Thank you to everyone who donated to the Lenten Alms collection. The organizations we supported were astounded by your generosity. The Culture of Life Ministry promotes the dignity of each individual from conception to natural death, whatever their situation is in life. Thanks to your support, we donated to organizations serving the disabled (mentally and physically), the elderly, the incarcerated, the homeless and the abused. You are the living embodiment of the Corporal Works of Mercy.
Join us in our celebration of Holy Week & Easter!
This year, parishioners are invited to bring in their own palms to be distributed and used in the celebration of Palm Sunday, April 12 & 13. Like the residents of Jerusalem who picked palms to welcome Jesus into the city, let’s also collect local palms and join in praising the Messiah on Palm Sunday. We will be collecting palms starting on Saturday, April 5, at the 5pm Mass, through Wednesday, April 9.
Please follow these guidelines for bringing your palms:
We are also asking for volunteers to help cut palms on Friday, April 11 at 1:00 PM. Please bring a pair of utility scissors and gloves!
Thank you to all who attended our parish family Mardi Gras celebration on Saturday, March 1! We enjoyed great food, good music, and wonderful fun with family, friends, and fellow parishioners. A special thank you to those who set up and volunteered to make our event such a success!
Next year, our parish will celebrate our 40th anniversary! To help commemorate this event, we have selected Universal Church Directories to help us create a pictorial church directory. Everyone is invited to take part in this directory and become a part of our history. If you have been away or are unable to attend these sessions, please contact Jodie Tully at jodiet@st-stephen.com.
Our photography dates will be March 27-29 (booked) and May 29-31. Everyone who is photographed by Universal Church Directories will receive a complimentary 8 x 10 portrait and a directory!
To schedule online:
· Go to the Universal website, www.ucdir.com
· Click on the box to the right labeled “photography appointment scheduling login”.
· Enter our Church Code – FL990
· Enter our Church Password – photos
· If you have 6 or more in your family, please use 2 consecutive time slots.
Appointments fill up quickly, so schedule as soon as possible to secure your preferred date and time.
The season of Lent calls us to seek a more intimate relationship with our Lord through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. We pray that you will find those opportunities to help you as we embark together these forty days on the spiritual journey with Christ.
Anyone who wishes to come after me must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23)
Our Lenten Alms this year will be coordinated by the new Culture of Life Ministry. We will be supporting a different organization each week, so please check out the bulletin each week for a list of needs specific to their mission. If you prefer to donate financially, you will find almsgiving envelopes on the wooden donation boxes in the Narthex.
The organizations and who they serve are:
Our Capital Campaign – Honoring our Past, Envisioning our Future – will help to fund the much needed repairs and renovations that we have been doing in our Church Building Envelope Project. Learn more with the link below:
Our parishioners are invited to attend our St. Stephen Mardi Gras Celebration on Saturday, March 1, 2025. Join us anytime from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm in EC-1 for great food, music, and overall fun! Sign up after Mass on February 22 or 23 to reserve your meal.
Volunteers make all our parish events possible. Please consider signing up after Masses on February 22 and 23, by clicking the button below, or by calling our parish office: 407-699-5683.
Pope Francis has declared this year 2025 to be a Jubilee Year, with the theme of “Pilgrims of Hope”. Finding its roots in the Bible, a Jubilee Year marks a time for us to re-establish our relationship with God, with each other, and with all creation. This year, we should be called to restore “a climate of hope and trust” as we seek “the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire” as a pilgrim people, God’s chosen bearing the Spirit’s fire of hope within us.
One of the marks of a Jubilee Year is pilgrimage. In our Diocese, the St. James Cathedral, Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe, and the Basilica of Saint Paul have been designated as a Jubilee pilgrimage site. One can obtain an indulgence, or remission of temporal punishments for sin through Christ’s merit, through a physical or spiritual pilgrimage anytime during this year.
Father in heaven, may the faith you
have given us in your son, Jesus Christ,
our brother, and the flame of charity
enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
reawaken in us the blessed hope for the
coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us into tireless
cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform from within
both humanity and the whole cosmos in
the sure expectation of a new heaven
and a new earth, when, with the powers
of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine
eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken
in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for
the treasures of heaven. May that same
grace spread the joy and peace of our
Redeemer throughout the earth. To you
our God, eternally blessed, be glory and
praise for ever. Amen.
