Sat., June 23

4 PM … Jeanne Thornton by Jack & Colleen Byrne

Sun., June 24 The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

7:30 AM …Beverly Fowler by Tom & Yong Me Collins

9:30 AM … Our Parish Family

5 PM … Theresa Pessotti by Kristine O’Sullivan

Mon. June 25

12 PM … Nancy Huot by Jane Daly

Tue., June 26

12 PM … Edward J. Moran (5th Anniv.) by Margaret-Ann Moran

Wed., June 27 Saint Cyril of Alexandria

12 PM … Michael O’Shaugnessy, Jr., by the Walsh family

Thur., June 28 Saint Irenaeus of Lyon

8:30 AM ... Corazon Lopez by Lee Lopez

Fri., June 29 Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

6 PM … Isabel Semonité, Floyd Wood and Roland Griffin by

Nathan & Kathy Campbell

Sat., June 30

4 PM … Mr. & Mrs. Alfred K. Hobbs, Jr. & Anne Foley by

Cindy Hobbs

Sun., July 1 XIII in Ordinary Time

7:30 AM …Our Parish Family

9:30 AM … Yvette Kilroy (10th Anniv.) by Diane Bolton

5 PM … Joseph Patti by Lionel & Lillian Coulon

The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Weekend of June 17, 2018 Regular Offertory $2,659.00 Loose Offertory 487.15 Make up Offertory 370.00 Online Offertory Last Wk 590.00 Total Offertory $4,106.15

Stewardship Make up $ 492.00

Food Pantry $ 0.00

********************** Last Year: Wknd of June 18, 2017 Total Offertory $5,290.50

Thank you for your sacrificial gift!

Mon. June 25 7 PM … Food Pantry 7 PM … Christmas Fair Planning Mtg Tue., June 26 12:45 PM ... Parish Nurse 7 PM ... Finance Council Meeting

June 24, 2018

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

READINGS FOR THE WEEK of June 24, 2018 Monday: 2 Kgs 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18; Ps 60:3, 4-5, 12-13; Mt 7:1-5 Tuesday: 2 Kgs 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36; Ps 48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 10-11; Mt 7:6, 12-14 Wednesday: 2 Kgs 22:8-13; 23:1-3; Ps 119:33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40; Mt 7:15-20 Thursday: 2 Kgs 24:8-17; Ps 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9; Mt 7:21-29 Friday: Vigil: Acts 3:1-10; Ps 19:2-3, 4-5; Gal 1:11-20; Jn 21:15-19 Day: Acts 12:1-11; Ps 34:2-9; 2 Tm 4:6-8, 17-18; Mt 16:13-19 Saturday: Lam 2:2, 10-14, 18-19; Ps 74:1b-2, 3-5, 6-7, 20-21; Mt 8:5-17 Sunday: Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24; Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11,

Year B Hymnal #1034 / #1035

Goal: $24,000

Raised: $ 4,410

Balance: $19,590

Please join us in reaching our goal and

Moving Lives Forward with this year’s

Catholic Charities appeal. Envelopes

are at the end of the pews and at the

back of the church.

Save the date! VBS… Saint Raph-ael’s ever popular Vacation Bible School is coming! This year, VBS will

be July 16—20 from 9 am—12 pm. This year’s theme is “Shipwrecked: Rescued by Jesus!” We are enlisting volunteers and participants! Regis-tration forms are available at the back of the church as well as online at our website, www.st-raphael-parish.org. Don’t miss out!

Our Christ-mas Fair will be the weekend of Nov. 17-18.

There will be a planning meeting on Monday, June 25 at 7 PM in the parish hall classroom. If you are in-terested in helping, whether or not you have already indicated as much, please plan to attend the meeting. Do you have some items we can include in our White Elephant Table? Do you have gift cards for raffles? We would gratefully accept your donations. Please, no tube TVs or items better suited for donating to Goodwill or OutFITters.

eGiving ... Did you know you can use your credit card or electronic check to support the mission of Saint Rapha-

el Parish? This is especially helpful when you are on vacation. Go to our website (www.st-raphael-parish.org) and click on the Giving button. In a few minutes, you can be sure that your gift will work every day of the year to help your parish.

Congratulations to SRP parishioner Cory Ducharme, son of Richard and Natalie (Duquette) Ducharme, who was graduated from Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA

with a Bachelor of Science degree in astrophysics.

Saint Raphael Food Pantry On Monday, June 18, the food pantry served 18 families and gave out 44 bags of groceries.

QUO VADIS DAYS: Mon, Aug 6, 5 pm - Fri, Aug 10, 1 pm

Northeast Catholic College, Warner, NH Young men age 14-18 are invited to attend the annual Quo Vadis Days camp to spend time with others your age considering the Lord’s call in life. Quo Vadis Days are led by priests and seminarians of the Diocese of Manchester and include a full schedule: sports, games, hiking, swimming, daily Mass, prayer and opportunities to grow in friendship with the Lord and each other. For more info and to register, visit: liveinblackandwhite.com or contact vocations director Fr. Mat-thew Mason, at 603-663-0196 or mmason@rcbm.org.

Singing a New Song to the Lord: A Celebration of the Divine and The Human Spirit

Cathedral of Saint Joseph Choir and Saint Anselm College, featuring the choral music of Thompson, Byrd, Stanford, Biebl, Bainton, Gjeilo, Gray, Finzi, Nestor and Stopford on Tuesday, July 17, 2018, at 7:30 pm at Saint Joseph Cathedral, corner of Pine and Lowell streets, Manchester . Eric J . Bermani, Director; Scott Bergendahl, Organist. Free will offering at the door.

