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 is Passion. Everything I do in 2015 will be measured by this: Does it make me feel Powerful, Eager, Authentic?
My words are ~ What if? I will be taking time this year looking at questioning. I grew up with my mother sometimes answering my questions with,
“If you are writing a book, leave that chapter our.”
I feel the need to be questioning more ~ asking more questions of myself and others.
My word is Breathe. Breathe in Love. Breathe out Love. Breathe in Wonder. Breathe out Wonder. Breathe in The Holy. Breathe out The Holy.
“Global” winds up being my word–and I’m still grappling with its implications. It’s simply a word that won’t go away. I think it’s sprung up around a deep invitation to embrace a more “global” spirituality; not necessarily meaning I invite in or mix practices or teaching from other world traditions per se, although that may be part of it. I think it is just a loosening of the stronghold Catholicism had on me for years, to open up to all that is “out there”, and to increasingly “own” “that which works for me”, no matter what tradition its from. Ah, but we shall see as next year unfolds, eh?
Bear through…
This arrived for me this year, unbidden — before I even began consciously contemplating my word for 2015. I’m coming to some more clarity with it, and it has some relation to giving birth — but the bearing through is the labor part before the pushing, before the “bearing down” time…
My magical words are “SHOW UP”. Nothing is going to happen if you do not show up. No meditation will happen, no art, no journaling, no creating, no flowers will grow, no love will bloom, nothing will deepen or get wider or more brilliant unless I SHOW UP.
I have thought about this in the realm of being more intentionally creative and I discovered I cannot become more anything unless I show up with intention to create.
So there you have it –
SHOW UP and the prayers, art, blessings, creativity, clearing and healing will occur. Amen. Amen. Amen.
My word is Holy. It is a word that creates sacred space, silence, for me.
Resuscitate
My word is SAVOR. Time to slow down and savor each moment, each day.
My word is FORTITUDE – and it is absolutely perfect!
For years I have been trying to write a book, a collection of reflections on life and grace. Having celebrated my 70 birthday this year, I am aware of the need to get to it before time runs out. But as a 7 on the Enneagram I am easily drawn off course. It is crystal clear to me why this is the word that has found me. It invites me to work against my preferences, to practice the art of stick-to-it-tive-ness. To do this I will have to acquire several other virtues as well — courage, determination, self-restraint, patience, humility . . . The list goes on and on. I am grateful for this chance to look more closely over these next 12 days at how to really let this word enter and change me.