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!
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.
680 Responses
My word for this year chose me on Christmas eve: Restore.
Resting into true image
Each cell softening, enlivened with imagination
Satisfied fully
Tuned to the music of Mashuq; grain, oil and new wine
Overflowing, letting go into wild edges
Released into body as coracle, dancing in the Beloved’s
Everlasting embrace
(The idea of being tuned to the music of Mashuq came from a Hafiz poem, The Chorus in the Eye. The word means “Beloved Sweetheart,” and the poem speaks of this being the word The Beloved is always saying to us.)
My word is …tender…working in the midst of a slum, I experience expressions of tenderness every day in contrast to the harshness of slum life. Witnessing the tenderness in the people I work with and for, I am reminded to be tender to myself as I try and be the” tender compassion of our God”.
It seems as though my word is “Follow me.” The words are already working on me. Each time they were reinforced, they brought with them something new.
The word that chose me has been shimmering for the last couple of weeks since I listened to Christine’s Monk in the World treatment of the topic: hospitality. What has been resonating most strongly is the inner hospitality aspect. My therapist and I talked about a dream I had recently and he wondered aloud if the stranger in this particular dream wasn’t me. That cemented it. I’m going to spend some time (a year, actually) with this word and all of it’s meanings.
I think it is an image that is choosing me, more than a word. It is the image of a swimmer lying face up in the water, arms wide out, face to the sky, held by the water, drifting in the current. It is the image of myself as I lay back in the water and drift after swimming my laps. It is an image of freedom and trust, and total surrender, of allowing God to do what he will with me and in me and through me, of letting myself go and knowing I am being held by the everlasting arms. And it is an image of both certainty and uncertainty, of strength and weakness, of openness and waiting.
I asked a dear and respected friend for a way to describe the basic concept of ‘being present now’ and she told me about Freya and the quality of discernment… My word(s) are “Don’t turn your face away.” John O’Donohue wrote, “The human face is a meeting place of two unknowns: the infinity of the outer world and the uncharted inner world to which each individual alone has access.” (Anam Cara)
The word that is choosing me is “heaven.” Now that I have begun listening, this word seems to be “hounding” me … see there you go – Hound of Heaven! I wrote a little song today – “I’m gonna create in heaven’s name. I’m gonna create to ease the pain. I’m gonna create to heal the shame. I’m gonna create in heaven’s name.” Then, I made up a bunch of different verses as well … “I’m gonna dance in heaven’s name … I’m gonna sing … I’m gonna listen … I’m gonna speak” etc. etc! Whee!
Delightfyllly playful
my word that the heavens chose for me is
ILLUMINATE-
costing not less than everything…
in tapping the prophetic stance
to heal, reveal and renew the world so in need.
Thanks Christine and all for this wonderful exercise of listening and holding the mystery.
I adorned my front door with a sign reading BE THE GIFT this holiday season. I wanted to remind myself and others that we can be a gift to eachother and to the world. A friend stopped by today and upon letting herself in as people often do, she announced, “Your present is here!” What a delightful moment for both of us it was. My phrase for 2014 is “Be The Gift”
My word is “complete.” I am complete in myself, God has made us all complete and not lacking. Our task in the world is to complete god’s work. So many possibilities …