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!
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680 Responses
Real.
This word found me around day 7 as I sat with three other words: relish, rely, and release. I kept wondering which of the three it would be, then I saw that the one word was right in front of me. Being real is at the root of relishing life, relying on God, and releasing stress. I look forward to being real in a real 2014.
Turn.
To commit a switch on or off,
to flip over a piece of grilling salmon.
Autumn maples.
Milk on its last day,
to repent and move again,
to reach for the corner of the page you’ve finished.
His face set toward Jerusalem.
To respond to magnetic attraction,
to move a screw deeper,
to switch moments: is it mine or yours now?
To evolve in season.
To reorient.
To be romanced.
Turn.
My word for 2014 is “choices”. Learning for me is to be peaceful in the choices that God puts before me to make and that it’s alright for me to choose for me. Blessing in the new year to all.
My word is ‘paring back’. Not so much a conscious decision as something that I find is just happening in my life.
My word is ‘LOVE’. Especially with difficult family members.
My word is a narrative – the narrative of the burning bush – Ex. 3, with this poem by R.S. Thomas to start off the pondering:
The Bright Field
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
The word that chose me is SOFTLY! I was listening for a word that “shimmered” as you suggested, Christine, and reading a meditation with the words “Softly now. Walk with care. Handle the stuff of life with gentle hands.” At the word “softly” I felt my neck muscles relax, my hands unclench and a smile form on my face. Repeating the word “softly” throughout the day is helping me to be aware of how and where I walk, of the feel of everything I touch, and of how I speak, bringing wonder and peace to my day. Thank you!
My word for 2014 is “tethered”. Not like being imprisoned or tied to something or someone, but loosely connected through mutual love, respect, understanding, hopes, dreams. The image I have is of a dog walking beside his human companion holding the leash in his mouth.
My word is JOY! It represents the convergence of all kinds of events in my life from a skin cancer operation on my face 12/12 to doing an Advent study where the third Sunday was about the Joy-filled journey, and then, reflecting on nearly 25 years of my marriage that was so often devoid of joy:( My recent meditation has been; Oneness with You is joy. God has been expanding my capacity for joy and I’m walking into 2014 with hands open wide to receive it, breath it, live it, dance it, and spread it!