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
I think my word is “waiting.” I was struck with this word at the end of Advent when I realized that I wasn’t ready for Christmas; I hadn’t done the work to prepare myself. Then I received this divine dope slap that it wasn’t my job to do the work; God was already doing it. I just have to wait and let God’s plan unfold within me. In the waiting is GOODNESS. God is shaping, refining, forming me. The change may be unperceivable, but it is constant. In the waiting is NOW, inviting me to pause and hold the moment, then let it go. The moment disappears but the imprint on my heart remains. In the waiting is HOPE. In the waiting is PEACE. I believe that I am called to be an Advent Person, to be in waiting mode. Not easy for an impatient control freak!
My word is Direction. It seems like such an obvious choice but too much of my life I have let chaos rein and allowed myself to feel as if the magnet has fallen straight out of my compass.
Looking back at the past year, I noticed a trend of my despising small blessings except in most cases they were big blessings.
I have decided to accept blessings this year instead of pushing them away. A path is setting itself before me. Now I need to follow it.
My word is “slow down”. I minister to our 18 sisters (women religious) with different degrees of dementia, in a nursing home. I feel called to move according to their slowed
down pace physically and mentally so I can hear their pain and need to be seen and
heard. How to do this when the need is more than I can respond to?
My word is “disencumber.” I have increasingly felt weighed down by too much “stuff.” But not until this summer, when I was hospitalized for pulmonary embolism, did I realize how desperately I needed to open up some space in my life. I felt freer in my little hospital room than in my day-to-day life!
So I asked for a word to guide me in taking the actions needed to create breathing space. Balance? Lighten? Simplify? Clear? All lovely–but nothing shimmered until I stumbled upon the French equivalent of “disencumber.”
The word has already energized me to start getting rid of what is no longer meaningful and purposeful in my life–to declutter the house, to shed excess pounds, to pare down possessions, and to say no to activities that waste time and sap energy.
To disencumber is to unburden the spirit, and make room for light and fresh air to enter.
The word for my 2014 is Bridges. It came amidst feelings of transition, bewilderment, and loss. The possibility of connection, of being a bridge, crossing a bridge, building bridges, discovering a way over something, a path, made the hard feelings not so hard.
Trusting the universe to provide
My word is clarity. Clarity of thought, sight and actions. I feel on all levels clarity is important for my path. I need to be clear in my heart, my mind and senses. In some ways I feel I have been in a fog and now is the time to emerge from that state.
My word is CHERISH. I need to care for myself lovingly. I will ask myself, “What would love have me do?” Recently I named an art piece by that title. I claim this word for myself for the coming year.
I am drawn to the word “Tender”. I feel believe it is my sacred calling to incarnate the image of the sacred “Tender;” to relate “Tenderly;” to a world that cries out in desperate need for a little “Tenderness”.