Markup functions and punctuation in lyrics

[R. Padraic Springuel]

I’m using some functions to allow me to select words in the lyrics of some 
hymns in a systematic way so that the same hymn can be used referring to one or 
more persons (and in some cases, either a man or a woman).  These functions 
work just fine when they appear in the lyrics by themselves, but when there is 
punctuation immediately after one of these functions, the punctuation gets 
shifted to its own syllable.  Is there a way to have the function interact with 
punctuation more intelligently?  I’m thinking I need to use \concat somehow, 
but how do I write the function so that it only does the concatenation when the 
next character is punctuation?

Attached is an example showing one of my simple word selection functions 
followed by a comma.

✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝
Fr. Samuel, OSB
(R. Padraic Springuel)
St. Anselm’s Abbey
4501 South Dakota Ave, NE
Washington, DC, 20017
202-269-2300
(c) 202-853-7036

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gender-test.ly
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