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
Light. This past fall has been a season of imposed quiet and being selective about what I chose to do in order to have more time with Him. As a result I feel that this year will be a year of finding the deeper light that dwells within me.
GRACE
Given freely… unbidden… one of the most humbling and loving concepts of God.
My word for 2015 is Deeper.
Our congregation choose their star gift words this past Sunday. The word that I choose (by reaching into the star box) was “Peace”. This year has been off and running with two funerals, two family gatherings, and serving two churches. I believe God and God’s Spirit has chosen this word for me in 2015 to know peace in the midst of much demands, responsibility. I will look for opportunities to bring peace, practice on the home front, with my life, in the lives of those I serve. It is a challenging word. I will be praying with and about all year long – and it expresses my desire for peace in the world.
The thread I’ll follow throughout 2015 is “stewardship”: unpacking the care and keeping of what has been entrusted to my body, heart, and mind.
My word for 2015 is STAR.
For me the story of the Magi following the star of Bethlehem is such a powerful story. A story of trusting the unknown, a glimpse, a twinkle. The story of how, if you trust that glimpse and are prepared to undertake a long and sometimes arduous journey, you might end up finding a miracle. As Leonardo da Vinci said – if you let yourself be bound to a star, you will not turn back.
A star is always there, but it does not shout at you – it takes the silence of the night for you to see it. And even then the loud city lights might drown it out. It does not force itself on you, it is waiting patiently, offering to be your guide. You can question it, doubt it, rage at it, ignore it, or praise it and write poems about it, no matter; it will still be there, inviting you on the journey. And if you choose not to go, it will still be there tomorrow night, inviting you again, beckoning you, onward and inward, asking you to take up its offer of a real journey, a true adventure.
We are moing from our family home, we are downsizing. My word is TRUST!
My word for the year is CELEBRATION! I will be turning 60 in April and am celebrating all that I am ,all that I was, what I have accomplished and all the wisdom I can now share with others. I will celebrate my love for my family, my art, and for the music that shaped my life and made me who I am today. I will be going to the Rock & Roll hall of fame on my birthday to pay homage to those who have gone before me and to those who continue to inspire me with their longevity and lust for life. To quote John Lennon:” Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” And I plan to CELEBRATE!
thank you for this opportunity
My word is ‘Share’ – so I am putting it into practice by sharing on this forum! It follows a significant journey in the last year which revealed just what possibilities I close off by being secretive, too protective of my own space and boundaries, how I hold myself back and deny myself communion, connection, relationship and growth. Maybe its time to come in from the edge…and of course allow myself the possibility that perhaps I too have something worth sharing!
The word which came to me is ‘seed’. I think of a seed as that which holds its being in darkness waiting for the right conditions to unfold. And I wondered at the multitude of scattered seeds which lie slumbering in my soul – both wanted and unwanted. Seeds of fear, and anger, arrogance and timidity. But also seeds of wonder and gratitude. Above all, as Meister Eckhart has said, the seed of God, which is within us all and waiting to unfold.