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 2015 is “weave”..this year I enter my 9th year of Parish Nursing
And I will graduate from my Spiritual Director program. This will be a year
Of weaving those two places together.
Breathe….my word is breathe…breathe to remind myself of who lives inside me…breathe to take a minute before I speak in anger…breathe to remember to be kind…breathe to know that maybe I’m the only one who will smile or hug this child before me today….I’m a teacher….breathe….the help me remember I am a spiritual child of God.
See is my word for 2015
“See” is my word for the new year. I have been able to look around like any other creature with eyes. But to be able to see opens new dimensions for existence. Seeing goes beyond the superficial, the apparent and the obvious to the deeper levels of perception and understanding. Seeing seeks the inner side and the other side and all sides unseen.
(George)
If possible, PLEASE MAY I CHANGE MY WORD FOM discernment to
‘DISCERN’
Thank you. J.
I got it!
Threshold.
This is the fifth time I’ve chosen a word to guide my year. It’s been interesting to look back and see the way each word had led onto the next. Last year’s word was receive. And since this year is threshold, I see myself as stepping into the unknown with all that I have received thus far.
My word for the year is “Being”
It speaks to me of “being with”, with family, friends, nature, myself, God. Being with myself in this beautiful and testing life in which I find myself, and slowing down my natural urge to do rather than be.
A small start to the day to help me remember, being with the flame of a candle as the sun lifts it head over the moor each morning, a deep appreciation of my being here right now. Thankyou
Hello and blessings for the New Year.
I have chosen the word COMFORT.
Meditating on my word, I hope to look within and outwardly embrace the delight of Psalms 94-19:
– In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul
After re-reading the Monk Manifesto, the word that resonated with me was Conversion. Not only does Conversion suggest a lifelong journey “with both gifts and limitations” but the idea that “always we begin again”.
As I experience a time of disappointment and challenge, this word reminds me of the need and importance of openning my heart to the beauty and blessings of life beyond the struggles; to have the courage to acknowledge aspects within myself that need to change and grow; and to have hope that it is never too late to begin again.
Peace, floating along to greet me. Peace to permeate, soothe and calm. Being in the flow of deep, boundless peace. Gratitude for the gift of peace unfolding to be my companion this year.