After five long years of contemplation, digging through dusty archives, and wrestling with words that sometimes seemed to have a mind of their own, I’ve decided to launch my recent memoir at the Okeechobee County Library, Florida, where it is catalogued in the local authors section.

Mark your calendars: October 18, 2025, at noon. That’s when we’ll gather at the Okeechobee County Library (206 SW 16th Street, Okeechobee, Florida) for the official book launch party. I spent thirty years serving in that beautiful lakeside town. Thus, it feels right to celebrate this milestone there with the community that taught me so much about faith, resilience, and the true meaning of service.

As I’ve prepared for this launch, I’ve been reflecting on what readers might discover in these pages. Sure, there are stories about growing up in the rolling hills of Donegal, Ireland, building homes for the disabled through Christian Community Action, and navigating the oft turbulent waters of parish life in Florida. But woven through all these experiences is a thread, a central concept, that I believe will resonate with every reader: the universal challenge of growing through struggle and adversity. This challenge is as old as the bible itself, which is why I’ve chosen the title from the prophet, Jeremiah: You Duped Me, O lord. It is also the kernel of Jesus’s message: Take up your cross and follow Me.

You see, following Christ isn’t a leisurely stroll through a rose garden—though it has moments of breathtaking beauty along the way. Jesus himself warned us about this. In John 15:18-21, He pulls no punches: “I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you…. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”

What surprised me most—and what readers may find startling—is that sometimes the persecution doesn’t come from outside the Church but from within its very walls. My memoir chronicles moments when standing up for justice or simply refusing to bow to false accusations led to difficult battles I never expected to fight. These weren’t skirmishes with secular forces but struggles within the institution I’d devoted my life to serving. Yet here’s the paradox that runs through the book like a river through a valley: in every moment of trial, grace appeared. When false accusations took flight, truth eventually triumphed. Thus, the cross we’re called to carry became, mysteriously, the very instrument through which God’s power was revealed.

The title of my book, You Duped Me, O Lord, echoes, I feel, the journey of everyone charged with living an authentic life in a world of compromise. Each of us faces our own adversities. Perhaps your cross is a difficult marriage, a wayward child, an illness that won’t heal, or a job that crushes your spirit. Whatever form it takes, the promise remains the same: we don’t carry these crosses alone. The One who bore the ultimate cross walks beside us, and often, He sends fellow travelers to help shoulder the load.

As you read this memoir, I hope you’ll see your own story reflected in it—not in the specific details or context, of course, but in the universal struggle to remain faithful when it costs something. I hope you’ll laugh at the absurdities (wait until you read about Rocky the dog and the diocesan officials), but ultimately find encouragement that light really does shine in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.

I look forward to seeing you at the book launch. Come with your questions. As an old Irish proverb reveals: “The truth never hurt anyone… except sometimes in the telling!”

Until then, may you find strength for whatever burden you’re carrying, and may you discover the joy that you’re never as alone as you might think you are.

—Fr. Hugh Duffy, Ph.D.

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