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 meander, I want to be more present to my life, my relationship, my walk with spirit. To flow around perceived “obstacles” in my path. It calls to mind a meandering stream or a growing tree with branches finding their way slowly.
A second word chose me as well. Storying. A call to pay attention to the story I am telling myself and listen for the deeper story of spirit. My sense is this will support the meandering by supporting me in new ways of being
My word for 2015 is “Joy!” A favorite teacher once said “some days I feel joy, other days I have to choose joy.” My intention is that whether choosing or feeling, joy will become the place from which I live and encourage others : )
“Actor.” I started taking acting lessons this year, finally discovering my own brand of art and now I’m embarking on a new adventure in community theater.
change….. is my word for this year
Because it is time
Silence.
My word for the year is THRIVE. After a year of ministry/job transitions, the establishment of an “empty nest” and a growing sense of potential for well being, I accept this word as an invitation to receive with grace that which has been given to me and to live into this new reality empowered by the Spirit. If almost feels too optimistic, but I’m willing to see where this road takes me!
LOSLASSEN – that’s a German word and means LET GO
It includes the word ‘Los’ which means fate and ‘lassen’ which means allow. Generally it means let go, release. So for me it embodies the past, present and future. Life is more livable if I am able to let go, if I allow things to happen. So welcome new year, I am ready to let go.
With the sudden and unexpected death of my partner at the end of October last year I have resolved to refresh – hence my word for 2015 is refresh. I have to reorganise my whole life following Jan’s death – move house, find work, to live without her physical presence but to live with her presence in spirit. To refresh in the sense of change, to refresh in the sense of bring a new vitality, to refresh in the sense of not being submerged in myself. This probably makes little sense to anyone else but is a powerful expression of what I hope to do this year – daunting, challenging but hopefully too in sympathy with what Jan would have expected me to do.
My word is EMBRACE. This word has layered meaning for me as I head into 2015. I am starting a relationship with a new congregation, and I prepare to embrace the joys and challenges of that. I have also been spending much time with the spirituality of the body, and am encouraging myself to physically embrace, and be embraced, by others. This is a good stretching of my soul. I look forward to the unfolding of this year.
For several years now have had a word just pop into my consciousness and have been amazed how it begins to weave a thread throughout the year. Last year it was “expansive”. The word for 2015 is “GRACEFUL”. I will take the time to journal about what it may mean for me but I know that from the instant it came to me, it invoked a sense of slowing down and becoming focused and mindful. Like a ballet, graceful and at the same time focused and in the moment. And perhaps grace filled – becoming more aware of those moments when grace arrives.