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 is “spark”…
“Man is no more than electrified clay” Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sparks in static electricity are the unexpected flash of light that we see when we ‘touch’ each other. They usually are so sudden that they make us laugh.
Sparks of electricity can be as powerful and awe-inspiring as a lightning bolt, as it seeks to come to equilibrium.
Sparks of electricity can be as subtle as the flow of ions through every one of the cells in our body. When this ion flow ceases, this is how our bodies die. There is no longer the constant flow of positive with negative.
Sparks seem to me to be an invisible force that is mystery, always present in its invisible form, always seeking to find the balance between positive and negative.
I have dealt with much death this past couple of years, and in trying to understand the meaning of life, I have found myself attracted to this word! Sparks are everywhere! :)
I grew up in a little town called Hope, Indiana. A few years ago when I went through a divorce I found myself spending more time with my family in Hope and reconnecting with the Moravian Church, the church of my childhood. Hope, this word keeps coming to my attention and so I am focusing on it this year. Sankofa in the Akan language of Ghana and used in African American spirituality translates in English to “reach back and get it”. This year I am going to look back and reflect on my life and in doing so I “hope” I will be able to bring “Hope” to others that negative life events that satan means for evil can be turned around for God’s purpose of saving others.
Savor
Savor is the word that seems to have chosen me for this new unfolding year of 2014. To savor all that it is in the moment with deep gratitude.
Savor … may it be so.
This is my first year for picking a word, or more accurately, allowing a word to pick me… which is “freedom”.
I love what Wendy said above… her words capture for me the essence of the word.
The word that chose me is “savor” it is a melding of the child-like wonder of the world that I have carried with me into adulthood mingled with the wisdom and discernment that has grown within. It is God calling me to hold what has been true all my life and bring it to the world today.
My word for 2014 “Welcome” (Well-Calm)
My word this year is Awaken. I was tossing around the idea of using awaken / awake / awakened when it jumped out at me in a writing by John O’Donohue:
“In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is one with your life’s desire.
AWAKEN your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”
The word that chose me last January 1st was ‘forgiveness’.
It stirred within me for months – just gently. In December I had this incredible awakening – in my heart I knew I had forgiven a person in my life that I have held a grudge against for years. I experienced a miracle.
My word this year is ‘happiness’ within and without. I know it will be a great unfettered year.
Happy and Blessed New Year.
Over the last several weeks, “balance” has come to me. Actually, it’s “new balance,” due in part to the reconfiguring of life and family system after the death of my Dad last Jan. We had to find a new balance in Thanksgiving and Christmas observances, and we have been exploring new balances every since he joined the community of saints. In addition, since I broke bones in my left foot and right ankle last summer, I’ve listened again and again to bodily guidance in learning to balance, regain strength and find ways to anoint and bless those bones. My dear rehab coach has said again and again that “balance and strength are two faces of the same physical wellbeing.” True also of all aspects of our human being. Here’s to discerning right balance in the moment, in the breath, in the year.