Reflections on Simplicity

by Elaine M. Prevallet

Overview

It is good to begin by remembering that simplicity is a gift, for a gift cannot be grasped. And simplicity, in its own way, eludes our grasp. It seems, under scrutiny, to transmute itself into other virtues, now appearing as poverty of spirit, humility, dependence, abandonment, and then appearing as single-mindedness, integrity, purity of heart. One sees it more clearly when not looking directly at it, rather like the Pleiades, sparkling with quiet enticement just at the periphery of vision. God is like that, too. And, like God whose reflection it is, it often seems easier to approach simplicity by a kind of via negativa, by way of what it is not. And so, to start, I want to reflect on simplicity of life as opposed to a fragmented, complicated life.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940150882300
Publisher:	Pendle Hill Publications
Publication date:	07/25/2015
Series:	Pendle Hill Pamphlets , #244
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	710,571
File size:	119 KB

About the Author

Elaine Prevallet, S.L., is currently director of Knobs Haven, a retreat center for groups or individuals on the grounds of the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Kentucky. Prior to taking this position in 1978, she was for two years on the staff at Pendle Hill, teaching in the areas of Scripture and spirituality. She also taught at Loretto Heights College in Denver, Colorado. During this period she spent a sabbatical year studying Zen Buddhism both in this country and in Japan. Her doctoral degree in religious studies is from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Her community, the Sisters of Loretto, which had its beginning in Kentucky in 1812, was one of the first Roman Catholic orders of women to be founded in the United States. The Sisters are committed “to hold all goods in common in a spirit of simplicity,” which requires “an uncluttered and unclinging spirit.” The present pamphlet, which grew out of retreat talks at Pendle Hill in 1980, represents Elaine’s lifetime concern for the process of simplicity.