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 “Open.” I have retired for the second time as a Presbyterian minister. Turning 79 in early December I led my last time to lead worship and preach on December 21. Without that responsibility resting on my shoulders I feel so free, so Open, anticipating what may come in 2015 as I sink into my creative endeavors of art quilts and poetry. So all your prints of beautiful doors signal “Open” to me as an image.
my word is a phrase “home by another way”….a final line in the epiphany story…they went home by another way…..I am feeling the spirit of the Christ child tugging me to go home by another way…to turn around, to reconsider, to re route…the current path has become too comfortable, too complacent. It is time for a stirring, a turning, an alternate route, a by passing, a hurricane….it is time to go ‘home by another way’….
I discovered Vision boards yesterday. Having lost my creativity it unfurled today and I was lost in a flow.
It gave me not a word for the year, but a phrase.
‘If my wings could fly…’
Love your vision board. Would like to learn more about making them!
Fierce!
My word is NOURISH. I spend so much of my time in Youth Ministry “outside” myself running events/meetings/gatherings/retreats/facilitating discussions that I forget to take the time to nourish my own soul/spirit. I purchase many books for that purpose with the intention of reading them but never get around to them. This year I intend to be more intentional on finding ways to regularly give my soul/spirit what it so desperately needs.
The word that visited me one morning was “Angels”. I desire to develop a stronger more consistent and vital relationship with my Angel(s). I have been exploring a couple of wonderful books The Healing Power of Angels by Ambika Wauters and The Power of Angels by Joanne Brocas. I see my angels as a palpable link to the divine and unseen in my life. So i further desire to have a conscious connection to both seen and unseen in 2015.
My word is binder (Norwegian word for paper clip). This year I’ll travel to Norway to visit family and friends for the 10th time since 1993. This connection has been such a gift. Paper clips were invented by a Norwegian and during my first visit I bought a box of “binders” made in Norway. I tend to live my life in a way that connects my spiritual self with all other parts of life. It is all woven together. I am part of a centering prayer group in our town and that practice has strengthened my faith. I am told I have a peaceful presence. I wish to deepen the connection to those I love here and in Norway and further connect my creative interests and share these in our community and beyond.
Star. My earliest memory of Christmas is the Moravian Star hung high in the peak of the nave in my home church, Berea Moravian Church, on the first Sunday if Advent and remaining there through Epiphany. We also hung one in our front window at home…and I still do! Without words it spoke to my yearning heart of Love…and still does. I wait to see this year where it leads.
My word for 2015 is “receive.” It has come to me in several ways and left no doubt that this is to be my focus for this new year. I am very comfortable with giving, but I have more to learn in the practice of receiving. The practice of asking for, receiving a word then allowing that word to guide me. And bless me thought the year has been powerful for me for many years. I did not realize it was an ancient practice. Thank you!
Foundation.
My husband John and I did a thing similar to you just two years ago. We sold (my) house (we’d married just 18 months before, choosing to live in my house and rent his to his brother), car and all our furnishings. Needing to hold onto some of our possessions we put my studio and the kitchen bits into storage here in Seattle. We moved to Australia. A desire to travel and inspire had overtaken me to the point I knew it was time, and John trusted in this enough to quit his job and come along, even though unable to work due to Visa regulations.
Now we are ‘home’ but certainly not in Kansas any more…
The two years gave me a deep appreciation for home, family and even the United States. I did not see this coming. With two years of vagabonding-we chose to go where the call came and trust God we would not be without-I return with a deep ache to set down roots. We move now, in a miracle of God’s handiwork itself, to Lexington, Ky in order that John can pursue his passion. Still embroiled in the (hopefully!) final battles that can come in standing on the edge of a great ‘next’, I hold this word close; foundation. We are going at God’s pace, in His plan, and our passion; to build a foundation of us (John and I together) in this new place.
I consider this verse in my thoughts on foundation ‘building’ and trust it to be God’s way for me as we move forward~
Proverbs 9:1-4
Wisdom has built her house,
She has hewn out her seven pillars;
She has slaughtered her meat,
She has mixed her wine,
She has also furnished her table.
She has sent out her maidens,
She cries out from the highest places of the city,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”