Read Fr. Bonaventure’s meditation upon the hymn Death on a Cross. At best you might call it a very free translation. Maybe after reading the following, and then returning to the original in your Bible, you can meditate on the passage for yourself.

Lent is a season to engage in a spiritual purgation to nurture a more peaceful soul that is pleasing to God. It is a time to grow in humility. St. Teresa of Avila names humility as one of three qualities “to possess inwardly and outwardly the peace our Lord recommended highly to us” (W 4, 4).

God is inviting us, through Joseph, to cut down on our talking and, like him, be better listeners and doers of His Word. As St. John of the Cross wisely says, “what is wanting, if anything is wanting, is not writing or speaking - rather these usually superabound - but silence and work.”