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!
If this is your first time commenting at the Abbey, or you are including a link, your comment will need to be approved before appearing, which usually takes less than 24 hours.
712 Responses
Seeingly.
My word for 2016 is seeingly, from Rainier Maria Rilke, “I want to stand more seeingly… “. My longing for 2016 is to go on a journey deeper, deeper, deeper… and it requires of me a whole new seeing of mySelf, my God, my world…
TEMENOS
Sanctuary. Studio. Sacred space.
Listening with all my senses for what is being formed/Informed.
Bringing it forth with multiple media at hand–oh Creative Spirit, dance and play your sweetness through my discipleship.
May it be in me according to Your word.
Thank you for the invitation, Christine. You remain a studio angel in my life.
BeHeld
Thank you for offering a process for finding my word. I finished a long and fruitful pastoral relationship with a congregation on Jan 3. Although the time was right to move on I do not have a specific call at the moment. The word that came to me is TRUST. I will trust this unfolding time wherever I am led.
“Connect”: deepen and strengthen relationship with self, spouse, friends, community.
The word that has chosen me is SAVOR. It is the title of a book by Shauna Niequist. It seems right since I feel like most of my life is work. Yet there is grace and beauty every day that calls to be recognized, appreciated and savored.
Sheila,
I have not read the book you mention but “savor” has been the word I received as well. I believe it is a call to taste the depth that each delight and challenge invites us into.
Peace & JOY,
Carol
This
Just this. Not everything else clamoring on the sidelines. This.
My word is LORDSHIP.
I prayed for God to teach contentment. He lead me to it and taught me His Lordship.
Ps 97.1a “The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice!”
The word that resonates with me at this time is “peace.” I love Isaiah’s declaration, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 26:3 (KJV). Peace be unto you!
SEEKER
the threshold straddling beneath me is giving me the thin space towards acceptance thru awareness.
As i allow God to work thru me and surrender to that thin place of projecting my wounds to the world
at large or those closest to me and hear what’s being seen, I allow for greater compassion and
deliverance of truth thru deeper healing of painful wounds.
i begin to sense and ‘see’ the river flowing arise before me and in confidence and
trust in his great glory, my anxiety becomes null and void as i almost can watch it dissipate towards
the dried up stream that is behind me. i graciously and fearlessly with divine love am seeing the light
ahead that will carry my other foot over the threshold of abundant love and joy that life is holding for me.
My search for truth is blazing ahead as my footing becomes that next step over and thru….
The word that has risen for me is Rest. My image is of myself at the feet of Jesus with my head in His lap as he gently strokes my head. It has been a few years of heartache & struggle so the image of simply resting at the feet of God is refreshing. No striving, just resting.