Grad Tailgate & Football Night
Grad Tailgate. OCT 23, 5pm tailgate, 7:30 kickoff.
RSVP HERE
🏈 STANFORD GRAD TAILGATE & FOOTBALL NIGHT! 🌲 Friday, October 23 | 5:00 PM Tailgate | 7:30 PM Kickoff Join us for a Friday evening of food, drinks, fellowship, and Stanford football as the Cardinal take on NC State! We'll have a propane fire going to keep us warm, but remember October weather is cool in the evenings. Remember to wear RED! All graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and staff are welcome, whether you're a football fan or just coming to hang out! 🍕
Food and refreshments
🍻 Bring your own beer or favorite drinks (we'll provide too)
🏈 Stanford vs. NC State at 7:30 PM
🎟️ We have 15 game tickets available for $22 each! (See below)
📍 Near Stanford Stadium. Exact tailgate location to follow. RSVP to reserve one of our 15 tickets or let us know you're coming for the tailgate!
Go Cardinal! 🌲🏈
🎓 Stanford Students: FREE Tickets! All currently enrolled Stanford students, including graduate students, can attend for FREE through the Red Zone Student Pass. Visit https://gostanford.com/red-zone-student-pass and sign in with your Stanford email to access your pass. Add it to your Apple or Google Wallet before the game. Your Stanford ID alone is no longer sufficient for entry.
🎟️ Non-Students: $22 Tickets We've purchased 15 tickets for postdocs, faculty, staff, and others who don't qualify for free student admission. To reserve your ticket: Text Fr. Chrysostom at 206-747-2382 requesting a ticket. Include your email address and phone number for the ticket transfer. Wait for confirmation that tickets are still available before sending payment. Pay $22 through Venmo to @Stanford-Catholic (Catholic Community at Stanford). Include "Football Ticket – Your Name" in the memo. Alternatively, arrange to pay Fr. Chrysostom in cash.
⚠️ All ticket reservations are final. Once you commit to purchasing a ticket, you are responsible for the $22 payment, even if you cancel or cannot attend. 📍 Tailgate location to be announced.
Bring-a-Friend to Mass & Dinner
Do you have a friend who is curious about the Catholic faith? Invite them to join you at 4:30 Mass this Sunday, then stay for dinner.
RSVP for dinner here.
Mercy Night
Step into the healing presence of God at Mercy Night, an evening of adoration, confession, praise and worship, and prayer ministry. The atmosphere will be candlelit, with music and reflections.
We’ll invite God’s healing in three ways: (1) through adoration and confession, which frees us from sin and restores our relationship with God; (2) through prayer for physical healing, of our broken bodies; and (3) through prayer for inner healing, bringing him the wounds of our past and the lies we’ve come to about ourselves and our lives.
For (2) & (3), prayer teams will be available: groups of 2–3 people you may approach who will ask, “Is there something you would like prayer for?” This could be a situation you’re facing, a need for physical or inner healing, encouragement, or a desire to hear a word from God. Each team includes at least one person with formal training in prayer ministry, and we often hear of breakthroughs in people’s lives. For (1), there will be priests available for confessional healing.
Volunteer at Common Roots Farm
Join fellow community members from the Catholic Community at Stanford as we head to Common Roots Farm in Santa Cruz for a morning of volunteering on Saturday, November 7! This opportunity is open to undergraduate and graduate students, young adults, and permanent community members. Work may include planting, harvesting, working soil, clearing beds, petting chickens, feeding sheep, or whatever needs to be done on the farm that day. The morning will begin at 9:30am and end around 12:30pm. We will provide lunch to those who wish to stay. We are unable to provide rides to the farm but will help volunteers coordinate carpooling. Sign up HERE by November 5 to allow us time to plan lunch and coordinate rides. Sign ups after this date are ok if you plan to arrange your own transportation. Contact Eric Lebel at elebel@alumni.stanford.edu with any questions.
Stanford Film Group - Wise Blood
Please join the Stanford Film Group on November 9 for the 1979 film Wise Blood.
The great John Huston directed this adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s novel, and made some interesting choices regarding the Deep South setting. The movie stars Brad Dourif, Ned Beatty, and Harry Dean Stanton. The film follows war veteran preacher Hazel Motes, who preaches an atheistic “Church of Truth Without Christ.” The Guardian wrote “This adaptation…pulls off the rare trick of seeming faithful to the spirit and voice of the book, while being a work of art in its own right.”
