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
My word is Harvest.
“breathe” to remind me to stop, take deep breathes and inhale God’s spirit.
ALLOW-
Oh……. this word came through after much contemplation, quiet and letting it find me!- For me right now this word encompasses allowing all………..good, bad, ugly, beauty, indifference, joy, rest, prayer, God, healing forgiving, life, deaths, nature, spontaneity……..the list is endless for me……….
ALLOW
Receive.
At bedtime, the first night of this new year, my word found me. As I stilled myself, the word “movement” appeared in my mind. It was like a light that seemed to penetrate the individual thoughts that filled my mind over these past days of seeking a word for 2014. I feel assured it somehow connects them all even though I am not able to articulate that now. Someone else has said, “For every beginning there is an ending and for every ending, a beginning” (source unknown). I have an idea this is a GEM that I will be polishing throughout the coming months.
Hi Christine , the word I have chosen is SHINE. It has been coming awhile and on New year Eve our wonderful fireworks had SHINE as its theme. Hildegard has also charged me with the idea to SHINE . Mandela tells us to SHINE so 2014 I am going to SHINE for the sake of our world
Unfolding
Inspiration and I am thinking of that as receiving spirit’s breath.
Freedom…to cross the threshold to explore new pathways..
Free to experience more fully the essence of who I am…
Freedom to journey where the Spirit takes me!
The word that has taken root in me for 2014 is UNFURL. Am feeling a strong pull to begin an art journal around this year’s Word, with images and words that have already started showing up at my door …. A young fern’s fiddlehead frond growing and opening ….. A canvas sail catching the wind …. Wet washed sheets billowing on a summer morning’s clothesline …. And ruach blows my Yes like milkweed pod seeds into the heavens.
what a lovely image! While my word has chosen me, I will keep this one on my desk as well! Thank you!