Throughout my life, I have tried to take quiet time each day in solitude for prayer. For the last eighteen years, I have made an annual eight-day, silent retreat where I seek the God of peace. I have often spent summers alone to experiment with peace in solitude.
Each day, as I face myself alone, I remember that my personal peacemaking is the hardest work of all. I recognize anew the violence within my own war-torn heart, and try again to make peace with myself and my God.
— John Dear, Living Peace