Bloom’s Sunday Mass<\/strong>, offered today in the Independent Catholic tradition \u2014 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 \u2014 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 \u2014 every part spoken, nothing sung, in keeping with the simplicity of the earliest daily Masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (The Church’s own act of communal contrition, opening the Mass)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Ps. 47:10-11; Ps. 47:2)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We have received Thy mercy, O God, in the midst of Thy temple: according to Thy name, O God, so also is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth; Thy right hand is full of justice. Great is the Lord, the verse adds, and exceedingly to be praised, in the city of God, in His holy mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Graciously grant to us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful: that we, who cannot exist without Thee, may be enabled to live according to Thy will. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Romans 8:12-17<\/a>, Douay-Rheims<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba (Father). For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God. And if sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ: yet so, if we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Ps. 30:3; Ps. 70:1)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Be Thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of refuge, to save me. In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped: let me never be confounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Ps. 47:2)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alleluia, alleluia. Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised, in the city of our God, in His holy mountain. Alleluia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luke 16:1-9<\/a>, Douay-Rheims<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward: and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said to him: How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship; for now thou canst be steward no longer. And the steward said within himself: What shall I do, because my lord taketh away from me the stewardship? To dig I am not able; to beg I am ashamed. I know what I will do, that when I shall be put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. Therefore calling together every one of his lord’s debtors, he said to the first: How much dost thou owe my lord? But he said: An hundred barrels of oil. And he said to him: Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then he said to another: And how much dost thou owe? Who said: An hundred quarters of wheat. He said to him: Take thy bill, and write fourscore. And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely: for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. And I say to you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity; that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is one of the strangest compliments in the whole Gospel. A dishonest man, caught cheating his employer, responds by cheating him a second time on his way out the door \u2014 and Jesus holds him up as an example. Not of the dishonesty. Of the shrewdness. Of the fact that, facing a crisis, this man thought clearly, acted decisively, and used what little leverage he had left to secure something that would matter to him later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s the whole point, and it’s worth being precise about it so the parable doesn’t get flattened into “cheating is fine, actually.” Jesus isn’t commending fraud. He’s making an uncomfortable observation: people chasing money and self-preservation are often more strategic, more decisive, and more willing to actually act than people chasing the Kingdom. “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.” Read plainly, that’s a rebuke aimed at us, not a permission slip aimed at the steward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then comes the line that turns the whole parable sideways: “Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity; that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.” Take whatever resources you have \u2014 money, time, position, whatever leverage this life has handed you \u2014 and spend it as strategically on eternal relationships as the steward spent his ledger on temporary ones. Don’t hoard the resource. Use it, deliberately, to build something that outlasts it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We think about this literally almost every day here, because Bloom was built on exactly this principle before anyone had a name for it. Before this ministry ever asked a single person for a donation, forty-seven people had already been helped \u2014 not through some large reserve of funding, but through the same kind of shrewd, deliberate use of whatever was actually on hand at the time. That’s not a boast. It’s the same math the steward was doing, pointed at a better end: what do we actually have right now, and how do we spend it in a way that builds something that lasts past the moment we spent it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s a question worth asking personally, not just organizationally. Maybe what you have isn’t money at all. Maybe it’s an evening free once a week, a spare room, a skill nobody’s asked you to use yet, a car that runs, a phone number someone estranged from their family doesn’t have anymore but wishes they did. The parable isn’t asking whether your resource is impressive. It’s asking whether you’re willing to be as decisive and clear-eyed with the small, unglamorous thing you actually have as the steward was with his ledger \u2014 not for your own advantage this time, but for someone else’s lasting good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s a version of religious life that treats caution as the same thing as virtue \u2014 waiting for a bigger budget, a clearer sign, a more convenient moment before doing the generous thing. Today’s Gospel has no patience for that. The steward didn’t wait for ideal conditions. He acted with the time and resources he actually had, right then, because he understood exactly how limited his window was. Romans 8, read alongside this, gives the reason that urgency is allowed to be joyful rather than desperate: we’re not securing our own survival through a scramble. We’re already adopted, already heirs, already free to spend what we have generously because our own security was never actually resting on the ledger in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So beloved \u2014 whatever your version of the steward’s hundred barrels of oil is: a little time, a little money, a little influence, a little room in your own home or your own week. Today’s readings aren’t asking you to be more cautious with it. They’re asking you to be at least as clear-eyed and decisive with it, for someone else’s lasting good, as the world is every day for its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Ps. 17:28, 32)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The humble people Thou wilt save, O Lord, and cast down the eyes of the proud; for who is God but Thee, O Lord?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Receive, O Lord, this offering of ourselves \u2014 our time, our resources, our whole intention this day \u2014 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 steward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Receive, O Lord, this offering of what we have been given to steward, and grant that we may spend it as shrewdly on what lasts as the world spends its own resources on what does not. Through Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this is My Body.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (For all who cannot receive sacramentally over this broadcast \u2014 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)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Ps. 33:9)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n O taste and see that the Lord is sweet: blessed is the man that hopeth in Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n May this heavenly Mystery be to us, O Lord, for renewal of mind and body: that we may enjoy the fruits of that which we celebrate. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Given as Bloom’s own pastor, within Bloom’s own tradition)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Go in peace, beloved \u2014 carrying with you whatever small, unglamorous thing you have to give, and the clarity to spend it well. May you be blessed and kept, this day and always.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Confiteor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Kyrie<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gloria<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Introit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Collect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Epistle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gradual<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Alleluia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gospel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Creed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Offering (Homily)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Offertory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Secret<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Consecration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Act of Spiritual Communion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Communion Antiphon<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Postcommunion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Closing Blessing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n