Pope Francis invites people around the world to focus on God’s mercy and the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation during a Lenten “24 Hours for the Lord” March 24-25, 2017. Our Sunday Visitor and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization worked together to offer a free pastoral guide to help you or your parish celebrate “24 Hours for the Lord.” The guide “I Desire Mercy” is in the form of a downloadable PDF designed to open users to the grace and mercy God offers through prayer, sacrament and the examples of others. Click on the picture to download the PDF.

The Catholic Relief Services is the oficial international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United Satates. We are motivated by the example of Jesus Christ to assist poor and suffering people in 91 countries on the basis of need, without regard to race, religion or nationality. On Palm Sunday, April 9, the second collection will be used to help the agency. During Lent, we also ask that you participate in the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl, a faith in action program that invites you to encounter anew ourselves, our neighbors and our God.

Effective March 5, the time of the Sunday Spanish Mass at St. Joseph Church has been moved from 5:30 PM to 6:00 PM.

St. Joseph Parish is in need of a half-time full-charge bookkeeper. Excel spreadsheet experience is mandatory. QuickBooks experience is desirable. Fax resume to 760-934-4047 or e-mail to [email protected].

As of February 19, 2017, the Diocese of Stockton Plan for Reorganization took effect. As previously announced, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California, Judge Christopher M. Klein, Presiding, approved the Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton’s consensual Plan of Reorganization. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Stockton filed bankruptcy on January 15, 2014. For more information, click on the icon.