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 SIMPLICITY. Looking forward to delving deeper and discovering more of its treasures during 2015.
My word for this year is SIMPLIFY.
Guidelines is it!
my word came to me while doing an herbal steam to help with flu symptoms: knitbone, which is one of the folk names for comfrey. I’ll be interested to see how this meaning unfolds…
My word is RISE. It finally came to me today.
My word is TRUST.
I need to learn to trust in God, in me, in other people, in time, in space, in limits, in beauty.
I need to learn to trust even if I’ve been deceived. And I need to trust that even if I have deceived other people, it is still possible to trust each other, because God trust in us.
“Search,” a word taken from the title, “The Loving Search for God,” by William Meninger, a beautifully simple look at contemplative prayer and The Cloud of Unknowing. This word is so fitting and apropos for my journey at this time of continuous search for God: searching and finding God in the simple and the ordinary, in the humble, in oneself and in others, in the beauty of Nature, in quiet, in the gentle breeze…and wherever and whenever and however, God chooses to do so. It makes the journey exciting and hopeful, even in the darkest of moments…”Search.”
The word that chose me is open.
Open eyes see
Open heart receives
Open wings soar
I started out with escapade, but being a poet, one word is not enough. Randomness and serendipity were added rather quickly. This is going to be a major transitional year for my husband and me and I think looking toward it with these three words will be beneficial to both of us.
My word is spark…this embodies the idea of something new rising up from within as well as fearlessness and joy. Also it makes me think of sparkle or sparklers and of hope.