Welcome to Bloom’s Daily Offering for Monday, October 12, 2026, a feria after the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, fourth class, in green. No saint is kept today and there is no commemoration, so the Missal says the Sunday’s Mass again, without the Gloria or the Creed, with the Common Preface. This morning listens to the first words of that Mass, the Introit, and to the petition it ends on: deal with us according to the multitude of thy mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wherever you are, you are welcome here. If this morning finds you in pain, or worn out by people telling you what your pain means, stay a while. The multitude of thy mercy was first asked for by a man standing in the middle of a fire. His prayer does not explain the fire. It asks for mercy inside it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every proper this morning was printed in full at yesterday’s Sunday Mass, and the same Mass ran through four weekdays here last year, on October 27<\/a>, October 29<\/a>, October 30<\/a> and October 31, 2025<\/a>. Between them, those mornings and yesterday’s homily preached the Gospel, the Lesson, the Gradual and the Collect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Introit has been printed every time and not yet given a morning of its own. Today it gets one. The propers are printed again in Latin and English, as the Missal repeats them, and the homily stays with the antiphon and its last petition: the multitude of thy mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daniel 3:31, 29, 35; Psalm 118:1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n English<\/p> 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. <\/span>Ps. 118:1.<\/em> Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div> Latin<\/p> Omnia, qu\u00e6 fec\u00edsti nobis, D\u00f3mine, in vero jud\u00edcio fec\u00edsti, quia pecc\u00e1vimus tibi et mand\u00e1tis tuis non ob\u0153d\u00edvimus: sed da gl\u00f3riam n\u00f3mini tuo, et fac nob\u00edscum sec\u00fandum multit\u00fadinem miseric\u00f3rdi\u00e6 tu\u00e6. <\/span>Ps. 118:1.<\/em> Be\u00e1ti immacul\u00e1ti in via: qui \u00e1mbulant in lege D\u00f3mini. Gl\u00f3ria Patri\u2026 Omnia, qu\u00e6 fec\u00edsti nobis, D\u00f3mine, in vero jud\u00edcio fec\u00edsti, quia pecc\u00e1vimus tibi et mand\u00e1tis tuis non ob\u0153d\u00edvimus: sed da gl\u00f3riam n\u00f3mini tuo, et fac nob\u00edscum sec\u00fandum multit\u00fadinem miseric\u00f3rdi\u00e6 tu\u00e6.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n (The antiphon gathers phrases from the Prayer of Azarias in the furnace in the Missal’s own arrangement, and its English follows the Missal’s Latin.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n (\u2123. marks what the priest says. \u211f. marks the answer of the server and the people.)<\/em> English<\/p> Let us pray. Graciously grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, pardon and peace to Thy faithful: that they may be cleansed from all their offences, and serve Thee with a quiet mind. Through our Lord. \u211f. Amen.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div> Latin<\/p> Or\u00e9mus. Larg\u00edre, qu\u01fdsumus, D\u00f3mine, fid\u00e9libus tuis indulg\u00e9ntiam plac\u00e1tus et pacem: ut p\u00e1riter ab \u00f3mnibus mund\u00e9ntur off\u00e9nsis, et sec\u00fara tibi mente des\u00e9rviant. Per D\u00f3minum\u2026 \u211f. Amen.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Ephesians 5:15-21<\/a> English<\/p> Lesson from the Epistle of blessed Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians. 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. \u211f. Thanks be to God.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div> Latin<\/p> L\u00e9ctio Ep\u00edstol\u00e6 be\u00e1ti Pauli Ap\u00f3stoli ad Eph\u00e9sios. Fratres: Vid\u00e9te, qu\u00f3modo caute ambul\u00e9tis: non quasi insipi\u00e9ntes, sed ut sapi\u00e9ntes, redim\u00e9ntes tempus, qu\u00f3niam dies mali sunt. Propt\u00e9rea nol\u00edte f\u00ederi imprud\u00e9ntes, sed intelleg\u00e9ntes, qu\u00e6 sit vol\u00fantas Dei. Et nol\u00edte inebri\u00e1ri vino, in quo est lux\u00faria: sed impl\u00e9mini Sp\u00edritu Sancto, loqu\u00e9ntes vobismet\u00edpsis in psalmis et hymnis et c\u00e1nticis spiritu\u00e1libus, cant\u00e1ntes et psall\u00e9ntes in c\u00f3rdibus vestris D\u00f3mino: gr\u00e1tias ag\u00e9ntes semper pro \u00f3mnibus, in n\u00f3mine D\u00f3mini nostri Jesu Christi, Deo et Patri. Subjecti \u00ednvicem in tim\u00f3re Christi. \u211f. Deo gratias.