“The pathways in the lives of today’s pilgrims first lead away, to places of detachment and withdrawal, yielding a grounding clarity about the world’s realities and spiritual empowerment for the way forward. Then, faithful pilgrims return, walking into the public square with a transforming presence and witness. In the end, pilgrims leave the Empire behind not by cloistering themselves away in isolated retreat, but by walking into its centers of power with a resilient witness that has been liberated from its grasp.”
–Wes Granberg-Michaelson, Without Oars, p. 142