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
My word for 2016 is COURAGE. Be strong and courageous as told to Joshua. Whatever I may face in this upcoming year I will be courageous
Discern. I’m at a crossroads..(empty nest, death of Mom) I need listen and recognize the path for my future.
My word is “change.”
Stardust.
Because I like “light.” Because I like that thoughts are words that give me a little movie in my head – more than one image at a time. I have to picture “star” before I can forward to “dust.” Then my imagination takes over and, in my mind’s eye, I bring the dust together, to coalesce once again into “star.” Stardust. It’s a word that reminds me of beginnings and endings. Alpha and Omega. It’s a word that has motion. In this word is my center. And it is a word that found me when I made space for curiosity today.
My word for 2016 is myself. As in be myself, love myself, give myself. I was sitting against a tree at my friend’s farm meditating and that’s what the tree spoke to me. I painted a picture after that and while I thought of it often I haven’t fully incorporated it . So that’s why it will be my focus for 2016!
My word for this year is COURAGE. I feel God is saying to me: “Courage, do not be afraid.
Restore. As in the line in the 23rd Psalm “restore my soul.” I want to find the disenfranchised and estranged parts of my life, internally and externally, and bring them home.
My word for 2016 is “unfolding.”
My word for 2016 is…faithful remnant.
Detaching from worldly things and staying “attached to the Vine” in today’s culture.