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Psalm 144:15-16; Psalm 107:2<\/a> English<\/p> The eyes of all hope in Thee, O Lord: and Thou givest them meat in due season. \u2123. Thou openest Thy hand, and fillest with blessing every living creature. Alleluia, alleluia. \u2123. My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I will sing, and will give praise, with my glory. Alleluia.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div> Latin<\/p> Oculi \u00f3mnium in te sperant, D\u00f3mine: et tu das illis escam in t\u00e9mpore opport\u00fano. \u2123. Aperis tu manum tuam: et imples omne \u00e1nimal benedicti\u00f3ne. Allel\u00faja, allel\u00faja. \u2123. Par\u00e1tum cor meum, Deus, par\u00e1tum cor meum: cant\u00e1bo, et psallam tibi, gl\u00f3ria mea. Allel\u00faja.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n John 4:46-53<\/a> English<\/p> \u2123. Continuation \u2629 of the holy Gospel according to John. \u211f. Glory be to Thee, O Lord. At that time, there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum. He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea 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 that my son die. Jesus saith to him: Go thy way; thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus 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. \u211f. Praise be to Thee, O Christ.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div> Latin<\/p> \u2123. Sequ\u00e9ntia \u2629 sancti Evang\u00e9lii sec\u00fandum Jo\u00e1nnem. \u211f. Gloria tibi, Domine. In illo t\u00e9mpore: Erat quidam r\u00e9gulus, cujus f\u00edlius infirmab\u00e1tur Caph\u00e1rnaum. Hic cum aud\u00edsset, quia Jesus adven\u00edret a Jud\u01fda in Galil\u01fdam, \u00e1biit ad eum, et rog\u00e1bat eum, ut desc\u00e9nderet et san\u00e1ret f\u00edlium ejus: incipi\u00e9bat enim mori. Dixit ergo Jesus ad eum: Nisi signa et prod\u00edgia vid\u00e9ritis, non cr\u00e9ditis. Dicit ad eum r\u00e9gulus: D\u00f3mine, desc\u00e9nde, pri\u00fasquam mori\u00e1tur f\u00edlius meus. Dicit ei Jesus: Vade, f\u00edlius tuus vivit. Cr\u00e9didit homo serm\u00f3ni, quem dixit ei Jesus, et ibat. Jam autem eo descend\u00e9nte, servi occurr\u00e9runt ei et nuntiav\u00e9runt, dic\u00e9ntes, quia f\u00edlius ejus v\u00edveret. Interrog\u00e1bat ergo horam ab eis, in qua m\u00e9lius hab\u00faerit. Et dix\u00e9runt ei: Quia heri hora s\u00e9ptima rel\u00edquit eum febris. Cogn\u00f3vit ergo pater, quia illa hora erat, in qua dixit ei Jesus: F\u00edlius tuus vivit: et cr\u00e9didit ipse et domus ejus tota. \u211f. Laus tibi, Christe.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n This Gospel was preached here last October<\/a>, on the first of last year’s weekdays with this Mass. It is read whole again today, and the homily stays with the Introit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The multitude of thy mercy means a mercy too large to count, and the Introit asks God to deal with us by that measure rather than by our record. It is the antiphon’s last petition: deal with us according to the multitude of Thy mercy<\/em>. The words come from the prayer of Azarias in the third chapter of Daniel, and the Missal opens this Mass with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Douay renders the verse with a plural, the multitude of thy mercies<\/em>. The Missal’s Latin, like the Vulgate’s<\/a>, keeps the noun singular: secundum multitudinem misericordiae tuae<\/em>. So the Missal prays for one mercy that is also a multitude. The multitude of thy mercy is not a stack of separate pardons to be counted down. It is one mercy, larger than any count of what we have done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider what the antiphon does not ask for. It does not ask God to weigh the case fairly, or to deal with us as we deserve. Its opening admits that we have sinned and have not obeyed. Then it asks to be treated according to the multitude of thy mercy, which is a different measure altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is a strange and freeing way to pray. Most of us were taught to come before God with our best case. The Introit comes with no case at all, only an honest account and an appeal to the multitude of thy mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The man praying is Azarias, one of three young Jews in Babylon who would not worship the king’s golden statue. The Douay says they were bound and cast into the furnace of burning fire<\/em>. Then Azarias standing up prayed in this manner, and opening his mouth in the midst of the fire, he said<\/em>, and the words of today’s Introit follow, spoken from inside the flames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So read the first line again. All that Thou hast done to us, O Lord, Thou hast done in true judgment: because we have sinned against Thee.