Simplicity in Sr. Joan Chittister's words

Simplicity requires that we learn to live a centered life, to “make God our portion”…

Isn’t simplicity really what the ancients called “purity of heart” that single-minded search for the essence of life rather than grasping after its frills?

Simplicity is openness to the beauty of the present, whatever its shape, whatever its lack. Simplicity, clearly, leads to freedom of soul. When we cultivate a sense of “enoughness,” when we learn to enjoy things for their own sakes, when we learn to be gentle even with what is lacking in ourselves, we find ourselves free to be where we are and to stop mourning where we are not.

Simplicity of life in a complex and complicated world is marked, I think, by four characteristics: a life is simple if it is honest; if it is unencumbered; if it is open to the ideas of others; if it is serene in the midst of a mindless momentum that verges on the chaotic.

Simplicity has something to do with being willing to have it known that you are from Bethlehem rather than from Beverly Hills.