Sat., February 2 The Presentation of the Lord

4 PM … Our Parish Family Sun., February 3 IV Sunday in Ordinary Time

7:30 AM …Denny Smith by Tom & Yong Me Collins 9:30 AM … John Kilroy (27th Anniv) by Diane Bolton 5 PM … Available intention Monday, February 4 12 PM … Sylvia Hobbs (40th Anniv.) by Cynthia Hobbs Tue., February 5 Saint Agatha

12 PM … Kathy Horning by Malachy McCarthy Wed., February 6 Saint Paul Miki & Companions

12 PM … Bobby Annan by Jack & Colleen Byrne Thur., February 7

8:30 AM … Available intention Fri., February 8

6 PM … Donato F. Dagnoli by P. Jerome Sat., February 9 4 PM … Sylvia Hobbs by Cynthia Hobbs Sun., February 10 V Sunday in Ordinary Time

7:30 AM … Our Parish Family 9:30 AM … Griffin Taylor by Tom & Yong Me Collins 5 PM … Available intention

IV Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mon., February 4

6:30—8 PM … Religious Education

7—8 PM … Food Pantry

Tue., February 5

12:45 PM … Parish Nurse

7 PM … Finance Council Meeting

Thur., February 7

7:30 PM … Choir Practice

February 3, 2019

Weekend of January 27, 2019 Regular Offertory $2,912.00 Loose Offertory 677.50 Online Offertory Last Wk 705.00 Total Offertory $4,294.50

Stewardship Make up $ 90.00 Food Pantry $ 125.00

********************** Last Year: Wknd of Jan. 28, 2018 Total Offertory $4,286.10

Thank you for your sacrificial gift!

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

Year C Hymnal #939

Calling all high school youth! Check out the things we’ll do in Feb.! Monday, Feb 4 , 6:30—8 PM: Confirmation Prep #3 @ St Raphael Monday, Feb 11, 6:30—8 PM: Confirmation Prep #4 @ Transfiguration NO CLASS—Monday, Feb 18 & 25 (Holiday & School Vacation) Questions? Please call Lynne at 603.533.4574 or email jlphotia-des@comcast.net.

READINGS FOR THE WEEK of February 3, 2019 Monday: Heb 11:32-40; Ps 31:20, 21, 22, 23, 24; Mk 5:1-20; Tuesday: Heb 12:1-4; Ps 22:26b-27, 28 and 30, 31-32; Mk 5:21-43; Wednesday: Heb 12:4-7, 11-15; Ps 103:1-2, 13-14, 17-18a; Mk 6:1-6; Thursday: Heb 12:18-19, 21-24; Ps 48:2-3ab, 3cd-4, 9, 10-11; Mk 6:7-13; Friday: Heb 13:1-8; Ps 27:1, 3, 5, 8b-9abc; Mk 6:14-29; Saturday: Heb 13:15-17, 20-21; Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6; Mk 6:30-34; Sunday: Is 6:1-2a, 3-8; Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8; 1 Cor 15:1-11 or 1 Cor 15:3-8, 11; Lk 5:1-11

On Monday, January 28, the food pantry served 30 families and gave out 67 bags of gro-ceries.

Save the Date! We are already planning our annual Saint Pat-rick’s Dinner, which will be Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 5:30 PM. Tickets are now available in the rectory during the week and will be on sale at all weekend Masses beginning Feb 9. Please help support our event by donating goods or gift cards

for our penny sale raffles and silent auction. Items can be dropped off at the rectory during the week. If you have questions, please call Kerri at

If you would like a statement for your 2018 contributions, please contact Kerri at 623.2604 / kerri.stanley@st-raphael-parish.org.

Altar Server / Sacristan Meeting There will be a meeting for all Altar Servers

and Sacristans on Sunday, Feb. 17 at 11 AM

in the church.

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

Please join the Book Discussion Group on Thursday, Feb. 21 at 7 PM, for a discussion of Arundahti Roy's The God of Small Things. This lyrical novel, set in India in 1969, follows the life of fraternal twins as

they learn difficult lessons about family, love, life, and culture. We'll meet at 7:00 p.m. upstairs in the church conference room. Copies of the novel available at the rectory. Please come early for refreshments and fellowship!

St. Gianna’s Place, Londonder-ry, offers safe, long-term hous-ing for homeless pregnant

women in need and their babies. We will host a baby bottle fundraiser drive throughout February. Bottles will be available beginning this weekend. Please take them home and fill them with your loose change and return them the first weekend in March. Checks made out to St. Gianna’s Place will also be accepted. Thank you for your support!

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Daniel Dumont, who died Jan. 22 Please keep him and his family in prayer.

StarSound We are trying out a new sound system at this week-

end’s Masses and hope you notice a considerable improvement

from the existing system we have. As you are well aware, we are

long overdue in updating our equipment. However, the parish

must consider our current budget and the means with which to

update equipment. We hope our parish community will answer to the call

and that we can pursue this as a permanent solution this year.

Saint Raphael's Avenging Archangels have won their last two games over Saint Kathyrn of Hudson 57-43 and Chelmsford Catholic (MA) 55-50 to move into second place with a record of 3-4. The team will be playing the Manchester Boys Club team this week, Sunday, noon at Bedford High School. Good Luck!

