Thirty Days: On Retreat with the Exercises of St. Ignatius

Paul Mariani, finding himself at a crossroads in his life, leaves home one January for the month-long silent retreat of the Jesuit tradition, based on the five-century-old Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. He is there to examine his past-as husband, father, teacher, and pilgrim -in order to discover his place in God's plan. As day gives way to day, through a guided program of study, prayer and meditation, broken by long walks along the ice-capped shores of the North Atlantic, he takes us on a visceral and transcendental journey.

Rich in history, humor, and epiphany, Mariani's journal combines a brief life of St. Ignatius with meditations on Jesus' life and His radical gift of love. Mariani also looks unflinchingly at his own transgressions and glories in a sense of renewal that sends him back into the world-and to his family-with a heightened sense of selflessness. Its beauty and power reminiscent of the works of Kathleen Norris and Thomas Merton, Thirty Days is the story of one man's emptying himself until he, and we, have touched our authentic selves in silence with God.