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
STEP – both the verb and the noun – both the movement and the measure
Renew
Communion. I’m feeling the heartache of a brother’s recent death and the grief is showing me the path linking the living with the dead. This year, I will live in the communion of saints with friends and family on both sides of the grave.
my wod last year was branches, it is developing into Divine Nature.
My word for 2015 is guidance. “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land.”
A quick comment. A number of years ago I made a list of principles from the book “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale, which I would read over as I tried to become a more positive person. One of those principles was to “Believe in divine guidance.” What a beautiful place to be able to rest our hearts–in the knowledge that God really is guiding us–especially when we ask for and seek that guidance. Have a wonderful year!
I woke in the night of 1/1/15, startled:
My word for this year is,
“RESOLVE” …….. in the dictionary, I love this description: “fixity of purpose,” and, “reducing to a simpler form,” and, finally, “to bring resolution.”
In my ‘mindings’ I see the loose threads of my life being woven into a beautiful tapestry. I am grateful.
Love and Peace to you all. Win
My word is “hover”……in connection with Genesis 1:1-2, when the Spirit hovered/brooded over the formless darkness at creation. I’ve been struggling in the wilderness during the past year after the death of my mother. Feeling rather abandoned by God…..unsure of vocational direction. But just today (TODAY!) I received this word: hover. God is hovering over us all as new life seeks to be born.
Nourish is my word,. This concept has been growing in me. I am an avid gardener. Perhaps it is because of the lessons learned from Hildegard in the e-class I experienced this year from Abby of the Arts series of classes. The many references to God’s power reflected in growing things throughout the Bible came to me one more time in today’s first lesson in church from Jeremiah 31:7-14 …..their life shall become like a watered garden, and they never languish again. Then the young women rejoice in the dance……………
My word is LIFE. I am hoping that whenever I give pause, I remind myself, “Choose life.” I am so critical of my shortcomings and failings, that I often don’t appreciate my strengths and beauties. These negative voices are so ingrained, it’s often difficult to choose what affirms. I am hoping this year that grace will nudge me closer to the fullness of life God promises.
I have been trying on different words. Many got close but none have been the one. Yesterday, my priest asked what curiosity or interest makes us search for the Christ Child as the Magi did? My response was, “to give meaning to my life, to have a guidance system that would shine toward Love, something to hold on to.” Today it came to me with great clarity. HOPE. Hope is what pulls me on when it’s more difficult and hope offers a joyful, wondrous feeling when I am in the flow and know that I am held and loved and that I love in return. Hope, at this time, is my guiding star and pulls me toward the manger.