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
“Gratitude”. I am thinking that this needs to be my practice this year, especially in relation to my partner, my children and my life.
Welcome is the word that has chosen me for this new year. It is a no-holds-barred welcome of all that comes, and an openness to receive the gift.
The word that chose me is “Tender,” as in the song “Softly and Tenderly,” and the “tender mercies” of our God. In recent weeks and days I have seen how I have a “hard heart,” and I want it to be Tender.
I originally thought it was trust-now I think it is patience-to wait for the gift in the present, and not hurry ahead. What is the gift in this moment? Not later-but wait here until it is revealed…maybe my word isn’t clear yet…
repeated phrase which sought me out
knocked insistently in different wordings
step by step
day by day
handhold by handhold
one step at a time
another way of releasing control
and leaning on love
step by step
And here were some of the ways that phrase, that concept, kept knocking – some in obvious, literal, word for word ways, others very subtly:
My word is welcome. I have been doing Welcoming Prayer, thanks to the teaching of Cynthia Bourgeault. It is new for me, and I plan to keep it up for all of 2014.
Trust.
My word is Gratitude.
My Word is Embracing
Instead of pushing the unwanted thoughts and feelings away, I have started a process of staying with and exploring what they want to tell me .
I find myself jugdemental and full of self criticism and shame. Even shame about shame .. It makes me sad.
And angry . And sometimes it makes me laugh .
My wish , is to become more compassionate towards myself , not just towards other people , animals and nature .
To embrace myself as a complete human being
Wow – this is a huge task !
Bless my feet on the journey
Bless all fellow monks
And everything that has been
And is yet to come
My New Years greeting on Facebook
Was :
Come what may
Night and day
My word is irreducible. It’s not an easy word for me so far, but here’s to the journey, eh?