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 the year is community.
I resist this word at the same time I embrace the many small but mighty things occurring that insist that I commit to this word for the coming year. I am grateful to have the Abbey and all you dancing monks as helpers and guides as I explore this word in the coming year.
My word for the coming year is simply “joy”.
Focus…. this word surprised me and continues to challenge me… I am willing to explore what this may reveal to me as I move through my day, one moment at a time…
Follow – Face – Feast
One – Opportunity
Challenge – Cultivate – Celebrate
Utilizing – Using – Uplifting
Self-awareness – Self-Discovery – Self-Discipline – Spirit
BE – God defines himself as I AM. He is first and foremost a spiritual being. He is as real today as he was in the past or will be in the future. As a creative spirit, he lovingly puts his all into each facet of creation.
So often I dwell on the past or anxiously anticipate the future and miss the present moment. I want to BE a creative spirit living fully in the “here” and “now”, putting my all into everything I say and do. Then and only then will I be able to BE a true reflection of God’s love.
My word is “with” – inspired by God with us. The themea of accompaniment and partnership and community have been prominent in my diacernment od the word.
My word is honor, meaning to acknowledge and respect my experiences and intuitions, trusting that I am guided when I tend to what is present day by day.
my word is ‘grace’
it first arrived as my name in WOTMPOTA fall session
taking the 12 day retreat it was evident
I would be resting in this word for a year
I need to focus on the blessings in my life
the way the Lord has been caring for me
the way the Lord has been leading me
and how I have been accompanied
and favored on this journey.
I am sitting on a two hundred acre farm in the remote Ottawa Valley and it is Christmas Day. My word is silence and I have accepted that I am drawn to silence after working with people and enjoying my family. Silence is dark and mysterious and invites me to simply wait for the gifts that will come from this experience. In contrast to family dinners, gifts and noisy Christmas festivities, I am in love with the word and the reality of silence.
My word for this year is “responsibility.” I am grateful to claim this as my word for the coming year and look forward to what it means to live into this. While I believe in being guided and letting my path unfold before me, I also realize that it is in fact my responsibility to also choose the good, the wholly, and to be real about what this is. It asks for me to tell myself the truth. Responsibility.
My Word is UNLOCK… it came in a daydream – steps up to a door, noticing a key on a necklace (prayer beads?) around my neck, a voice saying to unlock the door and step over the threshold….
Oh my! How exciting :D