We'll be meeting at 7:30 on Zoom. It's available very widely to rent or purchase, and is even free on some platforms. https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/wise-blood
It’s currently available free on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzNs7ACRDOs
A Zoom link will be sent the day before, so if you're not on the email list currently, send a message stating "I'm Interested" to StanfordYRCFilm@gmail.com.
Everyone is invited!
Grad Fall Retreat
Our Father | Graduate Fall Retreat
November 13–15, 2026 | HI Point Montara Lighthouse
RSVP HERE
The Our Father is among the earliest and most deeply explored prayers in the Christian tradition. Within its few lines, it contains the central mysteries of our faith: a microcosm of our Christian life and prayer. When asked, “Lord, teach us to pray”, his response of the Our Father was not a mere prayer to memorize, but a model for all our prayer – a microcosmic template of all our prayer.
It begins with our identity and posture before God as his beloved children. At its center, “on earth as it is in heaven” reveals our calling to cooperate with God in bringing his heavenly kingdom into this world. And “lead us not into temptation” speaks to the journey of our lives and our ultimate destination. Where are we being led? Toward glory, or away from it?
By the end, you will not only pray the Our Father differently, but be reminded of the mysteries of our faith every time you pray it.
This year's retreat will take place at the beautiful Montara Lighthouse, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We've reserved the entire venue for our community! The weekend will include daily Mass, chant, prayer, Adoration, and hopefully even Adoration outdoors by the beach.
Compared with our Lenten retreat, this weekend will have a more relaxed and social atmosphere. We'll cook and share meals together, enjoy the beautiful coastline, and have time for conversation or silence – up to you. It's a wonderful opportunity for those new to the community to get to know one another and for old friends to reconnect.
Registration: $140 per person, including accommodation, meals, and retreat activities. Private suites are limited and will be prioritized for married couples. Scholarships are available. We don't want cost to prevent anyone from coming!
Grad Talk & Dinner
Topic: Painting God’s Voice: Hymnody as Vision in Late Byzantine Church Murals
Speaker: Andrei Dumetrescu
Location: EVGR (specific room announced on the grad WhatsApp announcements page)
Autumn Trip to Yosemite
🏔️ Autumn trip to Yosemite | November 21–24 🥾
RSVP HERE
Join us for Yosemite day hikes, prayer, daily Mass, sharing, and guitar! Yosemite fall colors are sure to blow us away, and we’re hoping for a quieter park to enjoy together.
🚗 We'll drive to our accommodation either Friday evening or Saturday morning (depending on our group discussion) in carpools, and return Tuesday evening. We will discuss this once we have our group size (max 12).
🏕️ We’ll stay at the Yosemite HI Hostel in private tent cabins: up to 4 people will share a cabin with individual beds. We have heated cabins for women, unheated with extra blankets for men (sorry dudes). Though this is a “hostel,” our experience will be largely private, with bathrooms and the kitchen shared with other guests. The hostel also has a great restaurant with hot food, alcoholic/nonalcoholic drinks, fireplaces, and sometimes live music.
🎒 Gear needed: we’ll have a discussion later about this, but plan for non-cotton layers for cool mornings/evenings and warmer middays. Proper hiking boots, a backpack, and poles are needed as well. We can help you find your supplies.
🍽️ We’ll mostly prepare our own meals in the hostel kitchen, lunches on trail and dinner either cooked ourselves with one dinner together at the hostel’s restaurant.
💵 Budget is $240 per person, including accommodation, gas, food, and park entry, based on nine people. If you are working and receiving an income, we ask that you reimburse CC@S at-cost. If you are a student, we ask that you please pay half. If cost is truly an issue for you, reach out to Fr. Chrysostom and we can discuss a scholarship. We will ask for payment 2 weeks before the trip.
🥾 Be comfortable hiking eight miles a day and prepare for temperatures around 56°F/33°F (13°C/0°C), with possible rain or snow.
📅 We’ll discuss leaving Friday evening, November 20, to enjoy a full Saturday of hiking; the extra night would cost more. Return Tuesday.
