Sat., January 27 Saint Angela Merici

4 PM … Thomas & Jeannette Pitman by Maureen Houle

Sun., January 28 IV Sunday in Ordinary Time

7:30 AM … Our Parish Family

9:30 AM … Matthew Clement & members of Clement and Lively

families by Ray & Patricia Clement

5 PM … Bernard G. Colo by P. Jerome

Mon. January 29

12 PM … Lorraine Vincent by Ray & Brenda Young

Tue., January 30

12 PM … Presider’s Intentions

Wed., January 31 Saint John Bosco

12 PM … Presider’s Intentions

Thur., February 1 *Please note Mass time change

9:30 AM … TBD

Fri., February 2 The Presentation of the Lord

6 PM … Joseph Handy by Gregory Handy

Sat., February 3 Saints Blaise & Ansgar

4 PM … Our Parish Family

Sun., February 4 V Sunday in Ordinary Time

7:30 AM … Cecile Fournier (1st Anniv.) by Pat Tremblay

9:30 AM … Monica Celeste Morin by Claude & Irene Morin

5 PM … Sylvia Hobbs (39th Anniv.) by Cynthia Hobbs

IV Sunday in Ordinary Time

Weekend of January 21, 2018 Regular Offertory $2,804.00 Make-Up Offertory 286.00 Loose Offertory 349.00 Online Offertory 705.00 Total Offertory $4,144.00

Stewardship Make Up $ 222.00 Christmas Make Up $ 40.00

Poor Boxes $ 383.98

Food Pantry $ 200.00

********************** Last Year: Wknd of Jan. 22, 2017 Total Offertory $4,551.30

Thank you for your sacrificial offering!

Mon. January 28 6:30 PM … Youth Ministry Tue., January 29 12:45 PM … Parish Nurse 6:30 PM … Discovering Christ

January 28, 2018

Sanctuary candle The sanctuary candle burns this week for Our Parish Family.

READINGS FOR THE WEEK of January 28, 2018

Monday: 2 Sm 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13; Ps 3:2-3, 4-5, 6-7; Mk 5:1-20 Tuesday: 2 Sm 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30–19:3; Ps 86:1-2, 3-4, 5-6; Mk 5:21-43 Wednesday: 2 Sm 24:2, 9-17; Ps 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7; Mk 6:1-6 Thursday: 1 Kgs 2:1-4, 10-12; 1 Chronicles 29:10, 11ab, 11d-12a, 12bcd; Mk 6:7-13 Friday: Mal 3:1-4; Ps 24:7, 8, 9, 10; Heb 2:14-18; Lk 2:22-40 or 2:22-32 Saturday: 1 Kgs 3:4-13; Ps 119:9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; Mk 6:30-34 Sunday: Jb 7:1-4, 6-7; Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6; 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23; Mk 1:29-39

Calling all high school youth! Check out what’s coming up! Sunday, Jan. 28 (2—4 PM) Ice skating at JFK Arena: $3 to skate and $5 to rent skates. Monday, Feb. 5 (6:30-8 PM) Lent & Me Sunday, Feb. 11 (12—4 PM) Hayride at Charmingfare Farms—please dress warmly and in layers as we will be outside for about 1.5-2 hours. Limited to 12 participants. Questions? Please call Lynne at 603.533.4574 or email jlphotia-des@comcast.net.

Saint Raphael Food Pantry On Monday, Jan. 22, the food pantry served 27 families

and gave out 60 bags of groceries.

Special

exhibition

If you have any

artifacts from the World War

I-era—war

front or home front—that you’re willing to loan for

an exhibit in February, please call the rectory at 603.623.2604 or drop off

items during regular hours, M—F be-

tween 9 AM and 4 PM. Thank you!

Year B Hymnal #938

Save the Date! Our annual Saint Patrick’s Dinner will be Saturday, March 10, 2018

at 5 pm. Watch for more info in the coming month. We welcome your dona-tions, (items or funds to-wards the event for the raffle prizes.). Please drop contributions off at the rec-tory M-F between 9 AM-4 PM. Always an exciting event. Bring the whole fam-ily for an evening of fun!

Have you down-

loaded our app

yet? We will be

having a raffle for a

prize, to be drawn next

month. Watch for a special

notification via the app!

Parish Pastoral Council We need seven members for the

council. You could be one! We have four 2-year terms, one 1-year term, and two 1-year terms openings on the Parish Council. If you are interested in serving, please call the rec-

Feast of Saint Blaise In honor of the feast day St. Blaise of Sebaste on Feb. 2, we will give the Blessing of Throats after all Masses Feb. 3-4.

Veterans Memorial

Window Dedication &

Brunch You are invited to

join in the celebration of the

Eucharist at the February

18, 2018, 9:30 AM Mass

as we commemorate the

Centennial of the death of

Henry J. Sweeney. The

Mass will be followed by a

community brunch in the

parish hall.

Note the Mass time change Thursday, Feb. 1 from 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM, as Bishop Peter A. Libasci will celebrate this Mass with the Saint Bene-dict Academy students. All are welcome.

Altar Server training We will offer new and refresher training for altar servers on Sunday, February 11 at 11 AM. All servers are requested to attend. We welcome adult altar servers in this very important ministry, so if you are considering serving, please contact Kerri at 603.623.2604. Thank you!

Thank you! Thanks to the Respect Life Committee for handing out “Awareness Bracelets” with a pro-life mes-sage at last weekend’s Masses to mark Jan. 22, the Day of Prayer for Unborn Children.

From the Pastor: Fr. Jerome Joseph Day, O.S.B.

