Simplicity eliminates the unimportant to make room for the Important.
It all boils down to two steps:
Look no further than St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus. He lived in poverty, humility, modesty, and obscurity, yet perfectly happy. Sainthood is brought about by fulfilling duties faithfully and obediently, no matter how simple. St. Joseph put God first and everything else in its proper place.
- Identify the essential
- Eliminate the rest.
Look no further than St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus. He lived in poverty, humility, modesty, and obscurity, yet perfectly happy. Sainthood is brought about by fulfilling duties faithfully and obediently, no matter how simple. St. Joseph put God first and everything else in its proper place.
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'Thou hast made us for Thyself and [that is why] our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.'
- St. Augustine
This short and simple quote from St. Augustine summarizes the whole meaning of our lives. Jesus told Martha as she foolishly fussed around that there was only one thing needful. Is there anything more liberating and simplifying than that? Jesus is speaking to all of us: "There is only one thing needful!" It's Him! He is the only one we need to seek, to find, to meet, to love, and to serve. Everything we're looking for: every good, every happiness, every joy, is found in Him and Him alone.
It is when we try to build our happiness on a foundation of things other than Him that we find our hearts unsatisfied. God cannot find a dwelling place within our hearts if they are already full of a disordered attachment to other things. Even a disordered love of being "productive" and "self-sufficient."
Simplifying is matter of prayerfully discerning what things we have wrongfully elevated to a priority in our life, and then getting rid of them so as to make room for real priorities,
It is when we try to build our happiness on a foundation of things other than Him that we find our hearts unsatisfied. God cannot find a dwelling place within our hearts if they are already full of a disordered attachment to other things. Even a disordered love of being "productive" and "self-sufficient."
Simplifying is matter of prayerfully discerning what things we have wrongfully elevated to a priority in our life, and then getting rid of them so as to make room for real priorities,
"We ought to be striding towards God at a fast pace, carrying no dead weights or impediments which might hinder our progress..." - St. Josemaria Escriva