9 December 2026 · Latin Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Isaiah speaks to exiles who think God has forgotten them: “My way is hidden from the LORD.” The prophet answers: the Creator of the stars, who calls each by name, “does not faint or grow weary… He gives power to the faint… those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles.” Waiting on God is not passive; it is where strength comes from.
Jesus speaks the same promise in person: “Come to me, all you that are weary… I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart.” A yoke joins two animals to share a load; Jesus offers to carry our burden with us. St Juan Diego, a humble Mexican Indian, was the one Our Lady sent to the bishop in 1531; God chose the weary and little to carry his message.
Theme: “Come to me.”
God never grows weary; Jesus gives rest; waiting on the Lord renews strength.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.” Isaiah 40:28–29
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Apply: Tell God honestly where you are tired.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases.” Psalm 103:2–3
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:29–30
Apply: Help carry someone else's load this week.
“But those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31
“At that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”” Luke 10:21
Apply: Spend ten minutes in silent prayer today.
The weary find rest in Christ.
Wait on the Lord, and rise.
Take-home resolution: Visit the Blessed Sacrament once this week.
Dear friends, Isaiah asks: to whom then will you compare me? Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name (Isaiah 40:25–26). The God of countless stars knows each one by name. He knows you by name too.
Then Isaiah answers the complaint of a tired people: why do you say, my way is hidden from the Lord? The Lord is the everlasting God. He does not faint or grow weary. He gives power to the faint. Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:27–31).
In the Gospel Jesus says one of his most loved invitations: come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart (Matthew 11:28–29).
Many of us are tired: parents juggling work and children, students under pressure, workers abroad, the sick, the old, the caregivers. December can make us even more tired with its rush. Jesus does not say: try harder. He says: come to me.
A yoke is a wooden frame that joins two oxen so that they pull together. Jesus offers to share our yoke. We do not carry life alone. His yoke is easy because he carries most of the weight.
This Advent, let us find a little time each day simply to rest in the Lord: a quiet moment in a church, a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, five minutes of silence. Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. Amen.
Children, when you are tired or sad, Jesus says: come to me. You can always tell Him how you feel!
Lord Jesus, gentle and humble of heart, I come to you tired and burdened. Take my yoke with me, renew my strength, and teach me to wait on you and rise on eagles' wings. Amen.
Two voices speak to tired people today. Isaiah tells the exiles that the God who calls the stars by name never grows weary and gives his strength to the faint. In the Gospel Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary”. The psalm, “Bless the Lord, O my soul”, gives thanks for the God who forgives and heals. What the prophet promised, Jesus now offers in person.
Setting.
Isaiah 40–55, the Book of Consolation, speaks to the Jews in exile in Babylon in the years before Cyrus let them go home (539 BC). They are surrounded by great temples and by the worship of the stars, and they feel forgotten. This passage answers their complaint.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?” (40:27)
God takes up the people’s complaint in their own words before he answers it. An honest complaint is a beginning of prayer.
“He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.” (40:29)
“but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (40:31)
The line goes from flying to running to walking. The strength of God is given most of all for the long and ordinary walk.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism says that hope responds to the longing for happiness God has put in every heart, and keeps us from discouragement (CCC 1818). The Church reads these chapters throughout Advent because the people still waiting are ourselves. The God who brought the exiles home is the God who comes to us in his Son.
Setting.
These three verses are found only in Matthew. Jesus has just spoken of unbelieving towns and has thanked the Father for revealing himself to “infants” (11:20–27). Now he turns to all who are worn out. The words sound like the invitation to Wisdom in Sirach 51:23–27, where the teacher calls people to come near and to put their necks under her yoke.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
““Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (11:28)
The “all” has no conditions. The rest he promises is anapausis, refreshment, and it is a gift from him: “I will give”.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (11:29)
“Rest for your souls” echoes Jeremiah 6:16. A disciple (mathētēs) is one who learns, and here the lesson is Jesus’ own heart.
“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”” (11:30)
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me” when it teaches that the Word became flesh to be our model of holiness (CCC 459). Matthew’s readers would hear that Jesus speaks as God’s Wisdom in person. What Advent promises is not only that God will lift our burden, but that he will walk under it with us.
How can Jesus call his yoke easy, when he also tells us to take up the cross?
The demand is real (16:24). The difference is that we do not carry it alone or by our own strength. Love makes heavy things bearable, and he is the one who walks beside us.