Share your Word for 2014
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 below by Monday, January 6, 2014 and you are automatically entered for the prize drawing (prizes listed below). Last year we had 840 people share!
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 6th!
I am delighted to offer some wonderful gifts from the Abbey:
- 4 people will win a signed copy of Eyes of the Heart: Photography as Christian Contemplative Practice (mailed directly from me in Ireland to you, anywhere in the world)
- 4 people will win a copy of Naked and You Clothed Me: Homilies and Reflections for Cycle A with two reflections by Christine, plus also Richard Rohr, Rob Bell, Jan Richardson, Fr. James Martin, SJ, and many more!
- 4 people will win their choice of self-study online classes from following: Creative Flourishing in the Heart of the Desert: A Self-Study Online Retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen, Soul of a Pilgrim: An Online Art Retreat, Seasons of the Soul, Lectio Divina: The Sacred Art of Reading the World, or Eyes of the Heart: Photography as a Contemplative Practice.
So please share your word (and it would be wonderful to include 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 6th I will announce the prize winners!
If this is your first time commenting at the Abbey, or you are including a link, your comment will need to be approved before appearing, which usually takes less than 24 hours.
680 Responses
My word is sabbatical. I have never taken the sabbath seriously and all of a sudden it hits me to take an entire year off! I’m an artist/photographer/needleworker, and I’ve pushed myself to produce things to sell for the past ten years. 7 days a week. I am going to pursue only what I feel called to on a day to day basis, and will experiment with keeping a sabbath day once a week. What an Advent(ture)!
My word is gentle. May I learn to be more gentle with myself, and, as I learn that, become more gentle with everyone and everything around me.
LESS
from my point of view I need to declutter physically and mentally. ith leass around me I will respect what there is including space. I will be able to respect by caring for what there is rather than being buried by it and suffocated by it.
I need to mind LESS about what others think of me and respect myself enough and have confidence enough to be who I am and be proud of it.
In a wider context I need to reflect upon the fact that so many people have LESS than me and living better lives in spite of or perhaps because they have LESS.
My word for 2014 is amazement. I want to live my live in radical amazement (to echo the wonderfully amazing writer Judy Cannato). With the 24/7 bombardment of news/news analysis/commentary; cynicism and a bored detachment seems to be creeping in, sucking the wonder and awe out of life. I want to be ever aware of how amazing everything and everyone is! I want to share this amazement with the world, starting with myself and reaching out in ever expanding circles; like ripples in a pond.
My word for the year is … thanatology.
Thanatology is the study of dying and death and all aspects connected and associated with this life changing event. As monks in the world, we are given a plethora of opportunities to die daily, thus opening the door to spiritual non-attachment. To be mindful of the small daily deaths also propels us into an awareness of the Big Death, or our eventual step into the Unknown Mystery. Thanatology invites us into a world of compassion for the bereaved, which is everyone.
My word of the year is Renewal.
Early in 2013 my husband resigned from an over-20- year position as a minister. In July, my 23-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. The journey of transitions this year has stretched and tested me. It has been tiring, frustrating, but also a gift of hope and a sweet time of nurturing my son through chemotherapy. (He was just, as of last week, declared cancer-free!) I’m looking forward to a season of renewal and refreshment I believe God has is store for me and my family in 2014.
My word for 2014 is vulnerability. I don’t mean vulnerable in the sense of exposing myself to harm, but vulnerable in the sense of sharing more and more of my true self. It’s frightening to do so, but it allows me to claim and share all of me, and gives others the opportunity to do the same. Blessings in 2014!
My word for 2014 is “assurance”
Over the last few years, I have come to see that everything around me (people. nature, events, experiences, reading, etc.) assures me of God’s presence and love, no matter what. God is serious about being there, guiding, delighting in me…and I in God!
I created a collage to express my word visually. It is attached.
Eternity
Living as a follower of Jesus brings us face to face with eternity. If we believe in an eternal life, then we are already part of this endless stream of becoming. What does eternity hold for us? How are we becoming the source of love and light for which we are created? We cannot wait for eternity to come to start living; we must live each day in the assurance and incarnation of its presence.
My word for the year in threshold.
I’ve spent the past couple of years balancing (and not always well) graduate school, full-time teaching, a father in the early stages of Alzheimer’s,and life. While some balls have been dropped, and the stress has sometimes been overwhelming, but as I am in the last year of studies, I feel as if I’m on the threshold of a new beginning. It may not always be good, but I am trying to welcome all that helps me grow and move into my next chapter.