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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.

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October 8, 2025

680 Responses

  1. My word for the year is rooted.

    Should we move? Should we get closer to children? After 13 years in retirement, we have decided that what we have is “good enough.” Rooted in community. Rooted in love and peace. Rooted in the love only God can give.

  2. Desire
    I know my Word. It is the Name I saw in myself at the end of the Way of the Monk class that I just completed. My desire, my yearning aches in my heart- to be present in God, to BE in the co-creation that is the life I am given. Desire to fully know what my true self already knows.

  3. My word is waiting: waiting for next steps in career and/or location, for daughters who have been through divorces to “get their feet under them again,” for healing for friends with dire diseases, for clarity on creative pursuits.

  4. I wanted to wait and go through Christine’s 12-day online mini retreat, but the word wouldn’t wait. It came to me while reading today’s reflection in the community’s Advent online retreat… PEREGRINATIO. Oh, my heart just skipped as I typed the letters. It’s what I’ve been searching for this whole year, and I believe the word had been searching for me too :-). I’ll still go through Christine’s mini retreat after writing this. May all find their word….

    1. Would love to hear your explanation of this word. I am intrigued by it. I am writing down all the words here and hope to create messages of each of them, or clusters of them for my small Friends congregation for this year. Hearing everyone’s words seems to give me a ‘pulse’ that I had been hoping to read, for speaking to the contemporary soul. But I don’t know your word!!

  5. WELCOME
    Each sunrise enlightens the new day revealing so much beauty. Some suffer their way into our lives. Others suffuse our eyes like the smooth birth of a new being.
    Why not start each day with a welcoming heart knowing that whichever way beauty is revealed, we can be astonished.

  6. My word for the year is DELIGHT

    I have been deputy leader of the Presentation Sisters in Queensland Australia for the past 5 years, and at our Chapter in June 2014, I will not stand again for a leadership position. I will cross a threshold into a new tomorrow, and I do it with delight and anticipation of the unknown ahead.

  7. My word is will.
    Will as a power of the soul to bring about the changes I need to make. Will as a gesture that faces the future. And, will as the beginning of a question to answer with contemplation and action.

  8. My word for 2014 is open. As I enter into autumn of my life I want to be conscious of all that is around me. I chose the word open to remind myself inspite of what is going on in my life I need to strive towards keeping myself open to God’s presence during every moment of the day, to be open to new ideas, activities, and open to appreciating the differences in people and their thinking.

  9. My word is “companioned.” I am in deep mourning over loss of a 21 year relationship, and am longing for close friendships in the community I’ve just moved to.

  10. “Solace”

    This year I want to pull back each layer of meaning of what it means to give and to receive the solace of Lord in all things. I want to sit with each unveiling for while until I can speak the language of solace with others.