Catholic Schools Week gives SBA a chance to shine its lights

There are more than a few times each week when I wish I were back in school, and specifically, at Saint Benedict Acade-my! The enthusiasm of the students at work in their classrooms, and at play in the schoolyard; the concern, compassion and competence of the faculty and staff; and the multiple ways our Catholic faith per-meates the school day from specific reli-gion classes to references in other classes and various activities clearly indicate to me that this is a Catholic school that is working, and working well, to provide excellence in academics, spirit in activities and joyful service in faith. A Catholic school has formation in Christ through his Mystical Body, the Church, as its central purpose. If we fail to deliver such formation, our school is, by definition a failure. However, the sentence above references “central” purpose. Christ is indeed the center. But the sentence does not read “no other purpose than …” for an institution such as Saint Benedict is a school where the intellect is to be informed and shaped in all the relevant disciplines from mathematics and science to history and literature. The academic standards and achievement of Catholic schools have long been second to none – and I am happy to see that Saint Benedict Acade-my continues the long tradi-tion of Saint Raphael School, West Side Catholic Regional School and all the other Catholic schools on Man-chester’s historic West Side. This coming week, Saint Benedict will join Catholic schools throughout the U.S. in celebrating Catholic Schools Week from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2. This year, the week of celebration, is organized nationally around the theme, “Catholic Schools: Learn. Serve. Lead. Succeed.” For my observa-tions, those four words are well-established at Saint Benedict. Heather Silveira, principal, and her colleagues have prepared a busy schedule of activities to mark the occasion. Monday, Jan. 29, will be Color Day with an opening prayer service and pep rally in the gym; Tuesday, Jan. 30, is “dress down day,” when students will take a field trip to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord; the next day, “Wacky Wednes-day,” Jan. 31, includes bingo and a hot chocolate bar in the cafeteria and a pep rally in the gym; Thursday, Feb. 1, in-cludes the week’s highlight, Mass, with the Most Rev. Peter A. Libasci, D.D., bishop of Manchester, in Saint Raphael Church, and later, at 1 p.m., Eucharistic Adoration; and Fr iday, Feb. 2, will be a

sports day, when SBA sweatpants and sneak-ers will be A-OK in the class-rooms be-cause the “Olympic Games” will take place in the morning and a “Mr. O’Brien

Rock Out” at 1 p.m. in the gym. A meas-ure of bonds that are created at Saint Bene-dict can be seen in the fact that Benjamin O’Brien, SBA’s popular music teacher from just a few years ago, will return to celebrate Catholic Schools Week. Exciting as the week will be for students and their parents who are free to attend events, the schedule doesn’t hold a candle to Saint Benedict’s regular round of activi-

ties, educational programs and special projects. The school will be joining Catholic schools throughout the diocese in strengthening what is here already a strong manifestation of faith in schoolwork and activities. Youngster s from SBA join us every Thursday

morning for Mass and Morning Prayer that includes instruction in religious music. They have adoration of the Blessed Sacra-ment, along with emphasis on meditation and personal prayer. Saint Benedict has beefed up its science curriculum. Special instruction is avail-able in music, computer use, art, Spanish and physical education. The academy con-tinues to offer engaging after-school pro-grams in its award-winning robotics pro-gram, ski club trips, basketball, Crazy 8’s Math Club and the Performing Arts Club, while the pre-K program is flourishing. The web site has been renewed. Parents and others can schedule a tour or shadow day, and registration is available on line. With 120-125 students, SBA is big enough to provide everything needed and small enough to know how to care for each student. Small class size, individual atten-tion and an outstanding and energetic fac-ulty are hallmarks of SBA. As parishioners at Saint Raphael know, the parish and the school collaborated to renovate the gymnasium, the or iginal church space for Saint Raphael until 1964 when the “new” church was opened. Dur-ing the past year, new, movement-sensitive

lighting, a new ceiling and a new floor have been installed. These upgrades tally close to $100,000, but will give SBA stu-dents and our parish youth activities, such as the high school Avenging Archangels team in Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) play, a state-of-the-art environment for practice and competition. The floor, made of hardened birch, gleams with the reverse side of the medal of Saint Bene-dict in the center of a floor lined both for basketball and volleyball. The gym also sports a new piano for shows, perfor-mances and rallies. One of the features of Saint Benedict Academy that it has inherited from Saint Raphael School and West Side Catholic is the deep love of its graduates for their years here. I am long familiar with peo-ple remaining loyal to their high schools, colleges and universities, but such devo-tion as I find to our little elementary school here is even more amazing than it is amus-ing. Somebody must be doing something right! Fact is, parents who do their ut-most to give their children a Catholic edu-cation are truly wise. The standards of academic achievement, the expectations of discipline, the socialization among friends, the generosity in service, and the perspec-tive on the Church and the world beyond school, and especially, the multiple ways Christ is present in their lives would make reasonable tuition costs more than worth the effort and sacrifice. What a privilege it is to work with the the youngsters, teachers, staff and par-ents of the Saint Benedict Academy community. It has been my consistent prayer that we strive to make SBA always a community of life, love and learning in the Lord Jesus. We have the one shot at educating our youngsters. If we think it is only about information, we are giving them lots of tools. If we think about infor-mation for the world we all live in and formation in the Christ who leads us to the next, we are giving them tools, but also showing them how to use them and for whom they exist. © Rev. J. Day, O.S.B.

From the Pastor: Fr. Jerome Joseph Day, O.S.B.

R

Father Jerome, O.S.B., with youngsters

from Saint Benedict Academy. Catholic

Schools Week starts Monday!