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
“Contented” is my word. It was chosen by God and came to me through my best friend Jane. I have been striving and restless. This year calls for a new kind of energy.
My word is “re..”. Re–member me. Re–collect me. Re–call me. Re–soul me.
My word for 2016 is RELEASE. I’ve decided to embrace the reality of today and stop saving things “I might need” in the future. Cleaned out my files – most of what I’ve saved is easily accessible via the internet. I’m also releasing the belief that I need to provide everything that anyone else might need. Every day I discover another flawed thought process that I can let go. I feel lighter already!
Mystery
Walking into the mystery of this new year…
Not knowing what it might hold…
Just knowing that I will be HELD in the MYSTERY.
Deliverance . My Bible fell open to Psalm 18. The theme of the Psalm 18 is ” Gratitude for deliverance and victory. The only sure way to be delivered from surrounding evil is to call upon God for help and strength”. I call upon God to deliver me from feelings of regret and insecurity and therefore feel of the peace of the Lord.
My word for this year is ’embrace’.
2015 was a rough year and left me exhausted. The stillness of the past few days has given my time and space to think, and this year I will embrace all of life — the good, the bad, and the things I need to own. I’m not willing to play the victim this year. I will embrace my role in all that life gives me, even if it is painful, so that I can manifest the life I truly desire to live.
Stillness
Sitting in stillness in monk’s cell
Quietly listening for the heartbeat
Of the world.
*
Sharan Carney, this word is for me a beautiful message! Thank you! It completes something that I simply couldn’t
appreciate enough yesterday, hoping for the coming of a “word” for this year. * * * my word transforms itself, in ways
unexpected * * * I wrote, it seems so long ago, perhaps around 12-17-2015 of “uncomfortable” “blind” “death” loss of self
into no-self . . . and today, as I read this, inspiring word of hearing the heart beat of the world, I remembered that heart-
beat in my mother’s womb, that breath of life heard in the stillness and at the ancestral roots of all humanity:
Stillness
Where the “roots” are found
way down within, place unknown,
the deepest dark
where a spark is ignited, carried and shared
at the dawning year.
Only in stillness can one truly hear
and listen to the silence beyond
all understanding
in that solitary place of hidden truth!
shestelle
My word is “enjoy”. I want to:
– live in joy (i.e. en-joy),
– allow myself to enjoy fully what does give me joy (rather than closing off my enjoyment too soon)
– and remember to look for joy deep down beneath the situations that seem hard to bear.
My word “AUTHENTIC” is working within me. I am finding myself having to acknowledge, own, experience and express some uncomfortable emotions that are coming up for me around a particularly challenging situation. I wish I didn’t care about it … however … I do – and very much.
The word that chose me is: “ALLOW” I usually work so hard at self improvement (particularly spiritually) and it has come to me during the course of this workshop (and the body workshop I participated in led by Christine just prior to this) that I need to ALLOW spirit to help me and relax the tension I carry within my body over feeling it’s all up to me.