At the time of his death from pancreatic cancer in November, 1996, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago was the senior active cardinal in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, and perhaps the most widely-known and respected American ecclesiastical leader of this decade. The head of the nation's second largest diocese in an era of unprecedented strain within the ranks of American Catholicism, Bernardin endeared himself to many with a leadership style that favored the personal and pastoral over the authoritarian. Upon appointment to the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1982, the newly-named Cardinal won the hearts of many when he introduced himself to the priests of the Windy City as "your brother Joseph," striking the devout and gentle tone from which he seldom varied during the next 15 years of his increasingly public ministry. That same tone imbues "The Gift of Peace: Personal Reflections" with a certain luminosity. Here Cardinal Bernardin reflects upon the lessons learned over the last three years of his life--a period marked by accusations (later recanted) of sexual abuse, the "increasing polarization and mean-spiritedness" in American Catholicism that, in his view, threatened "the unity of the church," and his own diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. In spite of these considerable challenges, the Cardinal's "gift of reconciliation" remained his strong anchorage, and is very much in evidence in these highly personal reflections. With the same disarming openness that characterized his leadership, Bernardin here shares fully and honestly his own struggles to live wholly and faithfully in the midst of suffering. It is a tribute to the authenticity of the man and the believer that his voice speaks so personally in these pages, on which he spent the last of his days. His is a noble and enormously affecting legacy, and not only for American Catholics, but for all who must find their way through the "valley of the shadows."