Two years ago I began what has now become an annual tradition at Abbey of the Arts during this time of new year reflection. I offer the same invitation this year, again with some prizes to give away on January 6th, and this time with a free gift for everyone who participates.
*Everyone* who shares their word for the year and a brief description in the comments below also gets a *free guided meditation recording* from the Abbey with an *Embodied Examen Prayer for the New Year.* It is a great way to reflect on the past year and tend your dreams for the next. To claim your free gift, read through the instructions below and when your word for 2012 emerges, share it in the comments (scroll to the bottom of the page) and then email Eveline, the fabulous Abbey admin at admin@abbeyofthearts.com and request the link.
Then share this invitation with others! Help spread the love and opportunity for reflection!
Read on for more inspiration:
In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to God and to their own inner struggles at work within them. The desert became a place to enter into the refiner’s fire and be stripped down to one’s holy essence. The desert was a threshold place where you emerged different than when you entered.
Many people followed these ammas and abbas, seeking their wisdom and guidance for a meaningful life. One tradition was to ask for a word – this word or phrase would be something on which to ponder for many days, weeks, months, sometimes a whole lifetime. This practice is connected to lectio divina, where we approach the sacred texts with the same request – “give me a word” we ask – something to nourish me, challenge me, a word I can wrestle with and grow into.
Last year my word was sanctuary. Sanctuary has multiple meanings: the sanctuary in a church is the place where the holy of holies dwells, but we also create sanctuaries for animals needing protection or for persons fleeing persecution. The layers to this word shimmered throughout my year, but especially the sense of finding sanctuary within my own heart, to feel at home in the world. This was the grace of this past year, its fierce lesson for me. This year my word is *savor* (click the link if you want to read more about its meaning for me). It came to me in a moment of silent prayer as I reflected on the call I am feeling these days to deeply savor each moment of my life, to immerse myself even more in the present moment. I am eager to discover what the word holds for me this coming year.
If you want help in letting a word choose you, scroll down for several suggestions.
- What is your word for the year ahead? A word which contains within it a seed of invitation to cross a new threshold?
- What word, phrase, or image is shimmering before you right now inviting you to dwell with it until it ripens fully inside of you?
Share your word in the comments below before Friday, January 6th
Leave your word for the year ahead in the comments below plus a couple of sentences describing your choice.
Letting a Word Choose You
For some of you the word may have come right away, but for some you may desire a word to ripen within your soul these coming weeks and months, but one doesn’t seem to be coming. So here are some suggestions for allowing a word to choose you:
- Release your thinking mind in this process, this isn’t about figuring out just the right word to improve yourself this coming year. The word comes as gift, often your sense of it being “right” is more intuitive, a more embodied sense of yes. The word (or phrase) is one that will work in you (rather than you working on it). Remember that a word that creates a sense of inner resistance is as important to pay attention to as one that has a great deal of resonance.
- Lectio divina is one of the primary practices we have in Christian monastic tradition for listening for a word or phrase that shimmers or calls to our hearts. Lectio is traditionally applied to scripture, but can also be engaged to pray with life experience. Allow some time for prayer and in your imagination review this last year, honoring it as a sacred text. As you walk through your experiences notice which ones stand out, call to you for more attention, or shimmer forth. There may be more than one, but for this time of prayer select one of them (and you can return to others in future times of prayer). Enter into it with all of your senses. Remember it in all of its detail. Experience it from this place you are in now. Notice if there is a word or phrase which rises up. Then allow that word to unfold in your imagination and welcome in images, feelings, and memories which stir in you. After a time of making space for these, begin to ask what is the invitation or call rising up from these noticings? Where is God calling you to a new awareness or action in your life? Close with some time of silence.
- Approach a soul friend, a spiritual director, or a wise elder for your word, as in the desert tradition. They might need some time to ponder this with you. It is always wise to consult with a soul companion or community when testing the fruits of prayer.
- Create a time of retreat for this holy time of year. A couple of hours is enough. Make space to sink into silence, journal, reflect on your experiences of the year past. Write about your dreams and deep desires for the year ahead. In the space of contemplation and stillness, notice if there is a word, image, or phrase which rises up.
- Go for a contemplative walk where you aren’t trying to get anywhere. Your sole purpose is to be as present as possible to each footfall. Listen for how your inner life is calling you forward with each step. Be present to the gifts of creation around you (even if it is the city pigeons and trees planted down the sidewalk). Listen if they might have a word to offer to you.
- Listen to your dreams in these coming days. As you go to sleep, lay a piece of paper and pen by your bed as a sign of your willingness to receive the wisdom that comes in dreams. Consider strong dream images as possible words calling to you. Pay attention to synchronicities through the day. Are there images or words which seem to repeat themselves? If so, take note.
- Allow time for the word to ripen. This may be a slow process. If you hear a word calling, sit with it for a couple of days. Listen attentively to the stirrings of your heart in response. Eventually there will be a tugging inside of you, where you feel yourself drawn again and again to this word. Allow yourself to be in a space of unknowing with this and practice being present to your anticipation knowing that things of the soul unfold in their own time. This is a journey of transformation and the word may not make immediate sense to you, but trust that over time more of its meaning will be revealed.
