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 is kaleidoscope. Now that I’ve turned 65, I am contemplating making some shifts in my working life. I expect that the pieces (colors and shapes) will remain the same, but there are going to be new patterns emerging over the coming year.
ALIGHT here on this holy mountain – black silhouette ALIGHT with the break of dawn -at day’s end ALIGHT with the rosy glow of setting sun
Always
Linger
In
God’s
Holy
Time
All
Life
Infused
Glowing
Heart’s
Truth
The party is on the street with noise makers ready, waiting for the stroke of midnight. In the midst I find a silent moment of reflection in the cold crisp air while the clear night sky is ALIGHT with the twinkling stars of Orion – my homing constellation. I am a dancing monk in the world!
My word for 2016 is the phrase, “Be the Bright Morning Star”.
“Love Wins” is the phrase that has been pursuing me.
My word is “come alive”. Two years after diagnosis and treatment for cancer I am feeling called to start living again.
My word is Clarity. To attempt to ignore the non-essential, to identify and avoid the mental clutter, to pay attention to what is truly real and really true. (And to try to find ways to point out, in charity, when someone else is becoming a victim of fuzzy thinking.)
My word or word cluster is “ground” and “grounded”. This comes out of a need I am discovering to pay attention to where I am, who I am with, and the place where I am living. In 2016 I will have a 3-month sabbatical that will be a combination of spending time in my place as well as traveling. I anticipate opportunity to understand myself and my roots better. I also want to work on sharpening my mindfulness. The art I will be focusing on to do this work is photography and collage. A scriptural verse that will guide me is the blessing in Ephesians 3:17 – “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.”
FIDELITY…faithfulness to Creator and creative self
Tangibility-recognizing what is here and now and real
It’s always interesting to see how this process takes on its own life apart from – despite – my conscious direction. I received my word for 2016 in an early morning half awake time several weeks ago. But I both wanted to let it settle and kept hoping for something, I don’t know, more obviously profound, poetic, inspiring. In reading other people’s words, several shimmered out and I thought “oh, maybe – that resonates and might be good.” But the first words were insistent, and today I said yes: Now and Next. To be open-heartedly present, aware, grateful in the Now and to move, in the same way, moment by moment, to what’s Next. To breathe with change and impermanence and to do the next right thing, both inwardly and in the outer physical reality. I’m beginning to like this! And I think the other words that shimmered along the way will be good companions: beginning, open, home, grace, spiral.
(P.S. As with a couple of other people, the ability to read the comments vanished for a couple of days. I glad it’s back.)