Sunday Mass · 26 July 2026 · IX Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday Mass: July 26, 2026 | The Things That Are to Thy Peace
Bloom’s Sunday Mass, offered today in the Independent Catholic tradition — not affiliated with or recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, but standing in the same apostolic lineage, the same Roman Rite, the same devotion, held by a pastor for whom this tradition has…
The order of this offering
Before the readings
Communion and close
Offering and Canon
I
Opening Address
Bloom’s Sunday Mass, offered today in the Independent Catholic tradition — not affiliated with or recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, but standing in the same apostolic lineage, the same Roman Rite, the same devotion, held by a pastor for whom this tradition has always been home. Beloved, grace and peace to you this morning — 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. This is a full Low Mass — every part spoken, nothing sung, in keeping with the simplicity of the earliest daily Masses.
II
The Confiteor
(The Church’s own act of communal contrition, opening the Mass)
I confess to Almighty God, to Blessed Mary ever Virgin, to Blessed Michael the Archangel, to Blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and to all the Saints, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed; through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Therefore, I beseech Blessed Mary ever Virgin, Blessed Michael the Archangel, Blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and all the Saints, to pray to the Lord our God for me.
May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
III
Kyrie
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
IV
Gloria
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will. We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we adore Thee, we glorify Thee, we give Thee thanks for Thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father almighty. O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us; Who takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; Who sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For Thou only art holy, Thou only art the Lord, Thou only art most high, Jesus Christ, together with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
V
Introit
(Ps. 53:6-7; Ps. 53:3)
Behold, God is my helper, the Lord sustains my life. Turn back the evil upon my foes; in Thy faithfulness destroy them, O Lord, my protector. O God, by Thy name save me, and by Thy might deliver me.
VI
Collect
May Thy merciful ears be open, O Lord, to the prayers of those who humbly entreat Thee; grant that they may ask for what pleases Thee so that Thou mayest fulfill their desires. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.
VII
The Commemoration
(Collect for St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary — confirmed, directly sourced, not adapted)
O God, Who in Thy kindness gave blessed Anne the grace to be the mother of her who mothered Thy only-begotten Son, graciously grant that we who keep her feast may be helped by her intercession with Thee. Through the same Christ our Lord…
VIII
Epistle
1 Corinthians 10:6-13, Douay-Rheims
Brethren: Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur: as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human. And God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.
IX
Gradual
(Ps. 8:2)
O Lord, our Lord, how glorious is Thy name over all the earth! Thou hast elevated Thy Majesty above the heavens.
X
Alleluia
(Ps. 58:2)
Alleluia, alleluia. Rescue me from my enemies, O my God; from my adversaries defend me. Alleluia.
XI
Gospel
Luke 19:41-47, Douay-Rheims
At that time, when Jesus drew near to Jerusalem, and saw the city, He wept over it, saying: If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace; but now they are hidden from thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone: because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation. And entering into the temple, He began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying to them: It is written: My house is the house of prayer. But you have made it a den of thieves. And He was teaching daily in the temple.
XII
The Creed
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages: God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father; through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. He was crucified for us, suffered, and was buried. On the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Offering (Homily)
Sunday Homily | The Things That Are to Thy Peace
Look carefully at the order of events in today’s Gospel, because the order is the whole sermon. Jesus doesn’t enter Jerusalem angry. He enters it weeping. The anger — the overturned tables, the driven-out…
Look carefully at the order of events in today’s Gospel, because the order is the whole sermon. Jesus doesn’t enter Jerusalem angry. He enters it weeping. The anger — the overturned tables, the driven-out sellers, “you have made it a den of thieves” — comes second, downstream of the grief, not instead of it. Whatever indignation follows in that Temple courtyard, it’s the anger of someone who has just watched a city miss the one thing that could have saved it, not the cold judgment of someone looking for an excuse to condemn.
The things that are to thy peace — that’s what He says was available to Jerusalem, “in this thy day,” and then, in the very next breath: “but now they are hidden from thy eyes.” Not gone. Not withheld. Hidden — meaning it was there, close enough to grieve over, and the city simply didn’t recognize it while it still could. That’s a specific and devastating kind of loss, worse in some ways than never having had the chance at all. Jerusalem didn’t lack an offer of peace. It had one, standing at its gates, and looked past it.
Today’s Epistle names the same pattern from a different angle, using Israel’s own history as the example. Paul walks through a list of failures in the wilderness — idolatry, immorality, testing God, complaining — and says plainly why the stories were kept at all: “these things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our correction.” The entire point of preserving a hard history is so that someone, later, standing at their own gate, might recognize the pattern in time and not repeat it. Jerusalem had exactly this kind of warning available to it too, in its own scriptures, and missed it the same way.
But Paul doesn’t leave the warning standing alone. He follows it immediately with something closer to comfort: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it.” The warning isn’t the whole message. There is, built into the same sentence as the danger, an actual way out — offered, not guaranteed to be taken, but genuinely there for anyone willing to look for it. That’s the same shape as the peace Jerusalem missed: available, specific, and requiring only that it actually be recognized and received.
