Alert!!!!!!… Some parishioners have received text messages purported to be from me, Fr. Richard W. Fitzgerald, asking for purchase of “Google cards” for my use. It is a scam, and not a message from me. Do not respond if you get such a message.

Best wishes to Deacon Stephen Kramer, SJ…

This weekend, Deacon Stephen Kramer will be finishing his field education assignment as a transitional deacon at our parish. After many years of study and formation as a Jesuit Seminarian, Deacon Stephen will be ordained a priest in New Orleans on June 8. He will then begin an assignment in a Jesuit parish in New Orleans. We thank him for his ministry each weekend over the past academic year and wish him the Lord’s blessings in the future as he serves the Church and the people of God as a Jesuit priest. We look forward to the day, perhaps within the year, when he may return to our parish to celebrate a Mass and bless us with his presence.

Certain phrases are so overused that they have become all but a cliché. For example, how many times do people say ‘Sorry’ when they really mean ‘Excuse me’ or ‘I made a mistake.’ We say we are sorry so often that it has lost power and meaning. It rolls off our tongue with no more thought than a cough or greeting a stranger on the street. It sounds so insincere. Sometimes, with amazing ease, people adopt the attitude that “I am only human” as though being human was an excuse. But our words and actions can hurt others. So what can we do when we do wrong? How do we make it better?