Today marks my sixty fifth year as a priest.

Thursday, 12/22/17

In our first reading Hannah brought her son Samuel to God's temple, placing him into a lifetime of serving God in his church. I see something of a coincidence there, in that today is the sixty-fifth anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood (on December 22, 1952.)

These sixty-five years have broken down into four blocks of years: for eleven years (1954-1966) I was pastor of a parish in Korea. For ten years (1967 to 1977) I was in college work. For twenty-five years (1983-2007) I was pastor of St. Paul's, in Jacksonville. For ten years I have been retired.

In going back over those four stints, what comes to my mind are the many great people I have been was privileged to serve with. I'd put them together in my own litany of saints, but as a retired priest, it is my duty to rest.