This was my last Christmas as an active parish priest. I am retiring within a few months after 45 years of ordained ministry, all of which were spent as a pastor and preacher in congregations. Except that I was also engaged in campus ministry at two Big Ten universities. Oh, and teaching religion on the side at a Jesuit college for five years. There were also those consulting gigs and a congregational research team, but that’s another story altogether. To be honest, I left full-time parish ministry 11 years ago to start a writing career and have been part-time ever since. But now I am really going to stop working altogether.

Really ... except for writing.

I mention all of that because Christmas Eve was all about the eyes. Everyone knew this was it and so did I, and as I handed people a piece of bread at Communion our eyes........

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