When the word emerges, please share it with me and others in the comments section below. I am truly blessed by the sharings offered there – it is such a gift of hope in this time of holy darkness (and if you share by Friday, January 6th you are entered into a random drawing for a chance to win one of several prizes!)
If you want to be notified of more Abbey gifts and offerings, consider subscribing to our email newsletter (which includes another free gift just for signing up!)
458 Responses
Thank you for the invitation. For the beginning of the year my word is wisdom. Wisdom to discern the way ahead; wisdom how to respond to people; wisdom listening within. I have devloped an Office of wisdom with psalms, songs, readings, collects etc…….
My word is UNFOLD. I am easing out of the need for directing or creating the changes I think I need. This word came to me in a dream where I thought I was losing layers of my being, only to realize that what was happening was a kind of unfolding and opening up, much like a lotus flower. I felt both vulnerable and strong, and I expect that will be my process all of this coming year.
Thank you, dear Christine, for the space to share this, and to be able to read the beautiful words of so many other sister and brother travellers on this Life Journey.
Many blessings to all.
Marga [from Mumbai, India]
The word, the Lord gave me for this year is WELCOME. I am seeing this year to be a year of welcoming all that He has for me, all He wants to do in me, through me, a year of welcoming Christ himself in my innermost parts. I look forward to what He has in store.
My word for the year is “Integrity.” In my past, I have struggled with staying on the “upright/level highway.” I have been bombarded with grief over several family losses, taken over by inaccurate thoughts about who I am in the world, and driven by the things of the world instead of the whispers from my Savior.
After the Advent season, I was overwhelmed at how the Lord took away my grief. I realized, that I needed to give my family to Him. That they are His, as am I. This allowed me to stand alone, silent and still, and focus on what His plans are for me.
He gave me the word, “Integrity,” and in meditating on it, I saw myself re-branding myself as a writer/author and leaving my sluggard ways behind. He gave me a path to walk and wants me to be upright in traveling it. He wants me to be a mentor/leader for all those I come in contact with.
The Lord wants me to be His Light again, and only a person of integrity can show how their heart desires Him so that others may see and know of His love.
Blessings.
My word for the year is advent. The word and its definition were illumined towards the end of the Advent season: “The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important; an arrival or coming, especially one which is awaited; arrival that has been awaited (especially of something momentous).”
I have sat with the word and with other words connected to it. But the word itself continues to rise to the surface. With the word, I sense hope and promise as I am invited to open to 2012 as a a year of my own homecoming and arrival in a new way.
“playful” God seems to be reminding me that all of life doesn’t need to be so serious. It is OK to sometimes just play! It challenges me to be aware, to take a chance, to see what happens, to reach out without being concerned with the response, even to love without thought of the consequences!
My word is courage. It comes from the French word for heart. To be of good heart, to have inner strength, to be not afraid. These days, I feel in need of courage to face things that I would rather not have to face, yet they are unavoidable. So there is nothing else to do but go out into the midst of all that I am finding too much to bear and somehow carry on, hopefully, with heart, or with the hope of (re)finding heart in my life.
My word is uncomplicated. Why not “simplify” I’ve asked myself. But it’s just not shimmering for me like uncomplicated is. I have 3 part-time jobs all in ministry. A blessing but a lot of people and bosses to relate to and care for, which complicates my life. I have 4 kids, 2 step-kids and 4 grandkids, not to mention a husband. All of my family except one daughter live in the same city I do – a blessing but the more relationships you have the more complicated is your life. Twins home for a month from college with all their friends visiting, a new granddaughter on Dec. 15, family meals and interactions and responsibilities. As I enter 2012 when I will celebrate my 60th birthday, and make decisions regarding employment and relationships and commitments, I am asking my self…will this decision uncomplicate my life even just a little bit? I am blessed with a life that is full of very good things and relationships. I seek more spaciousness and uncomplicated times alone, in nature, with God to bring balance and to restore my own soul. I am up in the middle of the night writing this post, because it’s a way to find alone time. Uncomplicated. That’s my word for 2012.
LONGING
It seems I’ve lived my life in anticipation of or response to other’s needs and desires. It has become so that when given an opportunity to choose I become lost in thoughts of what others would want. I can’t choose. I am facing some life changing choices in this new year. I want to choose wisely and well with attention to the will of God and mt heart’s longing. Now to discern what that longing is. My word for 2012 is “longing.”
My word for this year is “balance”. I have found that my self-spirit is out of balance, as is my life events with unemployment, injury, surgery and recovery.
I realized today, through lectio of reading your first chapter on “Art Rule”, that our search for self does not come from the observation of reactions without ourselves, or from emotions we internalize coming from an outside source, which are illusions of our internal monastery. I will seek to find balance of discovering my reality, living within my inner monastery, yet accept the challenge of contemplation, and humility to surrender to God’s graces. I will seek balance of solitude, and community, as well as work and play. I will especially work to balance financial hardship with the lessons of the joy of poverty. In this way, I hope to find the silence, and peace of my moments.
May God Bless and Keep All, Today, and Always,
Deb.