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 practice.
Spiritual practice,
creative practice,
practicing what I preach,
practicing skills.
Practice.
My word for the year is flow. Flow like a river, flow like a prayer.
My word for this year is thoughtful. To me this relates to not only being thoughtful in speech (i.e. kindness/forgiveness) but also a slowing down/contemplative/living in the now/and embracing wholeheartedly whatever changes take place.
I have embraced the word “gratitude” after my husband of fifty years died, and the journey was so rich that I kept it for five years, as it would not let me go. But it is time to venture forth.
This year a prosaic word chose me, and it is “focus.” It brings generative associations alongside as I think about it. Focus on Family/Friends (love), focus on Health/Wellness (strength), focus on Creativity (Spirit), and focus on Organization (discipline).
My word for this year is trust… trust in the unknown journey through a whole lot of changes…and trust where I can’t see where I am going.
Three years away from living the blessings of a life in St.Benoit, France — this very morning in southern California, came an epiphany for me of a deeper meaning of the word “STABILITY”!
I now have “a word” to summarize my treasured five year journey and a deeper meditation rather than just memories to experience also when rereading the vows of my friends – the Benedictine monks of the Abbaye de Fleury. (Stability being a main promise)
When I was invited to anchor a new house of prayer in the small village on the Loire river, I was surprised to realize how right and timely it felt to leave my familiar life for a new country, language, friends, and mostly new, a much more complete type of solitariness. The experience of “new” and moving was not at all unfamiliar to me who, at age seventy, had not stayed in one place for more than a few years. Stability in location was not and is not yet, a gift for me but today I’ve received a gift of the heart – where, as my epiphany tells me, is where true STABILITY resides undisturbed. Grateful stability!
My word for this year is “home.” I am trying to find a sense of home both in my surroundings and in myself, so this seems like a good word for me for this year.
TREASURE
is a deeply sensuous word for me; it rhymes with pleasure, yet embodies so much about the joys of being alive on this incredible planet.
My word for 2014 is Authentic. This is the year for me to recognise and accept who I am, practice staying true to Spirit, and focus on owning my strengths.
The word that has chosen me is focus. I believe St. John of the Cross would call this loving attention.