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
Surrender
Faithfull
My word is DWELL. As I read your reflections, Christine, this word began to dwell in my own heart. I’ve been feeling called to dwell in the rhythm of the seasons, in the cycles of sun, moon, the land. So much richness here. I long to dwell in possibility, in mystery, in connections with the people and creatures that inhabit this place where in live in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Dwell in the present moment, in the breath. I feel this word putting down roots in my own body, my own soul.
Renew. So many things need to change in my life. I chose the word renew to remind myself that every day is a chance to renew my desire to change.
My word of the year 2015 is AWARENESS, it has to do with consciousness, with seeing and accepting what IS and living in the present moment, To embrace reality is my intention.
My word for 2015 will be MARVEL. This is a word which keeps appearing when I pray and meditate, and seems the right word for me. I will consciously seek, each day, to notice many the works and dimensions of God, and marvel at them.
Poverty- is the word that has been coming to me as I read different articles or books and with reflection. Translated into today’s language for me the word means simplicity.
Simplicity of life, cleaning the clutter and debris away of anything which includes relationships that are not life giving. For me “poverty of spirit” means singleness of Spirit, heart and mind. Dependence upon God alone for daily provision- for Yahweh alone will clothe me and protect me and provide for me….utter Peace and Shalom!
I was searching and searching for my 2015 word… and finally resigned myself to the fact that it wasn’t going to come on my timetable. And so then it came – of course. And once it did, I wondered how I didn’t see it earlier!
My word for 2015 is “possibility” – as in, “I dwell in possibility.”
Excited for this year… my 60th, and the new possibilities that I have become aware are within me. I used to think I knew who I was, how I was – I have just in the last month become aware that there are possibilities within me of which I never knew.
My word is LIGHT. I will share these words of Pope Francis from the Magnificat publication from January 4. I pray I can reflect God’s light to all I meet this year.
Epiphany Graces
What other reward can God give to those who seek
him, if not to let himself be found? .. Religious man
strives to see signs of God in the daily experiences of
life, in the cycle of the seasons, in the fruitfulness of
the earth and in the movement of the cosmos. God is
light and he can be found also by those who seek him
with a sincere heart.
An image of this seeking can be seen in the Magi,
who were led to Bethlehem by the star (d. Mt 2:1-12).
For them God’s light appeared asa journey to be undertaken,
a star which led them on a path of discovery. The
star is a sign of God’s patience with our eyes which need
to grow accustomed to his brightness. Religious man is
a wayfarer; he must be ready to let himself be led, to
come out of himself and to find the God of perpetual
surprises. This respect on God’s part for our human eyes
shows us that when we draw near to God, our human
lights are not dissolved in the immensity of his light, as
a star is engulfed by the dawn, but shine all the more
brightly the closer they approach the primordial fire,
like a mirror which reflects light. Christian faith in Jesus,
the one Savior of the world, proclaims that all God’s
light is concentrated in him, in his “luminous life” which
discloses the origin and the end of history. There is no
human experience, no journey of man to God, which
cannot be taken up, illumined, and purified by this
light. The more Christians immerse themselves in the
circle of Christ’s light, the more capable they become
of understanding and accompanying the path of every
man and woman towards God.
Because faith is a way, it also has to do with the lives
of those men and women who, though not believers,
nonetheless desire to believe and continue to seek.
To the extent that they are sincerely open to love and
set out with whatever light they can find, they are already,
even without knowing it, on the path leading
to faith. They strive to act as if God existed, at times,
because they realize how important he is for finding a
sure compass for our life in common or because they
experience a desire for light amid darkness, but also
because in perceiving life’s grandeur and beauty they
intuit that the presence of God would make it all the
more beautiful.
-POPE FRANCIS
Thank you, Patricia, for Pope Francis words! Just beautiful!
My word for 2015 is “Rest”:
Renewal
Energy
Strength
Trust
“Come to Me . . . and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).