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
Since I started this process two years ago, I have been blessed with the words MUSIC and LIGHT! They have taught me much and have filled my life with positive energy that I have needed. This year’s word is one that kept calling me through the past month. I tried to push it away, wanting another word like music and light, but alas it wasn’t to be. Everything I read this past month, conversations I had with people, notes I received, this word kept leaping out at me. So it is with great trepidation that I open myself in this year of 2015 to the word:
CHOICES
My word is “still” as in Be still and know that I am God”, Eileen
Several years ago my only child, a daughter and her family with my three young grandchildren moved very suddenly from Colorado, USA to Johannesburg, S. Africa, my words have been surrender and release. This year my word is EMBRACE. Through prayer and guidance from my spiritual director and close heart friends, I’m ready to embrace -step more fully into the life I’ve been given. As I’ve ruminated on EMBRACE I picture myself eagerly with open arms welcoming all aspects of the unexpected. I’m not a particularly flexibly personality and this paradigm shift surprises me as full grace from God. To EMBRACE I found these words inspiring:
E – energy will be required in this shift; M – mindfulness to the ordinary and exceptional will challenge me; B – bounty and fullness of experience will be there; R – the ongoing process of release is a part of it; A – being adaptable to the unexpected undergirds the process; C – care and compassion for myself and others wraps into the living it out and E – embrace is essential to living a full life of gratitude and love. EMBRACE s the word that kept reappearing in my heart for 2015. Gail Chamley
Thank you for your thoughts!
My word for this year is “Transfiguration”. I asked my SD to help listen for a word and she came through with “Open”. After letting that percolate for some time I kept being drawn to a print I inadvertently purchased through an online auction ( I put a pre-bid in at a price way way below market and forgot about it until several weeks later I was informed I had won the bid). The piece is a large Sadao Watanabe print of the Transfiguration. We are in the process of moving so it was put in the walk-in closet where I get dressed and I was drawn to it more an more as I listened for my word. These past several months and the ones soon to come have been ones of transformation and change both in physical location, occupation, home church, thinking and applications. Looking forward to being “Open” to my transfiguration.
My word for the year is STILL …I have been too busy about many things and I seek to be still and calm and not distracted with the Lord.
My word for 2015 is release. At first the word focus spoke to me, but this morning while in my meditation “release” came to me loud and clear. I have been in a state of worrying about aging parents as well as a dysfunctional daughter and one who is going through the aftermath of divorce.
After a pretty tumultuous year with the word ‘healing’, I reflected for some time on my word for 2015. Sure surprised me when the word ‘spunky’ chose me.
I realize that, for me, the key is spunky with grace…or the intersection between spunky and serenity. So, 2015 is a year to learn a nuanced dimension of spunky.
blessings on all who seek.
Wait
my word is BLOSSOMING
def: time of flowering
to come to a promising stage
bloom, flourish, prosper, thrive
B ringing forth into the
L ight my own creative
O ffspring, my offerings
S inging my soul-song
S hedding the energies of seasons past
O pening of potential held so long in bud
M aking cosmic music
I nspiring abundance
N urturing my nascent
G od-given gifts
“FREE” the word that has chosen me! I am grateful and inspired to release that which keeps me burdened, apart from our Lord, so I can move more fully into creativity, service and His love. Thank you!