This trip is for Stanford affiliates only (undergrads, grads, faculty, etc.).
Taylor Black - The Human Question in the Age of AI: What Are We Building - and Who Are We Becoming?
Every technology carries assumptions about the people who will use it: what they want, what they need, and what makes a life go well. As AI reshapes how we learn, work, and relate to one another, those assumptions are becoming consequential design choices. Trained in philosophy and law, and drawing on his work in AI, venture building, and the Leonum Institute, Taylor Black will explore what the Catholic intellectual tradition can contribute to the questions facing Silicon Valley and how its account of human dignity, freedom, and the common good can inspire technologies and institutions worth building.
Taylor Black is Director of AI & Venture Ecosystems within the Strategic Programs and Communities team at Microsoft’s Office of the CTO and the founding director of the Leonum Institute for AI and Emerging Technologies at The Catholic University of America. At Leonum, he brings together research, formation, and venture building in service of human dignity and the common good. His experience spans startup creation, investing, and teaching entrepreneurship at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. Trained in philosophy and law, he explores how our understanding of the human person should shape the technologies and institutions we build. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Anne, and their three children.
Russ Altman is a long-time Catholic Community at Stanford member and a Kenneth Fong Professor of Bioengineering, Genetics, Medicine & Biomedical Data, a Science Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, and Professor, by courtesy, of Computer Science.
Confirmation Prep Classes Begin
If you are a Catholic who has received the Sacraments of Baptism and First Communion but never got confirmed and want to become a fully initiated Catholic, these classes are for you. Classes will be held on the following dates:
October 19, 26
November 2, 9, 16, 30
January 4, 11
Confirmation will be celebrated on January 17 by the Bishop at the 4:30 Mass at Memorial Church.
For more information contact Oriana at orianatp@stanford.edu
St. Luke's Medical Society Mass & Dinner
All medical students and those in the medical profession at Stanford are welcome!
We meet at least twice per quarter. Once each quarter, we'll gather for Eucharistic Adoration and a talk connecting our Catholic faith with the vocation of medicine, followed by a social.
Reunion Mass
Join us for our annual reunion Mass on Saturday, October, 17 at 2 PM. Mass will be followed by refreshments and a chance to meet and chat with current Catholic students from 3-4 PM.
Stanford Catholic Film Group - Cal
Please join the Stanford Film Group on October 12 for the 1984 film Cal. Based on the novella by Bernard MacLaverty, the film is about a young man on the fringes of the IRA, who falls in love with Marcella, a Catholic woman whose husband, a Protestant policeman, was killed one year earlier by the IRA. It stars Helen Mirren and John Lynch, who were both nominated for BAFTA awards for this film. Helen Mirren won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. Mark Knopfler composed the music.
We’ll be meeting at 7:30 on Zoom. It’s available very widely to rent or purchase.
https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/cal-1984
A Zoom link will be sent the day before, so if you’re not on the email list currently, send a message stating “I’m Interested” to StanfordYRCFilm@gmail.com.
Everyone is invited!
Grad Talk & Dinner
Location: EVGR (specific room announced on grad WhatsApp announcements page)
Time: 6:00 p.m. free dinner, 6:30 talk
Volunteer at Common Roots Farm
Join fellow community members from the Catholic Community at Stanford as we head to Common Roots Farm in Santa Cruz for a morning of volunteering on Saturday, October 10! This opportunity is open to undergraduate and graduate students, young adults, and permanent community members. Work may include planting, harvesting, working soil, clearing beds, petting chickens, feeding sheep, or whatever needs to be done on the farm that day. The morning will begin at 9:30am and end around 12:30pm. We will provide lunch to those who wish to stay. We are unable to provide rides to the farm but will help volunteers coordinate carpooling. Sign up HERE by October 8 to allow us time to plan lunch and coordinate rides. Sign ups after this date are ok if you plan to arrange your own transportation. Contact Eric Lebel at elebel@alumni.stanford.edu with any questions.
