with
the Virgin Mary as she gives birth to her firstborn Son. We rejoice with St. Joseph as we watch Mary wrap the precious Child
in swaddling clothes and lay him in the manger with tender love and affection. In the Gospel we have just heard, we are right
there with Mary and Joseph on that first Christmas night! We are there, looking down into the manger, adoring this beautiful
Child who is sleeping. And when look into his face — when we look into the eyes of the Baby Jesus — we see the whole
meaning of our lives. We see how much God loves us! We see the blessed hope we have for a new beginning in our lives! St.
Paul says: The grace of God has appeared, saving all! Our God comes to us with his saving grace — to show us that his love is
always faithful and always true! Today let us reflect on Jesus Christ. Because our faith is a faith in him. It is a faith in this Child who comes to us
at Christmas. Let us ask ask ourselves: What Child is this? Who is he? What does his presence mean for my life? Isaiah said: For us, a Child is
born and a Son is given! My brothers and sisters, God comes to us as a Son and a little Child — to make it easy for us to love him. And when we
look at the Baby Jesus lying in the manger, we can see what God sees when he looks at each one of us. This is the amazing truth about Christmas! In this Child lying in the manger, we see ourselves. We discover that we are children of God! We realize that God is our Father! This is so
amazing, it’s so hard to believe. But it’s true! The Creator of the universe — the God who made heaven and earth and all things visible and invisible — he is our Father. He is your Father and he is my Father. This is the mystery of divine love that we receive on Christmas! And this is the
reality of our lives. Jesus comes to us tonight as God’s firstborn Son so that he can make us sons and daughters of God. He enters our world, just
as each one of us did. Through a mother’s womb. Jesus knows what it’s like to grow up in a family and to be loved by a mother and a father. He
knows what it’s like to have friends and to work hard at a job. He knows our happiness and our sorrows and frustrations. He knows how it feels
to cry when a loved one dies. And he knows what temptation is. And what it means to suffer and die. We need to really start relating to Jesus as
our brother. He is like us in all things but sin! We need to learn from his words and his example. Because he came to show us a new path for our
life. The path of faith. The path we can walk as sons and daughters of God, led by the hand of our Father. The meaning of our lives begins in this
manger. Everything begins with this Child. Jesus comes on this holy night to be born again in every human heart. He comes to be born in your
heart and in mine! So we have to have faith in him! We have to believe in who Jesus is! The Son of God! We have to really believe in his Gospel.
We have to believe good news that he tells us — that we are children of God, sons and daughters of a Father who loves us. Let us entrust our
lives to the loving intercession of Mary, our Bless Mother. May she help us to welcome the Child who comes to make us children of God. May
Merry Christmas, to my dear people of God!
As we take our initial steps into this year of mercy, I pray that hope, peace, love, and joy fill your life in every way
this Christmas and beyond.
Thank you for your faithfulness and commitment to Saint Stephen. Looking back to my time here, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Firstly, I’m grateful just to be a part of this community and to get to walk this journey
with you. I feel so privileged to be part of a group of people who are honestly and passionately taking on the challenge to follow Jesus in all the trials, joys and complexities of modern life.
Secondly, I am so grateful for how you have served so sacrificially this past year. Whether it’s leading groups; shepherding children; serving coffee; setting up for liturgy; playing music; raising funds; cooking, scrubbing walls and floors; or any one of the countless other
(usually unseen) tasks that keep our community running, I am grateful. Thank you so much for all you do!
And I am grateful to God. This Christmas, as in all previous years, we celebrate “Immanuel” (God with us). Without Christ’s presence
among us we would be lost. Through God’s presence gently, (sometimes even violently) working within us, we are being healed, transformed, reconciled and made whole.
As we approach the end of the year, please pray seriously about giving financially to Saint Stephen. A simple but very important part of
belonging to a community of followers of Jesus like us is giving sacrificially as a regular part of our love and worship of God. If you are a
regular giver already: thank you! If you are not yet a regular giver please prayerfully consider the challenge to do that. I invite you to officially register to our parish or visit our website for information on online giving. Thank you!
In this jubilee year of mercy, Pope Francis invites us to be ambassadors of our faith to those that live in the periphery. Invite your family
and friends to join us in any or all of our liturgies, celebrations, and events here at Saint Stephen’s. Let’s celebrate the miracle, the joy and
the wonder of God’s mercy together.
With love and gratefulness for you and wishing you a very Merry Christmas!
Your pastor,
May the simple joys of
Christmas warm your heart,
fill your home and last a lifetime.
Merry Christmas and
a Happy New Year!
From the Office Staff of St. Stephen Church
Monica, Alicia, Beatriz, Dale Ann, and Art
A New Nativity Set for
Saint Stephen
We have a new nativity set! Thanks
to those individuals who put their
resources together and who wish to
remain anonymous, to purchase this
beautiful piece of sacred art.
It is important to have beautiful things in the church because
beauty itself preaches the Gospel message. There is something
unthreatening about the beautiful. A beautiful work of art like
our new nativity set awakens in a person a desire to participate, to imitate, and finally, to share. Hans Urs von Balthasar,
one of the great advocates of the aesthetic approach to religion, said that the beautiful claims the viewer, changes him,
and then sends him on mission. In the new evangelization we
first preach them the beautiful, then the good, then the true.
