SHARE YOUR WORD FOR 2016
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 January 6, 2016 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.
Subscribe to our email newsletter and you will receive a link to start your mini-retreat today. Your information will never be shared or sold. (If you are already subscribed to the newsletter, look for the link in today’s email).
WIN A PRIZE – RANDOM DRAWING GIVEAWAY ON JANUARY 6TH!
We are delighted to offer some wonderful gifts from the Abbey:
- One signed copy each of Soul of a Pilgrim, Eyes of the Heart, The Artist’s Rule, and Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire.
- One space in Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
- 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 we will announce the prize winners!
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712 Responses
A word, and process, that I have found recently is ‘stochastic ‘ meaning random and mutating. I’m wondering if this is an invitation to observe where things are going rather that try to quantify. I think I’ll go with that.
My word is “edify”.–for a long time I confused it with “gratify”. I want to mean more than to bring pleasure (though that is not in and of itself a bad thing) but to bring light in a particular direction.
My word came to me last week after listening to a webinar with Michael Beckwith. It is EMERGENCE. It is time for me to acknowledge, accept and let my light shine.
Beauty- this word has been calling me for many weeks now. Thinking about beauty and focusing on the inherit beauty around me. For instance music should be moving towards beauty not just pandering to my emotions. My work should focus on and move towards releasing/building/enabling beauty not just more and more stuff.
The word that chose me is available. I need to be available to help people because I feel so very blessed. Since I’m a stay at home mom & my boys are now 22, 25 & 27 I need to continue to make time for others. I love my exercise time and I’m not the best at last minute changes. Available sticks in my mind because I helped my parents when they were sick. I have a son who has been in rehab & still struggling with the disease. A mother’s cross isn’t easy, but it feel much lighter with the help of Jesus. HE is always available for me. Another reassuring sign, I saw a billboard and on it were the words I’M AVAILABLE !
INTEGRATION
this is a word that has been on my mind and in my heart. A year to integrate, to bring many pieces together. Like taking a broken bowl and piecing it back together with pure gold. I have been stirring the gold in a pot. I have been looking closely at all the pieces and can see them fitting together. The integration of this spiritual gold with the pieces of my life….being whole, transforming into something different, still holding the past but in a new way. Formation through this integration.
Humility — this word chose me this year, as an antidote to all the pride and hubris so rampant in the world and in my own ego.
The word I choose for 2016 is a continuation of my word for 2015: Mercy. Last year my emphasis was on the overwhelming realization of God’s mercy toward me. This year, in part because of Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Mercy, I will try to make mercy my daily practice mercy toward others in thanksgiving for all God has done for me.
My word…compassion….literally “flew” into my consciousness in the middle of a sleepless night…with no thought of the retreat or anything else spiritual at the time. As a spiritual care professional Compassion is an ongoing practice…BUT it is the compassion toward self and the compassion toward those c,losest to me that needa to be honed. Compassin to self = conversion….aknowledging what I am and being gentle with myself and all my faults.
I have been visited by AWARENESS!!!