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 phrase for this year is “Just Be and Let Me.” Can’t wait to do a visual of this in art and photos.
I am sad to not be able to be in the drawing, but still felt I needed to “name and claim” my word… REKINDLE. 2014 ended with a strong sense of loss and disappointment. In 2015 I hope to re-kindle my sense of call and ministry and also my joy for life. Re-kindling will take time and healing, prayer and exploration, but also allowing for experiences of joy and freedom!
My word for 2015 is “ripening.” I am in a year-long plus ordination journey with the American Baptist Denomination and feel like I am on a threshold as I integrate 36 years of life/ministry experiences that have shaped and formed me over the years. Its a year of slowing down and paying close attention to the movement of the subtle ripening and unfolding of my life.
On Januqry 1st, 2015, it seems another WORD chose me! The first was THRESHOLD!
and now it moved on to “maybe”!
“maybe” This word had a deeper meaning for me it brought me to the “beginning” with the French word: La Souche! or fhe root, that is what is hidden under the earth. So my THRESHOLD brought be deeper, it seems into the deeper meaning of “TREE”/family tree, world tree, Holy TREE! and the seed or fruit of the TREE!
What is the Source of Light?
Edited copy of the above
On Januqry 1st, 2015, it seems another WORD chose me! The first was THRESHOLD on December 9th, and now it moved on and pointed to the word: “maybe”!
“maybe” This word had a deeper meaning for me it brought me to the “beginning” with the French word: La Souche! or the root, that is, what is hidden under the earth. So my THRESHOLD brought me deeper, it seems into the deeper meaning of “TREE”/family tree, world tree, Holy TREE! and the seed or fruit of the TREE!
What is the Source of Light?
p.s. wish there was an “edit”button for corrections to be made while typing.
Sad to have missed the ‘deadline’ — and the prizes, but waited to be sure, as it’s a bit unusual: My word is Stroke! I suffered a stroke in March of 2014, and it was an amazing experience. The word and the condition always had struck fear in my heart, as something I hoped and prayed not to go through, ever since surviving a heart attack a decade ago. Stroke is such a descriptive word because it comes on you totally unexpectedly and frighteningly….But it wasn’t. Amazingly, I wasn’t afraid, knew myself to be totally in God’s hands.This was an amazing gift of grace, I didn’t even ask for it. And my recovery, though I had to work hard for it, was/is extraordinary, my doctors calling it miraculous. I want to live that same kind of trust in 2015, whatever ‘stroke’ of experiences and health challenges and deeper mysteries of faith I will walk through, knowing myself and my life to be wholly God’s, in the constant presence of the Holy Spirit. (sorry for my wordiness)
Hi, Julee, what a wonderful revelation! This is a book that might interest you:
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey
by Jill Bolte Taylor
3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 · rating details · 13,154 ratings · 2,377 reviews
Jill Taylor was a 37-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist when a blood vessel exploded in her brain. Through the eyes of a curious scientist, she watched her mind deteriorate whereby she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Because of her understanding of the brain, her respect for the cells in her body, and an amazing mother, Jill completely recovered. In My Stroke of Insight, she shares her recommendations for recovery and the insight she gained into the unique functions of the two halves of her brain. When she lost the skills of her left brain, her consciousness shifted away from normal reality where she felt “at one with the universe.” Taylor helps others not only rebuild their brains from trauma, but helps those of us with normal brains better understand how we can consciously influence the neural circuitry underlying what we think, how we feel and how we react to life’s circumstances.
Many blessings for a year of abundant discovery!
I know this is coming late, but my word is “possibility”. I let the word “future” flutter up today in smoke as I burned a magic flying paper (really, that’s what it’s called : ), and so the succulent word, “possibility”, will take its place. It doesn’t have the words, “attachment”, or “security”, or “fear” clinging to it, just wide open spaces, hope, and potential. I hold the word, “possibility” in my hands as a puff of white space open to whatever floats or flies into it, or whatever I put into it.
My word is invest. I retired 1/1/2015 from a 35 year career as a social worker. I have no plans, no set agenda, for the next days, months, year, or for the next chapter of my life. I want to take time to wonder about how, where, in whom, I will invest time, hopes and dreams, energy, resources.
My word is quietude, the state of stillness, calmness, and quiet in a person or place. One of my themes for 2015 is to create spaces and opportunities each day for quietude in my work space, my home, and with my chosen family. I pray that it will allow us to hear one another better and be a safe haven from negativity, gossip, anxiety, and condemnation.
healing…
I await for the message and create space for the process to continue…
I will continue to be thankful for the offering …
nurture the calling…
My word is MELT! I had an experience a few weeks ago, when I was praying over my friend, and the experience was an image of a “glass” snowman who right before the eyes of my heart, in less than the blink of an eye, melted into a pool of water. WE thought it was a message for my friend, an odd one to say the least, but later I realized it was for me. And the message was that I had to surrender, give up trying to control, everyone and everything around me and accept whatever comes my way. I like thinking by year end I too will be a pool of water, ebbing and flowing with the tide of life, fluid and conforming to whatever space I find myself in.