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:
- from Christine Valters Paintner of Abbey of the Arts: a space in the online Lenten retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen
- from Kayce Stevens Hughlett of Diamonds in the Soul: a signed copy of her book As I Lay Pondering: Daily Invitations to Live a Transformed Life
- from Dana Reynolds at Sacred Life Arts: a space in her online class The Book of Wonderment and a signed copy of her brand new novel Ink and Honey
- from Ronna Detrick: a space in her online class Soulstice: Develop a Meaningful Spiritual Practice
- from Roy DeLeon of Now Praying: a signed copy of his book Praying with the Body and personalized body prayer for your favorite Psalm
- from Tess Giles of Pilgrim’s Moon: a print of the beautiful banner art by Rima Staines
- from Velma Frye: a copy of her CD “Seven Sacred Pauses” and “Take Heart”
- from Richard Bruxvoort Colligan: a copy of each of his Psalm CDs “Sharing the Road” and “Shout for Joy”
- from Trish Bruxvoort Colligan of River’s Voice: a copy of her CDs “Breath” and “Unfolding”
- from Mary Sharratt: a copy of her novel Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard of Bingen
- from Waverly Fitzgerald of Living in Season: a copy of her French Republican Calendar for 2013 and a copy of her New Year Dreams E-book
- from Betsy McCall of the Art Monastery: an original art print
- from Paula Huston: a copy of her latest book Season of Mystery: 10 Spiritual Practies for Embracing a Happier Second Half of Life
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!
844 Responses
My word for this New Year is moment. I’ve been so stressed and overwhelmed the last two years with the issues and problems currently facing our family, and with trying to analyze options to make the best decisions possible for the future while trying to please everyone, that I’m loosing sight of the importance of the here and now MOMENT that I’m in. So I’m focusing on pausing for a Moment whenever things get to be too much out of balance with a centered peace and am truly trying to live and love the current Moment I’ve been graced with.
Suprise! I have no idea where this word will lead me this year. It came to me in a whisper in the early hours of the day. Suprise!
After many years of striving for change and improvement, the dawning realisation that enough is actually enough, that being is indeed the beginning and end of doing, that driven striving is no longer the way. Enough: the ability to enjoy where you are, when you are and how you are, without stress. Enough: a word to come back to and live with. Enough.
Messy. The desire and need to be able to stay present in the messiness of life and know that God is there with me and will help me through it.
My word for 2013 is “release” as in letting go. It’s time to release my hold on certain aspects of my life that are binding me to the past. I pray for release, that I may let go with grace and move forward with courage and joy.
My word for the year is Zeal!
When I read it I knew this was it.
It was described as a mighty force that includes not only a “force of nature”, but as a gift from God that is more than enthusiasm but the very energy of God expressing through us expressing a freedom and a power to accomplish all good things for ourselves and the world.
This is my wish to embody this and bring to fruition within me as well as manifesting it outside of me in all ways of service, love and light!
Since yesterday was Epiphany, we gave out star gift words. We let folks be directed by
the Holy Spirit in their choosing without looking at the word printed on the star. They seemed pretty excited to recieve their word. I also choose, and my word for this coming year is TENDERNESS.
Perhaps, not such an easy word for me. It is a call to be more tender with others, my husband, hurting congregants, and people I meet. It is also an invitation to enter into the tenderness of God, with which I haven’t always considered or lived into. God has been The Great Silence for me in the past few years. Yet, here is an invitation to be with the tenderness of God as well as the call to be more tender. It will be a challenging year.
My word for 2013 is “sing now”. In many ways this word is not surprising, but it does carry both a lot of history as well as promise for the coming year. My great-grandfather was a Cantor in a synagogue in Czarist Russia just prior to the Russian Revolution. I am the only person in the present generation of my family who is musical and has a contemplative, poet temperament. It seems to me this word is encouraging me, perhaps even challenging me to stir up both this history and these gifts in the coming year. It certainly fits with the recurrent call I’ve been hearing over the last few years to become “a contemplative, mystic poet with the pen of the heart”. And it fits, too, with my current work in teaching/coaching others on the use 0f narrative/stories in pastoral care and spiritual direction as part of my work as the Director of Shalom House at Lake Helen, a retreat house/conference center connected to First Congregational Church in Lake Helen, FL where I am the Pastor.
I’m looking forward where I will “sing now” in the year ahead!
At last! At last, at sunrise, the word burst forth within me, body affirming, saying yes. Several full words have visited me, enriched me in these 12 days, and will continue to companion, inform this journey. But today my body spoke the most obvious word of all for this time–OPEN. Yes. Stay open. It has been there all the time. Days 1-6 the doors were closed. Everything in me wanted to open the doors. Days 7 and 8, the door was cracked and I rejoiced, wanted to push them wide open. Day 9 the door was gone, the gate offered visibility, but was closed. I felt it in my being. Days 10, 11 and 12 the doors were progressively open, with 11 and 12 having no door at all, and my body said, “yes, at last.” Before this morning I could not write the words that visited. This morning my body awakened me with a leap of joy. Stay open. Be open to the surprises of the Holy. Yes, OPEN, the word that greets me, embraces me: open to the wonder, the challenge, the potential, the breath of life of each day. Yes, OPEN is the word for now, for this year. And I bow in deep gratitude.
Hello Dear Christine!
My word for Two Thousand Her Dream is Grace. I have been visited by butterflies all year (while I was working with the word Savor in Two Thousand Delve) and always the butterfly was always accompanied by the word Grace. I am Mi’kmaq, and recently have come to know the Sagen of my tribe…and the other day he came to my house and brought to me my name, Memegech, which means Butterfly. Butterfly symbolizes many things: transformation, change, Spirit and soul, joy, the living rainbow and voice of the Grandmother. It also means Grace. I have followed the thread , and I will now follow the direction it so generously has provided.
Thank you!
Memegech