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 BLESSING, and my verse is Proverbs 11:25: “Those who bless others will be abundantly blessed themselves; those who help others are helped.”
Blessing refers to God’s protection and favor. It is also a grace, an intercession, an invocation, and a benediction. We are blessed by God in order to be a blessing to others. But biblically, the concept of blessing goes even deeper. All the benefits accrued to blessing are simply a result or byproduct of being blessed, rather than its essence.
The word for blessing, bracha, is multilayered in meaning and is understood to come from several sources. One of those sources connect it to the Hebrew word l’havrich.
This word describes the agricultural process of the pulling down of a vine and placing part of the branch in the ground so that it can sprout new roots and begin to grow another renewed plant.
In other words, it involves the process of re-rooting the plant back into the sustenance filled earth so that it can be empowered and renewed.
With this contextualization, one can understand that blessing is a divinely inspired process of re-rooting. That re-rooting leads to a resurgence and revitalization of the strengths and potential already established, securely settled, and found within.
That is the power of blessing, and links to the meaning of the verse in Psalm 115:15: “Blessed are you of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
A more accurate translation is “blessed are you BY the Lord” or “blessed are you BECAUSE of the Lord.” What David is describing is the joy of being rooted in the Lord, like the vines in a vineyard.
And clearly the life and actions of an individual have the potential to inspire, empower or motivate another to desire that same re-rooting into our Divine source.
Abraham, for example, “became a blessing” because everything in his life inspired others to be blessed. He was the model of loving-kindness.
I am praying for God’s protection and favor in 2016. Even more so, I am praying to be re-rooted; that I would be spiritually renewed and my service more empowered; that there may be a resurgence and revitalization of my strengths and gifts; that I might truly be used of God to to inspire, motivate, and encourage others; and that I might be a model of loving-kindness (God’s “hesed”).
May I truly be a channel of blessing in 2016!
The word I received–“unfettered”
My word is repentance. It has really resonated within me lately that regret is true and real, but repentance means change. I need to reclaim my weight and health back to where it should be and I want to truly repent and and CHANGE with God’s help.
My word is “home”. “Home”is a physical place but also to feel “at home” is more of a psychological state.that we can search for all our lives. Home symbolises love, comfort,security ,rest and acceptance. However for many this is not the case either because of the circumstances they live in or because they are homeless and without shelter . In a world where so many suffer this fate I feel deep gratitude to have a physical place to call “home”. Through the coming months I hope to explore this idea of “home”on a more emotional level , being mindful of when I feel “at home” and noticing the circumstances that help to contribute to this sense of peace and belonging.
My word is Allow.
My WORD for 2016 came to me early on in the process, though it felt “too soon” and “not quite right”! I tried using other words that might be similar as I sat with the word “FIRE” . Each one was just “ok”….. but no other word really connected with my whole being. Then I began to be aware that the word “fire” was coming to me in Christine’s writings;
THE HOURS OF THE DAY…..Day -“Be ablaze with enthusiasm, Let us be a live burning offering before the altar of God” ~Hildegard. Then the question: “How are you called to be ablaze with enthusiasm”. There were several others from Christine and the Advent retreat. I opened a book that I had marked many years ago and there was a poem “Hearts on Fire”- really? My husband and I have been doing a major purge of our extensive library over the holidays in anticipation of a major move, Again, a book that I had not read or used in years “Why Not Become FIRE?” jumped out at me! No more resistance! No more wondering why!! No more need to questioning any of it!!! Just let it be for 2016! FIRE .
( I have read “water, wind, earth, and fire” by CVP but have not really experienced it. I also know there is a self study Praying with the Elements that at some point when the time is right I want to explore. And so it is!
My word is “broken”
The first word to come last night was commitment ~ this evening the word opened up like a flower to include commitment to:: self-care, agreements I make with others, protecting and caring for our beautiful endangered Earth, living an aware and green life, living fully, with gratitude and love. Then, from inside my body and soul…Commitment to Being Presence.
Assurance is the word I was given for 2016.
Freedom. After a period of darkness and inner cleanse I think this means for me to try to make myself as available to God’s voice as possible and not cling to older versions of who I am or used to be, to be truly free in God instead of putting up old boundaries for myself.