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 “interbeing.” It expresses perfectly the concept I was struggling to name.
Thich Nhat Hanh said: If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. “Interbeing” is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix “inter-“ with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, inter-be.
For some time I’ve felt called to be more aware of the existence and significance of our interbeing, and I’m excited to see what the year brings with this as my word.
Well, I’m a little chagrined, but the word that has chosen me is “surrender.” Sigh. I guess it’s better than a host of other possibilities. Heh. I couldn’t get away from it; it kept coming up. And I know it applies to many different arenas of my life: surrender to writing, to health, to trusting (God). I am wryly agreeing to dance with this word this year.
My word is EMBRACE — it came to me early in the process and settled and stayed. Embrace – the feelings, embrace what comes in life, embrace those I love, embrace change as it comes my way ,embrace the various parts and energies of myself— in the Dancing Monk meditation — the Second Principle of Hospitality and the wonderful image carries the meaning of EMBRACE for me. My image is one that was created by faculty and students at our chaplaincy institute retreat on the Divine Feminine – she is embracing the world
Beautiful!
That is so very beautiful. My word is – commitment – Doesn’t that also mean embrace?
This image is exquisite! Thank you for this beautiful reminder of the Divine Feminine. Makes me wish I could have been a part of the retreat. How blessed you all must have been – – – are.
My word this year is “now-full”. I have come into a new way of seeing, an objective and grace-filled vision of myself, others and the world around me. Last year was truly a transformative year in the Spirit for me and I want to treasure each moment, fully living in the present.
My word is “ripening”. It arises at a time when family dilemmas are dissolving in my heart. It is a time of contentment; of letting go of unhealthy obligations, emotional entrapment and trying too hard. I feel a delicious, relaxing spaciousness. a slow ripening of my deepest, best self. Last year my word was “enough” – ripening seems to be arising from knowing I am “enough”, that there is “enough”.
I’m starting a retreat tomorrow morning, and, when I arrived at the center this evening, I was given the “Courage” room. I guess that’s what happens when you ask for a word!
I’ve lived and worked with “allow” and” let go” for such a bit of time that I hadn’t really thought to ask what the next word on the journey for me would be. I’m glad you asked.
HONOR is my word. The previous words were helpful to gain clarity and offered a needed ‘stepping aside’. Honor brings me back to engagement, to facing that with which I have struggled with a renewed sense of fullness and the ability to see its sacredness.
My word is “enough.” Learning that I am enough, I have enough, there is enough, and knowing when I’ve had enough or done enough or given enough. This is a soothing word and concept for me in this world that demands more, more, more and yet remains unsatisfied.
Diana, I was rethinking my word today. It had started as “Let go” and I realized letting go was just the first step to the real word, which is “enough.” You said it perfectly.
Humility is the word the Lord has given me.
Here is my acrostic poem….
Humility is my way home
Unbound to accept my limitations
More of Jesus, less of me
I AM
Love in its rarest, rawest form
Imperfections embraced
Thresholds opened to newness, depth of life
Yahweh… breathe Him in and out.
What a beautiful acrostic, Deitra! You inspired me to write one using my word. Here is mine :
Treasure each moment
Enjoy each person
Notice Life
Delight in Creation
Enough is enough
Remember Jesus.
My word for 2014 is focus;
Lord;
Free my mind of clutter
Open my heart to your love
Cleanse my soul of sin
Unify my spirit
Show me your path