Daily Offering · 23 July 2026 · St. Apollinaris
Daily Offering: July 23, 2026 | Lording it Over
Lording it over — that’s the exact phrase both of today’s readings use for the kind of leadership Christ refuses, and it’s worth carrying into this morning before anything else is said. Beloved, grace and peace to you: however you arrive here, tired or…
The order of this offering
Before the readings
Offering and Canon
I
Opening Address
Lording it over — that’s the exact phrase both of today’s readings use for the kind of leadership Christ refuses, and it’s worth carrying into this morning before anything else is said. Beloved, grace and peace to you: however you arrive here, tired or hopeful, certain or doubting, welcomed elsewhere or shut out elsewhere. Bloom is not a room you have to earn your way into. Sit with us a moment, offered today in the spirit of a low Mass — Word, prayer, and offering, without pretense to more than that.
II
Introit
(Dan 3:84, 87; Dan 3:57)
Priests of the Lord, bless the Lord; holy men of humble heart, praise God. Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all forever.
III
Collect
(Confirmed, directly sourced — Missale Romanum 1962, proper to St. Apollinaris, not adapted)
O God, the rewarder of faithful souls, grant that we may obtain pardon through the prayers of blessed Apollinaris, Your Martyr and Bishop, whose feast we are celebrating. Through our Lord…
IV
The Commemoration
(Collect for St. Liborius, Bishop and Confessor — confirmed, directly sourced, not adapted)
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that the venerable feast of blessed Liborius, Thy Confessor and Bishop, may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord…
V
Epistle
1 Peter 5:1-11, Douay-Rheims
The ancients therefore that are among you, I beseech, who am myself also an ancient, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ: as also a partaker of that glory which is to be revealed in time to come: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking care of it, not by constraint, but willingly, according to God; not for filthy lucre’s sake, but voluntarily. Neither as lording it over the clergy, but being made a pattern of the flock from the heart. And when the prince of pastors shall appear, you shall receive a never fading crown of glory. In like manner, ye young men, be subject to the ancients. And do you all insinuate humility one to another, for God resisteth the proud, but to the humble He giveth grace. Be you humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in the time of visitation. Casting all your care upon Him, for He hath care of you. Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in faith. But the God of all grace, who hath called us into His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will Himself perfect you, and confirm you, and establish you. To Him be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.
VI
Gradual
(Ps 88:21-23; Ps 109:4)
I have found David, My servant; with My holy oil I have anointed him, that My hand may be always with him, and My arm shall strengthen him. No enemy shall have advantage over him, nor the son of iniquity hurt him. Alleluia, alleluia. The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent: Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech. Alleluia.
VII
Gospel
Luke 22:24-30, Douay-Rheims
And there was also a strife amongst them, which of them should seem to be the greater. And He said to them: The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that have power over them are called beneficent. But you not so: but he that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger; and he that is the leader, as he that serveth. For which is greater, he that sitteth at table, or he that serveth? Is it not he that sitteth at table? But I am in the midst of you, as he that serveth. And you are they who have continued with Me in My temptations: and I dispose to you, as My Father hath disposed to Me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table, in My kingdom, and may sit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
The Offering (Homily)
Daily Homily | Lording it Over
Look at where this argument happens. Not in some abstract theological debate, and not on an ordinary day — this dispute over who’s the greatest breaks out at the table, in the same conversation…
Look at where this argument happens. Not in some abstract theological debate, and not on an ordinary day — this dispute over who’s the greatest breaks out at the table, in the same conversation as the Last Supper itself, moments after Christ has handed His own body and blood to the very men now arguing about rank. The timing is almost unbelievable, and Luke doesn’t soften it. Humility had just been modeled in the most extreme way a person can model it, and the argument that immediately follows is about status.
Jesus’s answer names two systems side by side, and refuses to blur them into one. “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that have power over them are called beneficent” — meaning even domination gets a flattering name once it’s normal enough. Then: “But you not so.” Not a soft suggestion, not one option among several. A hard line, drawn immediately, with no room left for a gentler version of ruling over people.
The actual reversal is specific: “he that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger… I am in the midst of you, as he that serveth.” Christ doesn’t say He’ll serve occasionally, symbolically, then return to being served the rest of the time. He says He is, right now, in the middle of this exact argument, the one serving. Lording it over and actually serving aren’t two styles of the same leadership. They’re opposites.
Today’s Epistle describes the same reversal from the shepherd’s side. Elders are told to feed the flock “not by constraint, but willingly… neither as lording it over the clergy, but being made a pattern of the flock from the heart.” Then the reason underneath it: “God resisteth the proud, but to the humble He giveth grace.” That’s not career advice for climbing carefully. It’s a description of how real spiritual authority actually behaves, set right next to a description of how it gets counterfeited.
St. Apollinaris lived exactly this reversal, not as a theory. As bishop of Ravenna, he had the kind of position that could have meant comfort, protection, and deference. Instead, tradition holds he was exiled and tortured repeatedly for the sake of the flock he’d been given, and died a martyr rather than trade his people’s safety for his own. He had every opportunity to lord it over someone. He chose the basin instead of the throne, the same choice St. Jerome Emiliani made when he gave up wealth and rank to serve orphans nobody else wanted.
Whether or not the word “devil” carries any charge for you, the plain version of today’s warning holds regardless: authority that exists to be served, rather than to serve, corrupts quickly, and the people underneath it usually feel the difference long before anyone in charge admits it out loud.
There is a story sometimes told of a trans woman who spent years doing the actual pastoral work of her small congregation — visiting the sick, teaching the children, running the food pantry, sitting with people through their worst nights — while being quietly kept off the list for eldership, year after year, because of who she was. Nobody in that congregation who’d actually been cared for had any doubt about who was shepherding them. The title simply never caught up to the truth already sitting in the room.
So here’s today’s actual test, and it isn’t really about titles at all. Next time you’re in a room where someone’s greatness is being decided — at church, at work, in a family — notice which question you’re actually answering. Who has the position? Or who’s the one who, right now, in the middle of everyone else’s argument, is quietly doing the serving?
↑ The order resumes below.
IX
Secret
Receive, O Lord, this small offering made in memory of a bishop who chose the basin over the throne, and grant that we may recognize real greatness by the serving, not the title.
X
Commemoration Secret
(For St. Liborius)
May Your Saints, we beseech You, O Lord, everywhere make us joyful, so that, while we reflect upon their merits, we may enjoy their help. Through our Lord…
XI
The Holding
(Benediction — two readings, one truth)
For those who hold this in faith: Lord, You said the greatest among us is the one who serves, and You proved it at Your own table, in the middle of an argument about status. Give us the honesty to notice when we’re lording it over someone instead, and the humility to put the towel back on. Amen.
For those still finding their footing: If you’ve ever done the real work — the showing up, the caring, the actual serving — while someone else got the title for it, that title was never an accurate account of who was doing the shepherding. The room already knew the truth, whether or not it was ever written down.
XII
Frequently Asked Questions
Epistle and Gospel text: Douay-Rheims Bible, Bishop Challoner revision — the standard English scripture translation used across traditional hand missals. Collect and commemoration collect (confirmed, directly sourced, not adapted) and liturgical structure: the Missale Romanum (1962), feast of St. Apollinaris, Bishop and Martyr, with commemoration of St. Liborius, Bishop and Confessor, following The New Marian Missal for Daily Mass by Sylvester P. Juergens, S.M., S.T.D. (Regina Press, Imprimatur 1961).
Faith in Bloom offers this reflection in the spirit of the traditional Roman Rite — a daily offering, not a Mass — welcoming all people, of every faith background, into the shelter of the Word.
