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
Practice letting go! We have to loose things before we find them again. Loosing hurts, identify the hurt and welcome it and let it go, that’s when the transformation begins. I need the courage to do this with my past, feel the pain, and hand it over to God, and let it go.
Let go and LIVE….
After months of carrying burden this advice is so important to me as I need to let go of the past and LIVE in the present as this is all we have. God in the NOW
My word is Believe!
My word is Radiate!
M7y word is Hope. My grandson received a bone marrow transplant over a year ago, and is still alive and thriving! He still has Ensophiliac Esophaghitis, but is holding on well.
I have great hope that he may be totally well some day, God Willing!
The word that chose me is ALLOW. As in: allow reality, my much-changed life, to just be accepted as it is, without so much filtering, herding, resisting, clinging, criticizing, categorizing…..etc. To ALLOW my body, soul, spirit to rest trustfully in the arms of the Beloved, and BE WITH WHAT IT IS, AS IT IS. (And to sorta like it… :) )
My word for next year is “Order”. Looking for order in my prayer life, finding a rhythm in order, peace in order and a possibility of further emptying with “order” in all of my life.
My word for 2015 is COURAGE. Throughout 2014 I felt that I have been through ‘The dark night of my soul’; sometimes painful, confusing and lonely. In 2015 I want to get the COURAGE to overcome my fears; and this mini-retreat is a special way to start this journey.
My word is “viriditas” – the greening power of God. I have retired this year and am waiting to discover what God will be greening in me in the coming year.
“Ripening” came to me the instant I saw the invitation. But this may have been my word for 2014. Following my husband’s death in late August of 2013, I gradually began coming back into the world at last year’s solstice. This was followed by a year full of incredible challenges that forced me – literally – to wander in the desert…while I ripened?
Last week brought significant turnings into my world. 2015 may require a new word to choose me and the mini-retreat promises to remove the question mark. The hummingbirds dancing at the feeder and getting up in my face seem to be inviting me to get on with business of playing in the fields of the Lord….