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
Heal. I so badly wanted it to be something more exotic, but this one moved in and made itself comfortable in my life in spite of me. I resented it when it first reached out and grasped me, which was my first clue that perhaps Heal and I needed each other. So now it shimmers in my dark night with the brilliance of a North star, and I am taking the first steps on this year’s journey.
The word that chose me this year is “mysterious.”
I am convinced that we humans do not have a noun big enough to identify or objectify God. So I have been invited to seek God in the mysterious _____ (ways, events, persons, relations, objects, prayers, grace, mercies, etc.)
Lisa, you have put so beautifully what I have been trying to formulate for a while… seeking God in the mysterious. Thank you.
Rebirth. On New Year’s eve I was feeling crummy and in turn started to bog down in guilt over the mess-ups of this last year, when I had a sense that God was inviting me to see myself as a newborn baby. Yes, in the middle of a mess, covered in blood and mucus, but gloriously alive and new. Then I knew my word: rebirth. A chance to start over again.
Transition is my word as I begin to move towards a new journey and life experience this coming year.
Just yesterday I was introduced to this concept by a friend & I went home & belatedly opened this email! I have just signed up for the “12-day online mini-retreat to help your word choose you” & ask that you hold me in Light & Love as I open myself to these vistas. Some words that have been arising for me in the past 2 days are:
Discernment; Sagacity; Balance; Wisdom; Clarity; Choices; Healing; Perseverance; Faithfulness; Support
Let’s see what this exploration will yield!
Remember. This was the word that immediately popped up when this year’s invitation was first issued. I wanted my word to be “wonder”, but “remember has stayed and seems to be offering a journey of wonder as well.
My word for 2015 is “reveal,” both seeing what will be revealed to me and revealing more of myself to the world. I love that one dictionary definition of reveal includes “to communicate that which could not be known or discovered without divine instruction” – certainly true in my experience.
The word for me in 2015 is “sabbath”. I sense in it a call to re-creation during the year ahead, especially since I am blessed to have a sabbatical this spring/summer.
My word for 2015 is stretch. I am being called to stretch in mind, body and soul.
My word for 2015 is gratitude. The word — or concept, really — came to me so many times and in so many ways as I considered what called to my heart for this year. Yet I found myself resisting its call — because, a voice cautioned me, it is too pedestrian, too simple, too Oprah. This same voice advised me to find something more sophisticated, more novel, more suited for someone who’s read as many spiritual books and attended as many self-help seminars as I have.
In the end, all of my intellectual self-justification could not overcome the simple power, clarity and persistence of gratitude. I am grateful to have been brought to this place.