7:00 pm November 4, 2022 to
12:00 pm November 6, 2022
Gandhi, King, Day & Merton
with Fr. John Dear
Join Fr. John Dear for an exciting weekend retreat to explore the lives, writings, teachings, and witness of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. John will give talks on each of these great peacemakers and point out key lessons for our own peacemaking journeys. Along with small group and large group discussions, we will be encouraged to follow Jesus on the path of peace and nonviolence and do what we can to end war, poverty, racism, nuclear weapons and environmental destruction, and become who we are called to be, peacemakers to the world.
Fr. John Dear is an internationally recognized voice and leader for peace and nonviolence. A priest, activist and author, he served for years as the director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest interfaith peace organization in the U.S. After September 11, 2001, he was a Red Cross coordinator of chaplains at the Family Assistance Center in New York, and counseled thousands of relatives and rescue workers. John has traveled the war zones of the world, been arrested some 80 times for peace, led Nobel Peace prize winners to Iraq, given thousands of lectures on peace across the U.S., and served as a pastor of several churches in New Mexico. He arranged on many occasions for Mother Teresa to speak to various governors to stop an impending execution, and helped draft Pope Francis’ Jan. 1, 2017, World Day of Peace message on nonviolence. He is a co-founder of Campaign Nonviolence and the Nonviolent Cities Project and founder and director of The Beatitudes Center for the Nonviolent Jesus, www.beatitudescenter.org. He is on the national committee of the Selma Jubilee annual march, and the literary executor of Daniel Berrigan.
His thirty five books include: The Beatitudes of Peace; They Will Inherit the Earth; The Nonviolent Life; Radical Prayers; Walking the Way; Thomas Merton Peacemaker; A Persistent Peace; Transfiguration; You Will Be My Witnesses; Living Peace; The Questions of Jesus; The God of Peace; Jesus the Rebel; Peace Behind Bars; Lazarus Come Forth!, Disarming the Heart and most recently, Praise Be Peace: The Psalms of Peace and Nonviolence in a time of War and Climate Change. He has been nominated many times for the Nobel Peace Prize, including by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. www.johndear.org
Registration:
If you would like to register for this or any of our programs, there are several easy ways to do so.
You may:
• click the "Register" link located at the bottom of this page
• call 724-964-8886 to speak with a member of our friendly staff
• complete and mail a printable registration form along with your payment to:
Villa Maria Education and Spirituality Center
2067 Evergreen Road
P.O. Box 424
Villa Maria, PA 16155
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