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

Fostering the wellsprings of ‘good zeal’ for monastic, Christian life

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

There is a vocation crisis in the Church in the U.S. and much of the rest of the devel-oped world, but you wouldn’t have known it this past week just up the hill from Saint Raphael. Some 35 young men from around the country spent these June days explor -ing dimensions of the monastic vocation at Saint Anselm Abbey. I was asked to deliver one of the talks they heard during a week of lectures, discussions and outings, along with the regular features of the monastic horarium, or schedule, as we observe it. My topic was “the good zeal of monks,” drawn from Chap-ter 72 of the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict. The participants in the Juniorate Summer School came from more than a dozen monas-teries in the U.S. that are members of the American Cassinese and the Swiss-American congregations, the two largest associations of abbeys and priories, in the country. They came from California, Nebras-ka, Alabama, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and elsewhere – and although they were all serious about the purpose of a for-mation workshop, they generated a wave of enthusiasm, inquiry and insight, coupled with some inspiring examples of commitment and devotion. These young fellows have complet-ed their inquiry, postulancy and novitiate programs, where they consider God’s voca-tional call to monastic life and learn the spir-itual craft as Saint Benedict (480-547) under-stands it. They have professed vows of obedi-ence, stability and conversatio morum, a Latin phrase that embodies poverty or sim-plicity of life and chastity, as well as a com-mitment to live out the monastic ideal. These first, or simple, vows provide a period of three or four years for a junior monk to dis-cern whether the monastic call is truly his vocation and should be under taken for the course of one’s life. In collaboration with the office of the Ab-bot Elias R. Lorenzo, O.S.B., the abbot president of the Amer ican Cassinese Con-gregation, of which Saint Anselm is a part, the workshop was devised and organized by Brother Ignatius Membrino, O.S.B., a jun-ior monk in our monastery. I have to say Br. Ignatius, who is due to profess his own sol-emn, or lifelong vows, next month, did a splendid job. His approach is quiet, steady and determined – with a minimum of visible fuss! He was assisted by our own juniors and novices in the abbey. When Br. Ignatius asked me if I might make a presentation, I was thrilled. Rarely does one get such a captive audience, and it is always good to review and re-fresh one’s exploration of the Rule, which is Saint Benedict’s guide for the practical, effec-tive and joyous living of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Be-sides I’ve wanted to explore the topic of communication in the Rule and its ultimate purpose of promoting communion in Christ. That’s what I figured I’d discuss. But that’s not the as-

signment I received from the workshop chair-man. Nope, no way. Not happening. Brother Ignatius wanted a discussion of Chapter 72, the penultimate chapter of the Rule. As so often happens in monastic life, and, more broadly , in Christian discipleship, you don’t always get the exit you want or expect, but if you follow the route with a good heart, you discover that the Lord has been guiding the whole trip! Chapter 72, which I studied as a novice and to which I return regularly in the course of reading the Rule, seemed too brief and too simple to provide any substantive basis for an engaging talk. But rereading it, thinking about it and praying it persuaded me other-wise. In fact, Chapter 72 amounts to Saint Benedict’s final testament, clarion call and knock-out punch, a text that basically says to any would-be monk or nun, if you’re going to undertake this life, this is the spirit you will need. Reach for it and live it! So I started to sketch out the lines of a talk, and even found some film clips to illustrate the difference between what Saint Benedict calls the “wicked zeal of bitterness which separates from God and leads to hell” and the “good zeal which separates from evil and leads to God and everlasting life.” (RB 72:1-2) In an effort to bring a little levity to the situation, I found clips from the Austin Pow-ers flicks featuring the wretched Dr. Evil and his repulsive hairless cat, Mr. Bigglesworth, and from the Star Wars film Rogue One, fea-turing — who else? — Darth Vader to de-pict the concept of bad zeal, a relentless, bit-ter, self-consuming and destructive attitude rooted in passions out of control and normed only by selfishness, pride, lust and greed. Despite the laughter, it was easy to see the problem depicted. Conversely, to show the good zeal monks should have, I found an interesting clip on Pope John XXIII and the opening of the Second Vatican Council (1962

-65). John, now a saint, was nothing if not zealous in bringing renewal to the whole Church. Whatever problems Vatican II imple-mentation may have had had, the council itself and its teachings are part of the Magisterium of the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit. Then, back to

the light touch, the young monks saw a clip from The Pink Panther, in which Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) comes to England from France to help Scotland Yard investi-gate a murder. Clouseau’s interrogation of the staff in a manor house is hysterical, full of Seller’s manic comedic schtick as he nearly destroys the house – but also revelatory of Inspector Clouseau’s determination to reach the truth behind the murder. From lines 4 to 12, Saint Benedict makes clear his intentions for his sons and daugh-ters. We are to strive to be the first to show respect for others, to support with patience the weaknesses of body and behavior, to compete in showing obedience to one, to pursue what is better for others or the whole community than to confine efforts to selfish preferences, to show the pure love of brothers to fellow monks, to render to God “loving fear” and to the abbot “unfeigned, humble love.” Benedict tells the monks that we are to pre-fer nothing whatsoever to Christ, and then he prays that the Lord “may … bring us all together to everlasting life.” If the Rule distills the Gospel to its essentials, Chapter 72 distills the Rule to its essence, that we live together in community under a spiritual father in such a way that we learn how to cooperate at all times with the mercy and grace of Christ so that we might receive the fulfill-ment of his promise of eternal life and ever-lasting happiness. Anyway, the young monks in the workshop got their talk and their dis-cussion, along with a few smiles and hearty laughs. Brother Ignatius got what he wanted. And I got a refreshing reminder why the good zeal that comes from Chr ist’s grace makes me ever grateful for Saint Benedict and his Holy Rule in my life. © Rev. Jerome Joseph Day, O.S.B.

From left, Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth, Darth Vader, Inspector Clouseau and Saint

John XXIII

Monks in formation at Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana