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 BEHOLD! To see and honor the sacred within myself, in all those I meet, and in the world around me.
Beloved is the word that chose me for 2015.
My word is DEPTH
Our world has suffered deeply in 2014.. And we are constantly urged to have more fun, acquire more things, make war on those who think or worship differently. In 2015 we may call ourselves to see more deeply, love more truly, and not to suffer uselessly.
The word that chose me was “open.” Thank you for this invitation.
The work that chose me this year is ‘receptivity.’ I wasn’t sure that I wanted that word, but it has persisted and shown up already in several ways, so it has claimed me.
My phrase for this year is “Lift it up”
In the past few months several people in my life have shared some deep secrets, and I have wondered why and why me? The only answer seems to be that I am being asked to be a part of lifting these sorrows and these people up to God.
So in 2015 I would like to keep this phrase ready especially whenever life throws me a curve or I witness challenges and suffering in the world, but also for all the blessings of the year ahead, from the simplest to the grandest.
My word/s for 2015 are “new shoots”. On a contemplative walk I found myself creating a small mandala with spruce cones and further on I came upon these ferns growing out of an uprooted tree. I see them feeding on what has already grown getting new life and wonder what new shoots will grow from me in 2015
My word for 2015 is “illuminate”. I prayed and sat with this word for the past several weeks and it seemed as if everything I picked up to read had the word illuminate in the text. As I meditated on this word for this year, I have grown in hopeful expectation for what may be illuminated in me and through me this year.
I pray this will be a year that the light of Christ within me will shine freely and brightly in new and unexpected ways. I also pray that the light I carry will warm and comfort those around me and bring greater experiences of love, joy and peace.
My word is ENOUGH. This year I would like to learn what it means to relax into the reality that doing enough is ok not figuring out the best or the perfect. I’d also like to believe that living my enough is faithfulness not laziness.
I have just started to ponder my word choice & you have awakened the possibility of Imperfection! Thank you…
My word for 2015 emerged upon wakening this morning: MONK. As I have been waiting for my word to emerge, I generated list of many words embodying spiritual principles but none truly resonated. The word MONK seems to encompass them all; it clicks. In 2014, my word was JESUS. Of the many spiritual writings / resources that passed my way through exploring the name of Jesus as my 2014 word, the one that most called to my heart and fed my spirit was the call to be a Monk-in-the-World. It is also a way of describing myself that I resist because I think most people I know would not understand the term and would think ill of me (people pleasing). Regardless, in 2015, I open myself to grow into the call to live a committed, contemplative, creative, compassionate life as a Monk-in-the-World.