Thank you for helping to preach the gospel message here at St.
Stephen with your generous donation. Merry Christmas to all
of you who made our new nativity set a reality.
How long the people of Israel had been waiting!...
Since the fall of Adam, humanity hoped for a Savior.... Over the course of the centuries the promise
of a redeemer became more defined.... Abel, the good shepherd murdered through jealousy; Joseph,
sold by his brothers; Melchizedek, priest of the Most High, who offered bread and wine in sacrifice;
Isaac, bound on the wood as a holocaust; Moses, the liberator and supreme lawmaker; Joshua, who
entered his people into the Holy Land; David, the king according to the heart of God; Solomon, the
fount of wisdom; Jeremiah, through whose lips the message of the simple-hearted confounded wise
men and scholars--all depict some aspect of the face of the One who is to come....
And thus it was that the coming prepared for more than four thousand years, the mystery foretold by
prophets, the mystery passed on in vigil gatherings, meditated in the synagogues, preserved in exile,
the mystery longed for by so many hearts since the dawn of time was to become a reality fulfilled
within human history.
May the Christmas season impart its spirit of joy and peace to our hearts and to the hearts of our
loved ones.
During this season, may we remember that it is the birth of Jesus, God’s son, that connects us to
God. God wanted more than life. He wanted friendship, and he created man. However, sin
brought a disconnect from man to God. How could a holy God fellowship with sinful man? God,
however, would connect again with man through sending his son, Jesus, to earth.
In the Christmas story we find the angel telling Joseph the babe’s name — Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Christmas tells man many things: Christmas tells us
that God loves us (John 3:16). Christmas tells me that there is life in Christ, and Christmas tells us that we may be
connected with the God of this universe because in knowing the Christ of Christmas, we know God the Father.
Fr. Budi Wardhana
Welcome Christmas. Bring your
cheer. Cheer to all, far and near.
We wish you a very Merry Christmas
Season and a New Year that is filled
with many blessings. May our Lord
Jesus Christ come into our hearts, our
minds, and be put into every one of our
actions as we celebrate
His coming.
Yours today and always,
Christmas Day is in our grasp, so
long as we have hands to grasp.
Christmas Day will always be, just
as long as we have we.
Welcome Christmas while we stand,
heart to heart, and hand in hand.”
FROM How the Grinch Stole Christmas
May God’s infinite mercy and
healing move us to great acts of compassion
and love in the New Year,
The Saint Stephen Catholic
Church Finance Council
Beata Estrada-Aguilar, Marilyn Gamboa,
Cristy Bernardo, Mabel Ng, Arturo and Elisa Heras, Kristen Alvero, Maria Moberg
The St. Stephen
Parish Council
Cecilia Estrada, Juan De La Fuente, Gaby De
La Fuente, Maria Khoe, Irene Tjakrawinata,
Bob and Cathy Fabricante, Ceilia Guerrero,
Skyler Reidy,
Marilou Zeger, Debbie Alvero, Rafael and
Patricia Peña, Ignatius Julianto
At Christmas, we celebrate the Christ of Christmas with our hearts. It our hope and prayer that
we will focus upon Christ not only in this year’s celebration but also in the new year to come. We
hope we will look back and reflect upon the prophecy of Christ. May we, too, join in the work of
proclamation just as the angels on that night of celebration. Various opportunities exist to serve
and proclaim the Good News. Be part of any number of our ministries here at Saint Stephen
and know the joy of the Gospel and experience a fresh and a new a celebration of Christ in our
lives. From all the ministries of Saint Stephen, “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”
Francisco Paniagua
Altar Servers
Lourdes Morales
[email protected]
Bible Study
Lucila Dypianco
[email protected]
Community Outreach
Arleene Seager
[email protected]
Couples with Christ
Rannie Tan
[email protected]
El Shaddai
Helen Rivera
[email protected]
Estudio Biblico (Español)
Juan and Gaby de la Fuente
[email protected]
Eucharistic Ministers
Irene Estrada
[email protected]
Filipino Group
Carmen Tolentino
[email protected]
Finance Council
Beata Estrada
[email protected]
Grupo De Oración Luz del Espiritu Santo
Haydee Murga
[email protected]
Indonesian Community
Ignatius Julianto
[email protected]
IC - Renewal Group
Ignatius Primanto
sigitweni@gmail,com
Knights of Columbus
Javier Ibarra
[email protected]
Lectores / Ministros Eucarísticos
Carlota Romo
[email protected]
Lectors
Irene Estrada
[email protected]
Legion of Mary / La Pieta
Lucy Pablo
[email protected]
Ministry to the Sick
Eddie Tolentino
[email protected]
Music Ministry
Rick Erhard
[email protected]
Nocturnal Adoration
Lourdes Arce
[email protected]
Pastoral Council
Cecilia Estrada
[email protected]
RCIA / Teen Confimaion
Irene Tjakrawinata
[email protected]
Religious Education
Flor Montero
[email protected]
Youth Group
Beatriz Garcia
[email protected]