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Give Me a Word 2013: Fourth annual Abbey giveaway

Share your Word for 2013

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.  The word which chooses us has the potential to transform us.

  • What is your word for the year ahead? A word which contains within it a seed of invitation to cross a new threshold in your life?

Share your word in the comments section by Tuesday, January 8th and you are automatically entered for the prize drawing (prizes listed below).

A free 12-day online mini-retreat to help your word choose you. . .

This year I am offering all Abbey newsletter subscribers a gift: a free 12-day online mini-retreat with a suggested practice for each day to help your word choose you and to deepen into your word once it has found you.

Sign up here and you can start your mini-retreat today. Once you subscribe you will receive a confirmation email with access to the mini-retreat content (and you are free to unsubscribe at any time).  If you are already a subscriber, the invitation will be in this week’s email newsletter.

Win a Prize – Random Drawing Giveaway on January 7th!

Some wonderful friends of the Abbey have offered fabulous prizes to be included in this  drawing held from all of the names who participate:

Pretty wonderful, isn’t it?  Make sure to check out the links to their websites for all kinds of goodness and thank them for supporting the Abbey!

So please share your word (and a sentence about what it means for you) with us below.  Subscribe to the Abbey newsletter for your free gift. Share the love with others and invite them to participate.  Then stay tuned – on January 7th I will announce the prize winners!

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844 Responses

  1. Symmetry.

    This word came to me early in the retreat and I put it aside looking and waiting for something else, it kept coming back to me. What it will mean to me I don’t know. Yesterday I watched as the Brent Geese, who winter here in Ireland, sweep across the sky in long lines, each goose knowing its place as they supported each other in flight. Maybe, all activates of my life should fit together and there will be a place for everything. Each event supports the other.

  2. My word for 2013 is : Effloresce–to burst forth in bloom.

    I struggled to be open to the right word and thought of several, more serious ones, but they didn’t seem quite right. Yesterday I decided to try a SoulCollage to see if anything at all might reveal itself. It did! I’ve posted a couple of photos on the Flickr site of the collage. I found the word in the very back of an old magazine in an ad for a florist shop. As soon as I saw it, I knew the right word had finally found me!

  3. I love reading that others have discovered a word that they don’t really know what it means yet. My word is PATH and I am completely clueless as to what God will do with this word in the coming months. Sometimes being clueless, though, is very exciting!

  4. My word for this year is COURAGE. Not so much in terms of bravery, but in acting from the heart.
    The past few years have introduced many challenges, and I tend to move into the rational mind. This year, I will follow my heart.

  5. My word is balance.

    I was having trouble “finding” a word so I asked a friend for help. She asked what I wanted most in the new year and I immediately said, Balance. I hope to practice this in daily life and also in my spiritual quest.

  6. First, I have to say how much I love reading other people’s posts about their words–sometimes one forgets there are others out there in the world who do crazy things like letting words choose them!

    For quite a few days I thought my word was “tender.” I liked the multiple meanings of the word and the fact that it could be used as an adjective, noun or verb; but I just kept letting it be, not really sure if that was the word. And then yesterday as I thought about things that had been going on lately and my own reactions to them, I realized the word for 2013 is “loosening.” Loosening body and feelings, loosening judgments and expectations and reserve, loosening into tenderness, into grief, into deeper relationship with myself, others and God. In celebration of that, I took a walk in the rain yesterday and pretended I was Gene Kelly and splashed mightily in the puddles! Wishing everyone a fruitful and blessed 2013!

  7. As I consider the many unkowns of the coming year, I hear “accept” and wonder what that might mean for me. It might be about suffering and loss, but it might be about surprise and delight. In any case, it reminds me that everything significant in my life comes to me as gift from One worth trusting.

  8. The word that has chosen me is Freedom. I have a bit of insight, but just that. Our youngest of 4 graduated high school in 2012. I have been in the full-time parent role for 28 years as well as part time nurse and nursing educator for the past 30. I have finished my graduate work in theology and am nearly half way through a clinical pastoral residency to become a chaplain. This word came immediately, but just what I need freedom from, or freedom to become, or likely both, I look forward to finding out!!!

  9. The word that has chosen me is “discipline.” I have never liked that word – it brings to mind a teacher rapping a student’s knuckles with a ruler! But I know that spiritual practice and creativity depend on discipline….So, I am being challenged by the Holy Trickster. If anyone knows of some good spiritual books on the topic, I’d appreciate recommendations!