Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church-Rancho Penasquitos

Very difficult to explain, but very easy to find. Very convenient for confessions (30 minutes before every Sunday mass). I feel at home when I come here, and it’s a place to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. That’s all I can say.

Beautiful church! We attended mass while on vacation, and greatly enjoyed the service and the choir. I would register as a parishioner here, if we lived in San Diego.

Have can me to this s location for some years now and with the remodel its absolutely beautiful. I think they could do a better job with the parking lot setup because its a bit tricky to navigate but it works. Remember to count your blessings every day and thank god for them.

Very nice church! There is Simbang Gabi (misa de gallo) in preparation for christmas and is organized by the Filipino community. We have free food at the hall after each mass.

We started attending Our Lady of Mount Carmel about fifteen years ago and we immediately loved it from the moment we entered the building! Having visited other local Catholic churches, we were particularly struck with the exceptional feeling of warmth, acceptance, and family-​friendliness at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It felt like home. We have been active, registered members since then and we continue to love the parish community here. The new church building is icing on the cake.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a beautiful, loving, and comfortable Christ-​centered environment. It is professionally run, well-​organized, up-​to-​date, and provides a myriad of ministries for all needs. Father Anthony Saroki is an approachable, loving pastor, who embodies the perfect mix of warmth, humor, and strong, traditional Catholic values. He has embraced his role as the leader of our faith community, actively engaging us in evangelization and constantly breathing new life and inspiration to all parishioners. The entire staff at Our Lady of Mount Carmel seem to reflect this same intelligent professionalism and warmth.
Youth ministries here are wonderful, too! We have a fifteen-​year-​old son starting his second year of Confirmation preparation and a kindergartener, looking forward to beginning the process of faith formation.
Come visit us and experience God’s loving, inviting presence at Mass!
Saturday: 5:30pm
Sunday: 8:00am, 9:45am, 11:30am, 1:15pm (Spanish,) and 5:00pm (Youth)
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish
13 541 Stoney Creek Road
San Diego, CA 92 129
Phone: (858) 484‑1070
Check out our website:
May the Spirit of our loving God guide you in all things and may He bless you abundantly!

I just became a parishioner here after getting married and moving to the area. The new church building is beautiful with its large crucifix and intimate Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Fr. Anthony preaches Christ and if you accept the challenge of his homilies, you will grow closer to Our Lord. The community is wonderful — the recent great day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was celebrated with a rosary, Mass, scapular enrollment, and potluck dinner complete with entrainment by the youth. I am so happy here and look forward to getting involved!

My parents have been parishioners here since 1988, so I’ve been coming here since then. I stopped going here when I moved out of Rancho PQ and started going to other Catholic churches in San Diego County. However, home is where the heart is at, which brought me back to this church a few years ago. Mass used to be held, in what is now called Father Frank Fawcett Hall.
OLMC opened their newly built church in October 2013. This church is so beautiful and modern. You are greeted by a golden door, which leads you to a beautiful fountain of holy water, and then looking towards the altar, you see Jesus, on a cross looking at down at all of us. This church is very bright with a lot of natural light shining through the windows. I really like the youth choir as well.
I love listening to Father Anthony’s homilies. He always starts it off with humor and relates the Gospel and readings to our everyday lives. He is a wonderful speaker and you can also find his homilies online at the OLMC website.
The people are awesome and make you feel very welcomed. They also do a few conferences throughout the year. I attended the Good Life and had an amazing time of fellowship with my fellow parishioners.
Get to mass at least 30 minutes early if you want to park near the entrance. Parking lot gets filled up pretty quickly.

OLMC has been such a blessing in our lives. Especially helpful is Father Anthony and the RCIA program — have a question — they take the time and care to give you the answer with biblical and historical background and with sound reason and logic.

I do not attend mass at the San Diego location but I do attend mass and am in the process of completing my marriage requirements at the Newport Beach location. Nothing but wonderful things to say about this church! Deacon Steve and his wife, Gloria, do a wonderful job running the premarriage workshop on Wednesday nights and I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone. Even if you aren’t preparing for marriage, you should still consider this workshop (or something equivalent) as it is a great opportunity to learn more about your spouse and reinforce the love you have for one another all while considering Catholicism.

