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!
If this is your first time commenting at the Abbey, or you are including a link, your comment will need to be approved before appearing, which usually takes less than 24 hours.
804 Responses
My word for 2015 is trust. Trust when things seem uncertain , unknown,doubtful, disorientated and even fearful there is only one thing to do and that is to trust. Trust the guiding star as did the Magi…..
My word for 2015 is trust. When things seem doubtful, disorientated, unknown, uncertain, frustrating or even fearful there is only one things left – to trust; trust in the Other, trust the guiding star as did the Magi…..
My word for 2015 is trust. When things seem doubtful, disorientated and unknown, uncertain or even fearful the only thing left is to trust in the Other.
My word for the year came to me on New Year’s Day on the yoga mat with very little prompting. It is “power,” and I don’t yet know why. Perhaps it is about knowing my own power or about yielding or about remembering the source and character of true power. Perhaps it’s about who and what I give power to or take power from. I look forward to the juicy unfolding of power in 2015!
The word drawing me in is Sabbath. Its so full, challenging and comforting. Intentional rest in my week. So far it has required some forward planning and some sacrifice of time. And I know this is the right word for this season, with my body crying out in sickness for me to find a slow, steady path for living with rituals of rest and work.
I’m terrified and excited for where this inviting word will lead. It’s an invitation to be fully human. And fully divine.
The word that seems to have chosen me is “refuge.” I experience a lot of anxiety, mostly needless. Anyway, my attitude toward the word is expressed in a little acrostic poem I wrote the other day using the word “safeguarded.”
Silly how I fret
About so many little things…
Freedom is in my grasp…
Easy living…because my
God is present, powerful and reliable,
Unequaled in goodness, Who
Anchors my soul in the
Rock of eternal acceptance—even
Death itself is no longer an
Enemy. So let this old
Dread make way for delight.
The word that is “shimmering” for me is LIGHT. My acrostic (which is my prayer for 2015):
“be of
Love a little more careful” the poet wrote and
I listened to these words and pulled them closer to protect them but they
Got all tangled up in my hair and my dress so I
Held it a little more lightly, but carefully, and
The love flourished and nourished all who came near.
Blessings for a wonderful year in the Abbey!
Epiphany.
The word I have been given is “deepen”. I intuitively knew that my word had to be a verb. “Deepen” suggests for me a movement toward something that has no end point. I desire to deepen my relationship with the Divine. Just how that might happen, God only knows. Maybe it just means that I am to “TRUST in the slow work of God”—Teilhard de Chardin.
My word is self – compassion. I am my harshest critic and am coming to a deeper awareness of how devastating my lack of self – compassion is on my spirit. My prayer is that this word will make a home in me during this New Year and soften my heart toward my own shortcomings.