On January 26th, Cristo Rey New York High School’s Class of 2024 ventured out to Mariandale
Retreat Center in Ossining, New York for a day devoted to peace. They practiced inner peace,
while also reflecting on how this inner peace impacts their relationships with others. During the
first part of the retreat, students were asked to look inward and understand which elements of
their lives made them feel joyful. They received a copy of a letter from Fra Giovanni, written on
Christmas Eve, 1513 A.D. In the letter it states, “Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its
gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy, or hard. Remove the covering and you
will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.” The goal of this
passage is to teach students the importance of meeting life with grace, allowing them to
understand that they have power in their own joy and contentment, and by unveiling the beauty
in the everyday they are able to get there. The next part of the retreat focused on our students’
relationships with each other. We asked them to consider the ways in which they can and
currently positively impact each other. This retreat asked students to hold their positive
interactions at the center of their thoughts in order to remember how encouraging and
harmonious friendships have made them feel, which embodies the peaceful community that
Cristo Rey has established.