Share your Word for 2015
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 Tuesday, January 6, 2015 and you are automatically entered for the prize drawing (prizes listed below).
A free 12-day online mini-retreat to help your word choose you. . .
As in past years, 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. Even if you participated last year, you are more than welcome to register again.
Sign up here and you can start your mini-retreat today. Once you subscribe you will receive the first email within an hour and then one email each day for 12 days. Your information will never be shared or sold.
Win a Prize – Random Drawing Giveaway on January 6th!
I am delighted to offer some wonderful gifts from the Abbey and friends and supporters of the Abbey’s work:
- One space in the upcoming online Abbey retreat Illuminating the Way: Epiphany and New Year Retreat with Monks, Mystics, & Archetypes (a fabulous way to begin the year!)
- A copy of Dana Reynolds‘ fabulous gold medal winning novel Ink and Honey
- A 6-week self study course from Dana Reynolds: Your Sacred Life Artisan’s Book of Wonderment
- A New Year Sacred Reading from the Ronna Detrick (let a woman from scripture accompany you into the new year!)
- A copy Betsey Beckman’s fabulous dance of The Creation on DVD (be inspired to dance into the new year)
- A copy of As I Lay Pondering from Kayce Hughlett (a wonderful book of daily reflections to accompany you into the new year)
- A 2015 calendar from Stacy Wills featuring her alcohol ink paintings (be blessed with Stacy’s stunning images each month)
- A copy of Richard Bruxvoort Colligan’s new album Love Stands With, with songs based on justice-oriented Psalms (be moved by powerful music to inspire your heart to prophetic action in the coming year)
- 4 people will win a copy of Sick and You Cared for Me: Homilies and Reflections for Cycle B with one reflection by Christine, plus also Richard Rohr, Rob Bell, Jan Richardson, and many more!
- 4 people will win their choice of self-study online classes from the 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 to receive ongoing inspiration in your in-box. 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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804 Responses
My word for 2015 is open. I want to be more open to the pain and many joys in my life in a non-judgemental way. Open to new experiences especially those outside my comfort zone. Open to new ideas and be willing to hear different perspectives. I plan to volunteer to help teach someone to read so they too can become open to learning and expanding their life boundaries. By being more open I hope to continue to grow my daily awareness of compassion and understanding in my life.
I am still seeking my word,
pursuing as if with a dragonfly net.
It hovers, just out of reach
even its colours uncertain.
Perhaps I need to sit down
in the winter flowers,
still,
opening a space
for it to find me and alight
like spirit’s breath
in my hand.
My word came to me this morning, but leapt from the page of my devotional yesterday, my word is Harvest. I’m not sure why, but am certain that’s it. Blessings all.
Bodhisattva … though perhaps not the precise meaning, I am carrying this word into 2015 with the meaning of … one who chooses to live within the struggle for the benefit of others.
My word is LISTEN. The first word in the Rule of St. Benedict. It feels like a call to listen to the Spirit, to spoken words and to the physical sounds around me: music, squirel chatter, snowplows, the blessed silence of my house. To be alert and aware. Thank you for this opening now, mid-Advent!
My word is abundance. If I look deeply I find I have all I need for today. Extravagant God !
My word…. is “accept diminished ” age, health, situations you cannot change , can not “go around”, but must” go through”….those around you that you love that are slipping or not able to be their younger selves. For me it is striving to be Content with ALL the circumstances around you that are sad or that hurt your heart… and they seem all around…… but we must look for JOY and HOPE.
My word is ‘letting go’. We are in a season of preparing for moving on as life has shifted and changed around us precipitating inner change and the need to move home.
Be
as in
Be still and know that I am God
In liminal space at the threshold of the unknown I wait.
This year the symbolic picture came before the word. The picture that came was an archer aiming an arrow at a bulls-eye target. I was wrestled with it at first and resisted. Then the Scripture Isaiah 49:1-12 was highlighted. I needed a simple word with layered or multiple meanings, so I asked God and waited. He answered: AIM, both the verb and the noun. As a verb it means: to point or direct at a target, to align, to aspire to, have the intention of achieving, set one’s sight on, to try. AIM as a noun is a purpose, intention, objective, desired outcome, specific goal, target, dream, hope. Psalm 25:12 in the Message Bible says, What are God worshipers like? Arrows aimed at God’s bulls-eye.