Venture Like Saints
Venture Like Saints | Catholic VC Investing
Join the Altar Ventures team (Jesse Sullivan [GSB, 15, Deep Sinha [MS & PhD, 24], and Javier Cantu [MIP, 24) on campus for an evening on Catholic-driven investing: what it looks like to invest in and support Catholic founders who pursue venture-like returns while staying aligned with the teachings of the Church. Jesse Sullivan (GSB ’15), Managing Partner of Altar Ventures, will share how Altar invests in Catholic founders, what the firm looks for, and where students can plug in — whether you’re building something, hoping to learn about investing, or simply curious about where faith and entrepreneurship meet. We’ll open the evening with Vespers and close with fellowship and conversation over food and drinks. Students from across the whole university are invited: undergrad and grad — MS, MA, PhD, Law, GSB, and beyond.
Info/RSVP CLICK HERE
Sister Act Movie Sing-Along
Join us in singing our way through Sister Act. You don’t have to be good, you just have to have fun! Meet on the grassy area behind Memorial Church. Everyone is welcome!
GSB Mass & Dinner
Join fellow GSB students for 4:30 pm Mass, followed by dinner at the Treehouse! Come meet new friends, reconnect, and build Catholic community at Stanford. All GSB students are invited: MBA, MSx, and PhD.
Welcome Back Family Potluck
All Stanford Catholic young married couples and families are invited to a welcome back potluck on Saturday October 3rd 4-6pm. Kids are welcomed and encouraged to join! Please sign up and bring a favorite dish to share.
OCIA Launch
Our OCIA program for the new academic year begins Tuesday, September 29. If you’re curious about the Catholic tradition or are considering becoming Catholic, we’d love to hear from you. Please fill out our online Interest Form, or reach out to Oriana Li Halevy, our Director of Faith Formation, at orianatp@stanford.edu for more information.
Grad Talk & Dinner
THIS MONDAY: FIRST GRAD TALK & DINNER Graduate students are invited to our first Grad Talk and Dinner this Monday, September 28, at EVGR, with free dinner at 6 p.m. and a talk at 6:30 by Rhodes Scholar Angelin Tresa Mathew on “A Life of Friendship and Joy in Christ: Being Catholic in Academia.” Come meet fellow grads, bring a friend, and check the Grad WhatsApp for the room number!
Mass of the Holy Spirit
Sunday, September 27 at 4:30 p.m. we’ll be celebrating the Mass of the Holy Spirit. This Mass is a beautiful way to start the academic year as we ask for the Holy Spirit to guide us in our academic endeavors.
Please note, there will be NO 9:00 p.m. Mass, and the 9:00 a.m. Mass won’t have music. We encourage everyone to attend the 4:30 p.m. Mass of the Holy Spirit.
Student Welcome BBQ
Join us for the Student Welcome BBQ on Wednesday, September 23. We’ll have great food, play some games, and hang out until people leave. Come and go as you please.
Blessings & Donuts
Whether you’re new to Stanford or returning for another year, you want to get off to a good start. And what’s a better way to start off the academic year than receiving a blessing and having a donut? Stop by before your classes start for the day on September 22 and we’ll be happy to provide both!
Hike & Mass
Start the new school year with one of the best hikes in the area: Windy Ridge trail has sweeping vistas of the Bay, rolling grasslands, and shady forests. We carpool to the trailhead, and celebrate Mass at a beautiful viewpoint. Come meet other adventure-oriented individuals, and experience outdoor spirituality with Fr. Chrysostom.
Details:
- Meeting Location: bus island at the Tresidder Parking Lot near Starbucks (free parking on Sat). Look for a friar in white robes.
- Meeting Time: 9:00 AM
- Departure to Trailhead Parking: 9:15 AM sharp. (15 min drive) MAP LINK
~9:20 -1:30: Hike, Mass, Lunch, Return
~1:30 PM: Depart for Tresidder
~1:45 End.
Hike Information
- Trail: Windy Hill Loop (AllTrails link)
- Moderate difficulty.
- Distance: 6.4 miles
- Elevation Gain: 1,410 ft
- Hiking Time: ~3 hrs 20 min
- Add: 1 hr for Mass & Lunch
What to Bring
- 2L of water
- Snacks & Lunch.
- Sun protection (hat & sunscreen)
- Hardshell jacket if rain is possible
- Hiking shoes or sturdy runners
- Medication, like inhalers
- DO NOT brings speakers for music.
Come ready to pray, hike, and share a meal as we encounter Christ in both creation and the Eucharist! Join the the WhatApp chat for this hike for coordination.
