Flexibility, the ability to change, and an authentic spirit of detachment are all essential elements in effective and reliable discernment of God’s will. For, it is when we are rigid, anxious about change, and inordinately attached that discernment becomes virtually impossible. According to today’s gospel Saint Joseph seems to have possessed flexibility, the ability to change, and a spirit of detachment in abundance. Here was a man who upon hearing of Mary’s pregnancy decided to divorce her quietly—a decision, we presume, that was taken only after much thought and prayer. And yet, when told in a dream to do the opposite and take Mary as his wife, Joseph manifested incredible flexibility, openness to change, and detachment, for upon waking he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him. Underlying and supporting this flexibility, openness to change, and authentic detachment was a deep trust in the goodness and wisdom of God, whose will is always synonymous with the good, the true, and the beautiful. Through the intercession of Saint Joseph may we be granted this foundational trust in God’s goodness and wisdom so that we too will approach God’s will with flexibility, a willingness to change, and a liberating detachment from all that binds us to the blindness of self-will and the misery that is its bitter fruit.