<\/em> It is spoken by a man who is in the fire precisely because he was faithful. Whatever he means by judgment, he cannot mean that the furnace was his punishment. He was put there for refusing an idol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He is praying for his people. A few verses on he says, thou hast delivered us into the hands of our enemies that are unjust, and most wicked<\/em>, and to a king unjust, and most wicked beyond all that are upon the earth<\/em>. The we<\/em> of the Introit is a nation in exile confessing its history, and the prayer calls the king who lit the fire unjust in so many words. Even here, the request is the multitude of thy mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This archive has already said, on October 2<\/a> and on September 26<\/a>, that suffering is not a verdict. Today’s antiphon can sound as if it says the opposite, and it has been used that way. Disabled and chronically ill people<\/strong> have been told, with lines like this one, that their bodies are a judgment, that their pain is a sentence, and that healing waits on a repentance they have not managed. Azarias’s own story undoes that reading, because the faithful man is the one in the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday<\/a> this archive said that no one has the right to call another person’s affliction light. Today’s claim is a different one. The multitude of thy mercy is not reserved for people whose bodies work the way others expect. It was first asked for from inside the fire, by the faithful, and it belongs to everyone who prays from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yesterday the Missal chose where to stop the Lesson. Today it is worth knowing how it builds the antiphon. In the Douay, Azarias first asks, Put us not to confusion, but deal with us according to thy meekness, and according to the multitude of thy mercies<\/em>, and only in the next verse asks God to act for God’s own glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Missal reverses the order and trims the line. It sets the plea for God’s glory first, leaves out the words about confusion and meekness, and ends on the multitude of Thy mercy<\/em>. The antiphon begins with judgment and finishes with mercy, and that arrangement is the Missal’s own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That matters for anyone who has heard the first line used as a verdict. The Church does not leave this prayer on judgment. The antiphon is said twice, before and after the psalm verse, so the Introit itself closes on the multitude of thy mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pray it that way when the first line is hard to say. You may confess honestly, as Azarias did, without accepting anyone’s claim about what your suffering means. The prayer is built to carry you from the one to the other, and to leave you with the multitude of thy mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nancy Eiesland was a theologian at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, born with a congenital bone defect in her hips. She wrote about one afternoon<\/a> at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, a rehabilitation hospital for people with spinal cord injuries<\/em>, where its chaplain had asked her to lead a Bible study with several residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a long and frustrating day, she shared with the group her own doubts about God’s care for her. Then she asked them how they would know if God was with them and understood their experience. In her words, There was a long silence<\/em>. Then a young African-American man answered: If God was in a sip\/puff maybe He would understand.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A sip\/puff is a power wheelchair steered by the breath, the kind quadriplegics drive. The young man was asking for a God with a body like his. He was asking whether the multitude of thy mercy had ever lived where he lived.<\/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
What does the multitude of thy mercy mean?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Who is praying in the furnace?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How does the Missal end the antiphon?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The multitude of thy mercy in a body<\/h3>\n\n\n\n