Cristo Rey New York High School’s Class of 2024 ventured out to Mariandale Retreat Center in Ossining on Thursday, Jan. 26, for a day devoted to peace. “They practiced inner peace, while also reflecting on how this inner peace impacts their relationships with others,” organizers said in a statement.

The theme of the annual Junior Class Retreat was “Peace be with you.”                

“We built this retreat around the theme of peace; and so, every activity that day was about building inner peace and making peace with others,” said Joe McQuarrie, the school’s director of Campus Ministry and chairman of the Religion Department, and the retreat’s lead coordinator. “They did exercises such as reflection activities…how to be more in harmony with who they are and who they’re meant to be.”          

He said the activities included discussing “their web of interconnectivity that connects them with people around them, their loved ones, their classmates, all the people they encounter, and that they can build peace in small ways with each other…And we had an activity where they gave each other a sign of peace – an olive branch in the form of a prayer card, with people they haven’t been close with in the past, or maybe people they’ve had a falling-out with in the past.”

The retreat group included McQuarrie, 13 teachers, and more than 90 students.  

“It gave our grade kind of a reset button, to learn more about the virtues and how we can put those virtues forward in life. We spoke about hope, about how hope is necessary and it’s like the light at the end of the dark tunnel,” said student Jaylene E. Gonzalez, 17. 

Of the retreat theme, Christ’s words, “Peace be with you,” Gonzalez said, “I have a better understanding of those words…We had peace cards, and we would hand them out; peace is what connects us all.”

In the first part of the retreat, the 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 Giocondo, Italian friar, (1433-1515) 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, organizers said, 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 their daily life, they are able to get there.   

The next part of the retreat focused on the students’ relationships with each other: Coordinators asked them to consider ways in which they can currently positively impact each other. They 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.   

“This retreat helped me tap into the peaceful side of myself that I never really appreciated. The group that I was in was called Gratitude, and it made me reflect on the things that I do have,” said student Maleek A. Henry, 16. 

He also noted, “Before I used to think that to be in a peaceful place was to have nothing around you and just be alone with your thoughts. But I realize now that you can be at peace with other people around you…You can find peace in everyday things.”  

Cristo Rey New York High School is located on East 106th Street in Manhattan. Founded in 2004, the school has a total enrollment of about 375.