We’ve sat with a version of this same failure before, in a different key: the she loved much homily, where Simon the Pharisee looked directly at a woman weeping at Christ’s feet and saw only the label he’d already decided was true about her. Jerusalem’s failure and Simon’s failure are close cousins. Both had something real, specific, and available right in front of them. Both let a settled assumption — that the moment wasn’t the moment, that the woman wasn’t worth seeing, that the visitation wasn’t actually happening — stand in for actually looking.
There is a story sometimes told of a woman who spent years circling the edges of her childhood faith after it had badly failed her — not able to fully leave it, not able to fully return, showing up occasionally to a service and leaving unsettled every time. She described the strange sensation of sitting in a pew during what should have been an ordinary Sunday and suddenly recognizing, with something close to Jerusalem’s own grief, that the peace she’d spent years describing as unavailable to her had actually been sitting right there the whole time, waiting on nothing but her willingness to stop deciding in advance that it wasn’t real. She didn’t stay away. She let the moment be the moment. That’s the whole difference between her story and Jerusalem’s.
Whether or not the specific language of “visitation” or “peace” carries theological weight for you, the plain principle holds regardless: almost everyone has had at least one moment where something genuinely good — an apology, a reconciliation, an actual offer of welcome — was right in front of them, and pride, distraction, or an old settled assumption kept them from recognizing it while it was still available. The tragedy was never having doubts. The tragedy is letting the actual offer go unnoticed because you’d already decided, in advance, what it couldn’t be.
So beloved, whatever this day is actually offering you — a reconciliation you’ve been putting off, an invitation you’ve been suspicious of, a peace you’ve told yourself for years isn’t real or isn’t for you — Jerusalem’s whole tragedy is a warning about exactly this kind of moment. The things that are to your peace rarely arrive with fanfare or a second chance attached. Today, while you can still see it clearly, might be the day worth actually looking.
↑ The order resumes below.
XIV
Offertory
(Ps. 18:9-12)
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, and His ordinances sweeter than syrup or honey from the comb; therefore Thy servant is careful of them.
Receive, O Lord, this offering of ourselves — our attention, our willingness to actually see what is placed in front of us, and our whole intention this day — laid before You not as a sacrifice for consecration alone, but as a spiritual offering of everything we are and everything we have been given to recognize.
XV
Secret
Grant us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to take part worthily and frequently in this sacramental action: for as often as this sacrifice of commemoration is offered, the work of our redemption is performed. Through our Lord…
XVI
Commemoration Secret
(For St. Anne)
Look with favor, O Lord, upon the offerings here before Thee, that, through the intercession of blessed Anne who bore the Mother of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, they may help toward our holiness and our salvation. Through the same Christ our Lord…
XVII
The Consecration
(Offered within Bloom’s own Independent Catholic tradition)
For this is My Body.
For this is the Chalice of My Blood, of the new and eternal testament: the mystery of faith, which shall be shed for you and for many unto the remission of sins.
XVIII
Act of Spiritual Communion
(For all who cannot receive sacramentally over this broadcast — the same practice recommended by Roman bishops to their own parishes watching Mass from home; universal to the online format, for anyone, regardless of who is celebrating)
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
XIX
Communion Antiphon
(John 6:57)
He who eats My Flesh, and drinks My Blood, abides in Me, and I in him, says the Lord.
XX
Postcommunion
May the partaking of Thy sacrament, we beseech Thee, O Lord, cleanse us and unite us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.
XXI
Commemoration Postcommunion
(For St. Anne)
Strengthened by the heavenly sacrament, we beseech Thee, O Lord our God, that, by the intercession of blessed Anne, whom Thou didst will to be the mother of Thy Son’s Mother, we may be found worthy of reaching eternal salvation. Through the same Christ our Lord…
XXII
Closing Blessing
(Given as Bloom’s own pastor, within Bloom’s own tradition)
Go in peace, beloved — and this week, when something offering real peace comes near enough to actually see, look at it before it has the chance to become hidden. May you be blessed and kept, this day and always.
XXIII
Frequently Asked Questions
Epistle and Gospel text: Douay-Rheims Bible, Bishop Challoner revision. Ordinary texts (Confiteor, Kyrie, Gloria, Creed), Collect, and commemoration collect (confirmed, directly sourced, not adapted) and liturgical structure: the Missale Romanum (1962), Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, with commemoration of St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, following The New Marian Missal for Daily Mass by Sylvester P. Juergens, S.M., S.T.D. (Regina Press, Imprimatur 1961). The Act of Spiritual Communion is the traditional prayer of St. Alphonsus Liguori.
Bloom’s Sunday Mass is offered in the Independent Catholic tradition, not affiliated with or recognized by the Roman Catholic Church — welcoming all people, of every faith background, into the shelter of the Word.
