Today is the feast day for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. I have to admit, I really just like putting the pictures up here.

So, the first reading is a doozy: Isaiah 10:5-7, 13b-16

The footnotes say that the "impious nation" is Israel, and that "It was God's intention to use Assyria merely to punish, not to destroy, his people". So, I think that it is Assyria that is doing all of the bragging ("By my own power I have done it...") And in the last part of the reading, God is setting the record straight. Like the footnotes say, Assyria is merely a tool to punish, and it makes no sense for the tool to swagger. So are the last few lines a threat against Assyria or Israel? Is continuing to punish Israel for their sins, or Assyria for it's braggadocio?

On to the Gospel: Matthew 11:25-27

As I was reading the footnotes on the Gospel, I happened on a phrase that I think sums up both readings. I liked it so much that I made it the title of today. It refers to verses 28-29, which we didn't cover today, but it still applies: "These verses are peculiar to Matthew and are similar to Ben Sirach's invitation to learn wisdom and submit to her yoke (Sirach 51:23, 26)." Jesus is saying that only those willing to listen, to submit to the wisdom of God's will, are going to know and understand all of the hidden things that God wants us to see. Shot in the dark, but I think that I have it. Let me know if I am wrong.

News story of the day is just freaky: Minnesota professor repeats threat of Eucharistic desecration