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
The Greek word Metanoia popped into mind about a week ago. It felt important – like an unsolicited message from my Inner Self. I have a book by that title that I’ve owned for many years. The subtitle is “A Transformational Journey.” The word itself means “change of mind.” It refers to the willingness to be submissive to the Divine’s loving Will. It feels appropriate for where I am in my personal journey at this time.
Simplicity is an invitation to create a life that is free from so many distractions such as unnecessary material things, activities, over-committing time, and over- thinking life. Simplicity can open many new ways of being.
“Release”
I have struggled this past year with releasing/letting go, and I have had some surprising success and subsequent opening. But as the year ends I find myself clinging once again, as fear struggles to take root in me. I would like another year to contemplate “release” and all the levels of meaning and experience it holds for me, having had a glimpse of freedom.
I have been holding the words “space for transformation” and “stay” in my attention. While they don’t quite feel settled yet, this is what I keep coming back to. These have been themes for my life and work, especially “space for transformation”, for some time now. After a year of transitions, I would look forward to experiencing transformation in the slower pace of staying.
Once again I have reveled in the opportunity to chose a word to guide me for the year ahead. I have chosen EXPLORE as my guiding principle for 2014. Reaching my 75th birthday on January 13th prompts me to EXPLORE new modes of artistic expression, new genres of writing and new/renewed spiritual practices. There is still much to learn and to experience.
Listen……
Listen is the echo in the quiet ,
an invitation
Calling this forth elicits a notable pause and a turn towards what feels deeply familiar and unknown at the same time which I suspect as the intent
My word is ease, as in “ease of well-being”, part of the lovingkindness meditation. My brother, husband and I were out hiking together a few days ago. My husband asked, “What is the opposite of fear?” My brother, who is a Zen Buddhist, suggested, “Ease.” I knew that was my word for the year.
CAPITULATION
Lord,why for 2014 could it not be a word to easily enjoy. A word to make me dance and write rthyms that evoke images of easy sun filled beach sitting days! Oh no you have provoked me with this word and as I tried to swallow it away it bubbled back up over and over again. I concede.. how ironic the exact definition of this word you have asked me not to give an inch this year to stay on the path of my sacred story to not surrender to things that are not directed to filling my cup with your essence. Yes Lord a thousand times yes I will not practice the destructive actions of capitulation.
I will make that the beat of the drum that I move to…
My word is “Yes!” as I seek to be more open and to be surprised.
Space. Room to breathe, spaces in togetherness, physical space outside and open vessels inside. This year’s word is space.
I love to scene the scenes of winter posted. We do not get much snow in Texas and certainly no mountain peaks near where I live – yet my heart expands with awareness of God’s majesty when I visit the mountains – so it is nice to visit them “vicariously” through posted pictures.