Because of limited attendance at Mass due New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo (photo, right) has been a strong voice for immi-grants, workers, senior citizens and women for many years, and although people may debate particular policies and initiatives, they can’t fault the human values he has at the heart of his political agenda. Unfortunately, when it comes to unborn children, the gover-nor has bought into the extremism of the pro-abortion lobby. Late last month, Cuomo, a Democrat, signed into law a bill passed hours earlier by the state Senate and Assembly legalizing abortion for what amounts to any reason whatsoever in the Empire State. “With the signing of this bill, we are send-ing a clear message that whatever happens in Washington, women in New York will al-ways have the fundamental right to control their own body,” said Cuomo, with Sarah Weddington, the attorney in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case in the U.S. Supreme Court in a seat next to him at the signing as abortion activists cheered. I believe that Roe v. Wade was badly de-cided, and I would welcome the expansion of the right to life of the unborn child. Such a right should be protected, not further eroded or even destroyed. New York’s passage of the duplicitously named Reproductive Health Act pushes far beyond the boundar ies of Roe v. Wade, which at least said that states may restrict abortions in some cases. Under the latest New York law, late-term abortions, sought at the very end of a pregnancy, are now permitted and non-doctors would be allowed to perform them. Gov. Cuomo said he hopes other states emulate New York and enshrine pro-choice freedom from abortion restrictions in their own laws. New York’s policies always matter in the U.S. because of its size, eco-nomic muscle and influence over U.S. media and financial institutions. His comments underline what is at stake here. As the Trump administration finds new opportunities to name conservative justices to the U.S. Su-preme Court, the possibility of overturning Roe v. Wade rises even though the new ap-pointees have remained largely mum on the issue, saying only that a woman’s right to abortion in certain circumstances is settled law. Pro-choice activists know that “settled law” can change nonetheless. Back in the 1850s, even the most ardent American aboli-tionist could legitimately say slavery was “settled law” in many of the Southern states. Such a view does not speak to when or how such law might change. Because of the underlying threat to Roe v. Wade – a deci-sion that indeed ought be threatened – pro-abortion rights advocates are moving in the various state capitals to codify and even ex-pand the “gains and freedoms” women have achieved in the past 45 years. The New York law Cuomo signed is just the latest expres-sion of this movement. As the abortion debate moves with increas-

ing speed into state capitols, voters who cherish the sanctity of human life, which in-cludes both the mother and the un-born child, should keep in

mind some realities that are often ignored amid in the specifics of legislative argument: ►When abortion is justified because a woman has a right to control her own body, the argument forgets that there are two bod-ies involved, the mother ’s and the child’s. The child is connected to and carried by the mother, but the bodies are visibly – through pre-natal photography and sonograms – and genetically distinct. Photojournalism has become a friend of the pro-life movement. ►When abortion is justified because pub-lic law should not be pressured by religious conviction, the argument ignores the fact that multiple religious traditions, including our own, of course, seek protection of the unborn child. Moreover , the natural law tradition in philosophy makes compelling arguments for the protection of life at every stage. Much of the pro-abortion case is founded on conven-ience and utility, and it is supported by the abortion industry with Planned Parenthood its leading exponent and provider. I should add that religious conviction has eve-ry right to be part of the debate in the public square over national and state policy. We live in a nation founded on and developed through religious principles of justice, equal-ity and right conduct. Ironically, Gov. Cuomo himself has justified some of his views on immigration by appealing to Pope Francis. Cuomo should read his views on abortion too! ►When abortion is justified because it is a woman’s body and a woman’s right, the ar-gument certainly is correct in acknowledging the central concern of women, but it is gross-ly defective in excluding the voice of men. Children are desired by men, sired by men and, frequently, reared by men. Roughly half of the unborn killed in the womb or, under the New York law just passed, left to die after birth and rejection by the mother, are male. Obviously, men’s interest is not re-stricted to the sex of the unborn child. Un-born females are just as precious. ►When abortion is justified because every child should be a wanted child, the argument uses an interesting advertising jingle but a point without much logical merit and rhe-torical conviction. Of course, it would be

ideal if every child born into this world were received by his or her parents with love, care and compassion, with adequate means to support the child – but that is not historical experience. Many of humanity’s greatest figures have been regarded by burdens by parents and others, yet as children they trans-cended their circumstances. More important still, the dignity and sanctity of human life is not contingent on the attitudes or behav-iors of any individual. Such dignity and sanctity come from God himself. ►When abortion is justified because what is killed is not a human being, not a person as conventional law understands the concept, the argument ignores the continuum of hu-man life. From conception to natural death, we human beings live in bodies that are constantly changing. Because we cannot scientifically, philosophically, theologically or legally pinpoint the moment when human tissue become a distinct human life, the Church teaches that at every stage human life merits protection. Both conservatives and liberals should find common ground. Liberals emphasize the state must protect many different species and many classes of the population for the good of all and the value of each. Conservatives insist the rights of one do not trump the rights of another. If

we eliminate cer-tain forms of hu-man life because they are not useful or productive, we enter dangerous territory – but, alas, we already are there. The renewed debate over the right to life has

been going on for a long time in this country. Those of us who pray for strong, legal pro-tections that recognize the sanctity of hu-man life from conception to natural death should begin discussing, working toward and educating for passage of a Human Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It will be difficult work, but it is one way to help establish in law and practice what we say we want, as recorded in the Declaration of Independence in 1776, “where all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The first right is the right to life. © Rev. Jerome Joseph Day, O.S.B.

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

New York’s new reproductive right law effectively opens door to infanticide