I love this church. I have been consistently attending mass here for about 2yrs now.
Mass used to be held in Father Frank Fawcett Hall which was more intimate but felt more like a school auditorium.
OLMC recently upgraded to a brand new church. It is more spacious and full of beautiful art. The upgrades feel like they have been bringing more people to church as the pews and the parking lot are often packed.
Hospitality Grove is a nice area outside of the church with a beautiful view. It is a place people can hang out until traffic dies down. Which leads to my next point…
Parking/​Traffic is CRAZY! Be prepared to wait in traffic after mass.
I grew up Roman Catholic and used to attend Good Shepherd Parish in Mira Mesa. The priest at Good Shepherd made it hard to relate to the already dated material. Quiet honestly, I found myself separated from God. I made a promise to work on my relationship with God and reconnect with my faith. OLMC was a great place to start my journey.
Father Anthony Saroki makes the journey easier by educating attendees and bringing humor into the equation. He is very educational and informative. His sermons are inspiring as he tries to relate his material often bringing up pop culture references. Father Anthony is a great speaker which I believe has something to do with his time as an attorney. He finds different ways to build interest for the attendees. His effort to spread the word of God is definitely moving. I attended «The Truth Will Set you Free» conference in March and will probably attend future conference/​retreats.
I like the direction Father Anthony is taking this church and I look forward to what he has in store. I hope he will be here for a long time because I would like to get married here with him as the presider.

My daughter was baptized here in 2011. It was a great process and great celebration.
We recently started coming here again after they built the brand new church. It’s beautiful and spacious and full of wonder symbolism.
They have a very small soundproof room for families with infants that include its own bathroom and changing table.
They have an area designated for families with small children. It’s not a separate room, but it’s a little place with easy access to the outside hallway in case your toddler gets too out of hand and they need to be taken outside.
I enjoy masses at this church because I feel the priest is very good. His homilies are very relatable.
Minus one star because of the major parking issues. Exiting the parking lot after mass is always a huge jam, no matter where you park. I hope they can figure something out eventually.

I first started coming here in the 80’s and my parents have been such long parishioners that they donated enough money to be put on the dedication area when making the new church.
Proud enough of this church that I had my daughter baptized here in what is now the Father Frank hall and hope to one day baptize another child in the new church. It turned out gorgeous. Going from a low ceiling to a high ceiling and from seats to pews where you can actually kneel feels like such a leap. Stations of the cross look unique from most others. Cry room only has 2 rows of chairs but includes a changing room and its own bathroom. I believe there were multiple areas of prayer along the inside of the church.
Congregation feels very proud and grateful to have a new place of worship. Only thing I wish could change is the traffic, but based on the limited parking area and the location of the church, it makes it a difficult place to actually avoid such congestion. Maybe spacing out the mass times would help, but not totally fix it.

My parents have been members at Our Lady of Mt Carmel since the early 80’s. Growing up, I’ve heard tons about the dream to build a new church– the financial appeals were constant.
Though the current church is modest, it is a wonderful place, full of loving people who do their best to support one another. Over the years, the OLMC church has officiated countless baptisms, weddings, funerals, and opportunities for community and sharing. My grandmother loves her bible group.
Though I moved away from SD for many years, when I married, we asked Monsignor Fawcett to preside, and the engaged meetings with him were actually helpful to us. Even our wedding ceremony homily felt personal and many of our guests chuckled at and still remember Monsignor’s humorous insight.
My son loves his «Sunday School» classes — the new Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is an impressive faith formation program that combines influences of Montessori principles, Hebrew scholarship, Scripture studies, and Catholic doctrine in a way that the young can grasp and explore. His teacher, Miss Nicole is exceptional.
It has taken years for the new church to become a reality,
so I’m thrilled that OLMC has finally reached it’s goal.
The open house is 3−6pm on Fri Oct 11, 2013.
The dedication of the new church is on Oct 17, 2013 at 4pm.
Masses will be offered at new Church starting Oct 19^th & 20^th 2013 with adjusted mass times: 8am, 9:45am, and 11:30am.

This is our families Home Parish, Masses for anytime you need them. Friendly staff, Great priests family events, a real home feeling. They offer a food program for low income and single mothers each month. No pressure. A Lotta LOVE from this place

So I rarely go to church and I’ll be first to admit that I should go more often. But Im considered a CEO church goer. CEO meaning Christmas, Easter Only. But with the recent boom of babies happening around me, I find myself going more often for baptisms. Im just glad I don’t burn up as soon I walk in the church or start to evaporate when I apply holy water to my forehead… Kidding!
All joking aside, I’ve come to this church for two baptism’s and both for my friends children. My friends family is well connected with the church so the two baptism’s I’ve come to have been private sessions. Very intimate and personal. The priest was very personable with the entire family and made everyone feel welcomed.
See mom, I go to church more often than you think. =)

Admittedly, I don’t attend as often as I should or surely not as much as my mother would like. Motherly guilt is worse than Catholic guilt and for that reason and THAT reason only, I am fortunate that there is 1500 miles between the two of us.
With that being said, this is a very homey community church that is very welcoming to those who are members and to those who are just passing through and visiting the parish.
My daughter was baptized here and both kids received their first communion at this location and consider it their church.
This church doesn’t have the traditional feel to it as you sit on cushioned chairs versus pews. They are however building a new building that is at least 7 – 8 years in the making. This should give it that «church» feeling that I’m looking for.