In his recently published book, Thirty Days, poet and critic Paul Mariani tells the story of a monthlong silent retreat in the Jesuit tradition, based on the five-century-old Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Mariani’s book has received considerable acclaim, with Library Journal calling it “engaging, informative, and inspiring” and Booklist noting that “its beautiful prose often reads like the purest poetry, voicing a poignant flight of spiritual imagination as it presents one man’s quest for meaning and hope.” Many of the reviewers of Thirty Days have found in the book an example of the contemporary hunger for spiritual meaning in the midst of the mundane world.

As you’ll read in this issue, Holy Cross students have long been familiar with that quest for meaning and hope. The Spiritual Exercises have been at the heart of the Holy Cross experience from the College’s earliest days. The notion of retreat is central to our mission and its goal of facilitating “the search for meaning and value” and the “critical examination of fundamental religious and philosophical questions.” Each year, hundreds of our students participate in a variety of retreat programs sponsored by the Office of the College Chaplains. And each year, lives are altered, deepened and transformed by entering into silence and reflection, by separating, for a time, from a world that is relentlessly loud and busy.

Such contemplative opportunities are essential if we are to see God in all things, especially in times of difficulty and crisis. It is perhaps appropriate that in the “Retreat” issue of HCM, we also present a roundtable discussion on the clergy sexual abuse scandal that has unfolded over the last year. Various members of the College community came together recently to talk about the scandal, to weigh its meaning and effect and to offer possibilities for healing and reform. On Page 24, we present a transcription of that discussion as the first step in what we hope will be an ongoing dialogue among the Holy Cross family about the crisis in the Church and the ways in which we might respond to it.

Contemplation and discussion, reflection and debate, prayer and inquiry—these are the elements of the Jesuit tradition and the Holy Cross experience that will sustain us as we celebrate God’s presence in our lives and work together through the hard realities of this imperfect world.