Visit the Abbey of the Arts online retreat platform to access your programs:

Login Here
Back to all

Give Me a Word 2014: Fifth Annual Abbey Giveaway

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:

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.

You might also enjoy

Monk in the World Guest Post: Tarja Cajudo

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Tarja Cajudo’s reflection on the spirituality of being an elder sister, an Ate. I am an Ate (pronounced Ah-teh), the eldest sister.

Read More »
October 8, 2025

Monk in the World Guest Post: Polly Paton-Brown

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Wisdom Council member Polly Paton-Brown’s reflection“I wanna be where my feet are.” November 6th 2024 was a misty day in the part of

Read More »
October 1, 2025

680 Responses

  1. The word “heal” is what rises to the surface. Heal–my healing and Heal–others.

    It’s what has been percolating for some years, and last year began to take a bit of shape.
    My healing has been slow and tedious. There have been ebbs and flows, advances and set-backs. But it is happening. And the sense I get is that this year will bring a HUGE change and hopefully a huge advance.

    Healing others has also been slow to take shape. I have been prepared and been preparing for several years. Decades? My entire life?

    So I sit with….HEAL.

  2. Pingback: Hello 2014 | Emmaatlast's Weblog

  3. My word, ‘integrity’, came instantly for me this year. I’m longing to live congruently, from the inside out, where I respond to life from my deeper self…which is good, which is loving, which is wise, which is peaceful, which is creative….rather than react to external situations, demands, fear, (and fear of judgment). I hope to bring myself along with me into my days
    Likewise, I hope to trust in the goodness within the externals, to allow them into my life, to meet and receive them as a lover, in order to grow and to birth something new in me, that I might bring forth into the world.
    Once I saw this desire in the image of the turtle, this taking my self , and my home, along with me. Today I sense the turtle is ready to be out more, to step into the flow, she’s ready to test her integrity.
    The image that expresses this new awareness today is more like the yin/yang symbol, specifically the line where the inner and outer meet, that place of tension that requires both to express fully, to both resist and to yield, a place where great beauty flows.

  4. My word is Trust. I am struggling with all that has happened in the past few months. I want to breathe in trust that God is with me. My head knows, but my fears distract me from the truth.

  6. Let go.

    I am just finishing up the Birthing the Holy Celtic Spirituality online retreat and the idea of a coracle, a simple little boat with no oars, sail, or rudder was introduced. Seekers would get into the boat and let the currents take them where they would, landing at a place of resurrection. I am intrigued by the idea of simply letting go and allowing God to take me where He will, without my “help”.

    Tied into the idea of letting go is a sense of rest and contentment.

  7. Years ago my son was taking a workshop where they had to dig deep and state their purpose. When I went to visit him he made me do this exercise. I said ” to be fully present to the experience of this life”. That purpose has never left me or changed. A mantra has found me in the pass few days to focus me moment by moment on my purpose. ” Present moment, only moment ” is my thought to hold to this coming year. Thank all of you for your wonderful responses and may we all be challenged and changed toward our greater good this coming year.

  8. The word that found me is EMBRACE. I like that it is both noun and verb. I am looking forward to unwrapping its many meanings in my life, in the year to come. Well into my seventh decade, I discover that too often the watch word is LETTING GO and there is much to be said for learning this as one ages. However, EMBRACE suggests an openness, not just to losses but to what is still present, waiting to be held, cherished, loved. I am overjoyed that this word found me and I can’t wait to see what wonders await in 2014 for me to EMBRACE!!

  9. Enough…
    I am enough
    I do enough
    I eat enough
    I have enough
    God is enough

    I am leaning into and living into ENOUGH this year. Turning away from all that tells me I am not, that God is not, and choosing to believe and allow myself to experience instead, that I am, that God is… enough.

    1. So beautiful, Kathy. Love that you’ve added “God is Enough,” too. Smiling softly because Enough has been my word this year and I didn’t even think about that. But I like it. I like it a lot!

      For whatever it’s worth, it’s been really helpful for me to have books about my word as traveling companions, too. Brene Brown’s work led me to the word Enough. Another *really* great book about Enough is “A Life of Being, Having, and Doing Enough” by Wayne Muller.

      Wishing you well in your journey together . . . <3

  10. Reverence: after much pondering, I concluded ‘reverence’ would be my word for 2014, (first must spell it right–keep putting an a instead of e). As I look out my window, even on dark and snowy days, I can find beauty and movement that calls me to reverence. If I can hold this word day by day, I will be allowing God to speak and guide me whatever lies ahead.