Redeeming the time<\/strong> \u2014 Paul’s instruction for exactly the kind of days that don’t make it easy, and it’s worth carrying into this morning before anything else is said. 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. Sit with us a moment, offered today in the spirit of a low Mass \u2014 Word, prayer, and offering, without pretense to more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Word on Today’s Propers.<\/strong> Today’s Epistle and Gospel are the same as <a href=”https:\/\/bloomministries.org\/faith\/your-son-lives” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Monday’s offering<\/a> \u2014 a genuine feature of the 1962 calendar, not a mistake. The Mass of the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost continues through the ferial days of its week until a higher feast supersedes it, so today picks up the same texts from a different angle rather than repeating Monday’s homily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Dan. 3:31, 29, 35; Ps. 118:1)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n All that thou hast done to us, O Lord, thou hast done in true judgment: because we have sinned against thee, and we have not obeyed thy commandments: but give glory to thy name, and deal with us according to the multitude of thy mercy. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, the verse answers: who walk in the law of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In thy mercy, we beseech thee, O Lord, grant to thy faithful people pardon and peace: that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and also serve thee with a quiet mind. (Confirmed, directly sourced \u2014 Missale Romanum 1962, Mass of the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ephesians 5:15-21,<\/a> Douay-Rheims<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brethren: See how you walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore, become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury: but be ye filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord: giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father; being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (Ps. 144:15, 16)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The eyes of all hope in thee, O Lord: and thou givest them food in due season. Thou openest thy hand, the verse continues: and fillest every living creature with blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John 4:46-53<\/a>, Douay-Rheims<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n At that time, there was a certain ruler whose son was sick at Capharnaum. He, having heard that Jesus was come from Judaea into Galilee, went to him, and prayed him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not. The ruler saith to him: Lord, come down before my son die. Jesus saith to him: Go thy way, thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus had said to him, and went his way. And as he was going down, his servants met him, and they brought word, saying that his son lived. He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him: Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. The father therefore knew that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul doesn’t tell the Ephesians the days are good, or that things are improving, or that if they just have enough faith the evil days will pass them by. He says exactly the opposite: the days are evil, plainly and without qualification, and the instruction that follows isn’t for surviving good days \u2014 it’s for walking wisely through bad ones. Redeeming the time<\/strong> means making something of hours you didn’t choose and can’t control, not waiting for easier hours to arrive before your life is allowed to matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think about people I’ve met who are unhoused \u2014 not people waiting for their “real life” to resume once the crisis passes, but people who are living, right now, in days that genuinely qualify as evil by any honest measure: cold nights, unsafe shelters, the daily math of where to be and when, the exhaustion of being seen by most of the world as a problem to route around rather than a person to know. Paul’s letter was never written for people who’d already gotten past the hard part. It was written for people in the middle of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Redeeming the time, in that context, isn’t a demand to be grateful for suffering or to pretend the days aren’t evil. It’s permission to still be filled with something \u2014 song, thanksgiving, connection with the people around you \u2014 without waiting for the circumstances to improve first. The ruler in today’s Gospel didn’t get to wait for a comfortable moment to believe; he believed in the middle of the worst day of his life, on a word he couldn’t verify, about a son who might already be dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If today counts among your evil days, Paul isn’t asking you to call it good. He’s naming the same possibility he named for the Ephesians: that even a genuinely hard day can be redeemed, made use of, filled with something real \u2014 not because the day stopped being hard, but because you were still there in the middle of it, giving thanks for what you actually had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n May these mysteries, we beseech thee, O Lord, provide us with a heavenly remedy: and purge our hearts of their faults. (Confirmed, directly sourced \u2014 Missale Romanum 1962, Secret, Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Go in peace, beloved \u2014 however evil today’s particular hours have been, and however far you are from any comfortable place to rest. If you believe in a God who redeems time rather than only good weather, may that belief steady you today. And if you hold no such belief, may you still find one small thing to give thanks for in the middle of a hard day, and let that be enough for now. May you be blessed and kept, this day and always.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIntroit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Collect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Epistle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gradual<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Gospel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Offering<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Secret<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Holding<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n