Ice Cream Social
Stay after the 4:30 Mass for some ice cream and to hang out with friends new and old.
Reading Group: Magnifica Humanitas
Join us for three evenings of prayer, discussion, and fellowship as we read and discuss Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical together. All are welcome!
Dates: August 17, 24, 31
Location: EVGR (specific location TBD)
Questions? Contact Oriana at orianatp@stanford.edu
Reading Group: Magnifica Humanitas
Join us for three evenings of prayer, discussion, and fellowship as we read and discuss Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical together. All are welcome!
Dates: August 17, 24, 31
Location: EVGR (specific location TBD)
Questions? Contact Oriana at orianatp@stanford.edu
Summertime Adoration at EVGR
Summertime Adoration at EVGR
Take a break from the busyness of summer and spend an evening with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Join us for Eucharistic Adoration, with a priest available for Confession throughout the evening, followed by Benediction.
7:30 Exposition & Vespers followed by Adoration & Confessions
9:00pm Compline & Benediction
EVGR B166
All are welcome—graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, staff, friends, and anyone seeking a quiet place to pray.
Reading Group: Magnifica Humanitas
Join us for three evenings of prayer, discussion, and fellowship as we read and discuss Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical together. All are welcome!
Dates: August 17, 24, 31
Location: EVGR (specific location TBD)
Questions? Contact Oriana at orianatp@stanford.edu
Summertime Adoration at EVGR
Summertime Adoration at EVGR
Take a break from the busyness of summer and spend an evening with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Join us for Eucharistic Adoration, with a priest available for Confession throughout the evening, followed by Benediction.
7:30 Exposition & Vespers followed by Adoration & Confessions
9:00pm Compline & Benediction
EVGR B166
All are welcome—graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, staff, friends, and anyone seeking a quiet place to pray.
Neither Meat Machines Nor Visible Angels
We are pleased to co-sponsor the Harvard Catholic Forum event “Neither Meat Machines nor Visible Angels: The Human Person in Light of Neuroscience and Theological Anthropology” with Fr. Ezra Sullivan, O.P., Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome on Friday, July 17 at 6:00 PM EDT (in person and livestreamed).
Amazing recent and ongoing discoveries in neuroscience open up a broader understanding of who we are as human beings. But to understand the human person in full, neuroscience necessarily enters into dialogue with other disciplines, especially philosophy and theology. Fr. Sullivan invites us into that dialogue, drawing on the rich tradition of Thomistic thought.
Co-sponsored by the Society of Catholic Scientists, the Thomistic Institute at Harvard University, the Abigail Adams Institute, the Harvard Christian Alumni Society, the St. Benedict Institute at Hope College, the St. Kateri Institute at Williams College, and the Institute of Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St Andrews (UK).
Open to all. Registration encouraged; required for livestream. For details and registration, click here.
Common Roots Farm
Join fellow community members from the Catholic Community at Stanford as we head to Common Roots Farm in Santa Cruz for a morning of volunteering on Saturday, July 11! This opportunity is open to undergraduate and graduate students, young adults, and permanent community members. Work may include planting, harvesting, working soil, clearing beds, petting chickens, feeding sheep, or whatever needs to be done on the farm that day. The morning will begin at 9:30am and end around 12:30pm. We will provide lunch to those who wish to stay. We are unable to provide rides to the farm but will help volunteers coordinate carpooling. Sign up HERE by July 9 to allow us time to plan lunch and coordinate rides. Sign ups after this date are ok if you plan to arrange your own transportation. Contact Eric Lebel at elebel@alumni.stanford.edu with any questions.
Hike & Mass: Montara Peak
Join us for one of the most iconic hikes in the Half Moon Bay area: Montara Mountain North Peak Loop! This beautiful trail offers sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean as we make our way to the summit, where we’ll celebrate Mass in a scenic spot near the top. After the hike, you’re welcome to head back to Stanford with the group or join others for a bite to eat before returning. Also, 7/11 is free Slurpee Day at 7/11, so be sure to stop by the location in Half Moon Bay on the way home. Most of the trail is fully exposed to the sun, so be sure to bring plenty of water, sunscreen, and any other sun protection you’ll need. We are leaving early to avoid the hot afternoon sun.