Noble Simplicity Revisited - 1

With the advent of the new papacy now upon us, one of the consistent themes I have been reading about in the comboxes and otherwise has been this theme of "simplicity" inclusive of within the sacred liturgy. Of course, often when this is raised in relation to the sacred liturgy one ins considering the question of "noble simplicity" and "noble beauty."

Invoking "noble simplicity" (or noble beauty for that matter) seems rather easy to do in one sense, but in reality it is a concept that needs some definition. One cannot just assume that noble simplicity aligns to whatever our own particular view of "simplicity" is, nor can we necessarily assume it means "minimalism" (minimalistic compared to what?)

This subject of noble simplicity is one we have explored here before on a few occasions, and with the concept seeming on everyone's minds, I felt it might be a good time for us to approach this question anew: "what is meant by noble simplicity? how are we to understand it?"

To begin our consideration today, I wished to share the following paper which was delivered by Alcuin Reid at the St. Colman's Society for Catholic Liturgy conference in 2009, Noble Simplicity Revisited.