Hymnal #865 Year B

Sat., December 16

4 PM … Charles Robert Clark, Jr.

Sun., December 17 Third Sunday of Advent

7:30 AM … Deceased of the Tardif, O’Donnell and Dupere

families by Bill & Judy Dupere

9:30 AM … Our Parish Family

5 PM … Mary Simone (24th Anniv.) by Kerri Stanley

Mon. December 18

12 PM … Dan Pictrowski (living) by Diane Pictrowski

Tue., December 19

12 PM … Phyllis & William Wisneski by Teresa Greene

Wed., December 20

12 PM … Shaun M. Keane by Jack & Colleen Byrne

Thur., December 21 Saint Peter Canisius

8:30 AM … Albert Marshall by the SBA community

Fri., December 22

6 PM … George Coppez (8th An.) by Scott & Peggy Coppez

Sat., December 23

4 PM … J. Marjorie (Costello) Day (32nd An.) by P. Jerome

Sun., December 24 Fourth Sunday of Advent

7:30 AM … Deceased of the Tardif, O’Donnell & Dupere

families by Bill & Judy Dupere

9:30 AM … Our Parish Family

4 PM … Christmas Eve “Midnight Vigil Mass

Weekend of December 10, 2017 Regular Offertory $2,942.00 Make-Up Offertory 290.00 Loose Offertory 506.85 Online Offertory 475.00 Total Offertory $4,213.85

Stewardship $1,642.80 Stewardship Loose 177.25 Stewardship Online 10.00 Total Stewardship $1,830.05 Ho-ly Day $ 904.00 Holy Day Loose 177.25 Total Holy Day $1,081.25

********************** Food Pantry $ 675.00 ********************** Last Year: Wknd of Dec. 11, 2016 Total Offertory $4,427.75 Total Stewardship $2,156.90 Total Holy Day $ 953.00

Sunday, December 17 9:30 AM … Religious Education Mon., December 18 6:30 PM … Youth Ministry 7 PM … Food Pantry Tue., December 19 12:45 PM … Parish Nurse Wed., December 20 7:15 PM … Advent Penance Service

December 17, 2017 III Sunday of Advent—Gaudete Sunday

Sanctuary candle The sanctuary candle burns this week for Rita DeCotis by Dottie DeCotis.

READINGS FOR THE WEEK of December 17, 2017

Monday: J er 23:5-8; Ps 72:1-2, 12-13, 18-19; Mt 1:18-25 Tuesday: Jgs 13:2-7, 24-25a; Ps 71:3-4a, 5-6ab, 16-17; Lk 1:5-25 Wednesday: Is 7:10-14; Ps 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6; Lk 1:26-38 Thursday: Sg 2:8-14 or Zep 3:14-18a; Ps 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21; Lk 1:39-45 Friday: 1 Sm 1:24-28; 1 Sm 2:1, 4-5, 6-7, 8abcd; Lk 1:46-56 Saturday: Mal 3:1-4, 23-24; Ps 25:4-5ab, 8-9, 10 and 14; Lk 1:57-66 Sunday: 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16; Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29; Rom 16:25-27; Lk 1:26-38 Sunday: Is 40:1-5, 9-11; Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14; 2 Pt 3:8-14; Mk 1:1-8

Calling all high school youth! Check out what’s up in December! Monday, Dec. 18 (6:30-8) Youth Group Christmas party with a Yankee Swap. Please bring a miscellaneous wrapped gift with a value of $5 if you want to join the Yankee Swap. Questions? Please call Lynne at 603.533.4574 or email jlphotiades@comcast.net.

Saint Raphael Food Pantry On Monday, Dec. 11, the Food Pantry served 19 families and gave out 40 bags of food.

Advent Penance Service—Please join us on Wednesday, Dec. 20 at 7:15 pm for our an-nual penance service. Monks from Saint An-selm Abbey will be avail-

able to hear confessions.

Special

exhibition If

you have any arti-

facts from the

World War I-era that you would be

willing to loan us for a two-week exhibit planned for February, 2018, please call

the rectory at 603.623.2604.

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.saint-raphael-parish.com) 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.

Discovering Christ begins Jan. 9, 2018! Where can one bring family,

friends, and acquaintances who are searching for meaning in life? Where can we

go to encounter or come closer to Jesus our Lord? Right here at Saint Raphael

Parish an initiative will begin early in the new year where men and women will be

invited to come together in order to develop or deepen a personal relationship with

Christ and live as members of his family. Go online at www.st-raphael-

parish.org for information and registration form. Forms are also available at the

back of the church. “Faith is above all a personal, intimate encounter with Je-

sus, and to experience his closeness, his friendship, his love; only in this way does one learn to

know him ever more, and to love and follow him ever more. May this happen to each one of us.” -

Pope Benedict XVI

PLEASE NOTE! Because Christmas falls on

Monday, Dec. 25, Catholics assist at Mass

twice in a short time span. We participate in

the Eucharist for Sunday, the Fourth Sunday

of Advent (on either Saturday afternoon/evening or

Sunday morning, and for Christmas (on Sunday even-

ing, which is Christmas Eve, or on Christmas Day, which

is Monday, Dec. 25.) No double dipping,

friends!

