"The motto was "Pax," but the word was set in a circle of thorns. Pax: peace, but what a strange peace, made of unremitting toil and effort, seldom with seen result; subject to constant interruptions, unexpected demands, short sleep at nights, little comfort, sometimes scant food; beset with bitter disappointments and usually misunderstood; yet peace all the same, undeviating, filled with joy and gratitude and love. "It is my own peace I give unto you." Not, notice, the world's peace." Prologue, pg. 3.

"'An enclosed order is like a kind of power house,' said Mrs. Talbot. 'A power house of prayer; you protect a power house not to enclose the power, but to stop unauthorized people getting in to hinder its working.'" Prologue, pg. 17.

"People think we renounce the world. We don't. We renounce its ways but we are still very much in it and it is...