Christmas: Nativity of the Lord

Sunday, Dec. 24 Christmas Eve

Vigil “Midnight” Mass at 4 pm

Monday, Dec. 25 Christmas Day

Masses at 8 and 10 am

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God Sunday,

Dec. 31 Mary Mother of God Vigil Mass at 6:30 PM

Monday, Jan. 1, 2017 Mary Mother of God Masses

at 10 am

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

Time is of the essence, they say, and Advent shows how time is a gift Sometimes, we become conscious of the passage of time more directly, more succinctly in other people

than in ourselves. Parents, for example, are stunned by the realization that their son or daughter, once a little one in the arms or a toddler darting down the super market aisle, is now a Little League standout, is giving the high school valedictory address, is receiving a college degree and then, suddenly, is preparing to walk down an-other aisle with a bride on his arm. This realization hit me last week as I was talk-ing to one of my nieces about the im-pending birthday gathering for my brother-in-law, their father. Paul will turn 80 to-day, and I find myself not quite believing it. How did I get an octogenarian brother-in-law? Part of my dismay is Paul’s own fault! He remains in good shape, has been active all his life – he is a carpenter – and rarely complains about any of the aches, pains and maladies most of us discover as we get older. At 64, I’m a few years behind Paul, and his late wife, my sister, Kay, was five years his senior. That was a big deal for some in the family when they got married, but be-fore long the age difference mattered not a whit. Another part of my dismay is that I find myself socializing with grandpar -ents who aren’t Paul’s age, but mine! How did that happen? That shouldn’t really be a question, as I have had in recent years the students at Saint Anselm whose parents were college-mates and classmates from my time on the Hilltop. But it still surpris-es me! Age is a funny thing. We don’t much like the limitations it can im-pose on us, but we treasure the experiences it brings us, the memo-ries we collect and, on occasion, the wisdom it bestows. Moreover, like an old slide rule, age can seem different from one moment to the next. We can feel youthful and energetic if we’re plan-ning an activity or a project we relish, and we can sense the weight of the years if we are slogging through a responsibility or a circumstance that rubs us the wrong way. The rise of technology, and the ease of the “co-presence” of people distant both in time and space is another sign of the com-

plexity of the hu-man relationship with clock and calendar. But our ordinary sense of the inter-relationships be-tween moments of time and our self-understanding pales before the way God enters time and uses it for his purposes! Advent is the liturgical season when we first begin to realize that time is real, and yet it is only a small part of the majes-ty of the universe the Eternal Father created through the Word. For four weeks – though this year it’s only four Sundays, as Christmas is the Monday after

the Fourth Sunday of Advent – we prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas. That “coming,” however, is a com-memoration of an event that oc-curred some 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem of Judea in the Roman province of Palestine in the an-

cient Land of Israel during the reign of the Emperor Augustus. Moreover , even as we await our annual commemoration, the Scriptures, especially at the beginning of Advent, remind us to keep an eye on a future coming of Christ. The end of the ages and the Last Judgment are known only to God, and yet something in us tells us they will happen. Meanwhile, we also know that Christ will come to us at our own deaths, so we do need to “prepare the way of the Lord.” Finally, as disciples of the Lord Jesus, we know that in Matthew

25 he instructs to re-ceive our brothers and sisters in need as Christ. By Easter , we will realize yet again that all this is possible because the historical Jesus, who died upon the Cross at Calvary, is risen! He rose up on the third day in power and glory, so that his words,

actions, presence and impact on us are those of the Living God, connected always to history but vibrant, valid and vital now! Advent is a remarkable time, one filled with longing for what is to come, joy in what is and remembrance of what is past. Even that sentence is fr aught with temporal richness. That which is to come is a commemoration of an historical event,

one held true by men and women of faith. Yet it looks backwards to prophecies fulfilled, and looks forward to a future coming that will usher this old world into eter-nity. Meanwhile, the world already

has embraced eternity for , in fact, the coming of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, Em-manuel, God-with-us means that the eter-nal and divine has entered into human his-tory. Time and eternity, like the famous DNA double helix, are entwined in Christ, embracing each other not in con-flict but in love and deference. Belgian artist Wim Delvoye captures this idea in his sculpture, Double Helix Crossed Cruci-fix (2008). And why would this not be the case? Did not the God of all glory endow each of us with an immortal soul? Indeed, at the end of the ages, when judgment has been rendered, we have the possibility of living forever with God in a risen body with an immortal soul! I hope readers aren’t scratching their heads! Time and eternity are mysteries, in large part, the province of poetry and faith. True, science can study time and its impact on biology, physics and psychology. But time is elusive, and eternity both a friend that summons us and even comes to us as we receive the Eucharist, but then plays hide and seek with our thinking. The early 20th century French philosopher Henri Bergson once wr ites, “Wherever anything lives, there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed.” I like to think that God is inscribing our days, laughing, treasuring and, I suppose, sometimes frowning, but holding our mo-ments and days for us, until he can share the fullness of eternity. Meanwhile, I pray this Advent open new windows on God’s presence in your life as Chr istmas nears. And, Paul, Happy Birthday! I’m glad my big sister said yes to a question you popped a while back! © Rev. J. Day, O.S.B.

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

R

Christmas

and

New Year Mass Schedule

SAINT RAPHAEL THE ARCHANGEL PARISH

UT IN OMNIBUS GLORIFICETUR DEUS – THAT IN ALL THINGS GOD MAY BE GLORIFIED -

Saint Raphael Rectory, 103 Walker St., Manchester, NH 03102-4566, U.S.A. Tel. 603.623.2604 E-mail: jday@anselm.edu or Admin@st-raphael-parish.org

ESTABLISHED IN 1888 - NEW ENGLAND’S FIRST BENEDICTINE FOUNDATION

Christmas: Nativity of the Lord

Sunday, Dec. 24 Christmas Eve Vigil “Midnight” Mass at 4 pm

Monday, Dec. 25 Christmas Day Masses at 8 and 10 am

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Sunday, Dec. 31 Mary Mother of God Vigil Mass at 6:30 PM

Monday, Jan. 1, 2017 Mary Mother of God Masses at 9 am