SHARE YOUR WORD FOR 2017
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, 2017 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 the Sunday email).
WIN A PRIZE – RANDOM DRAWING GIVEAWAY ON JANUARY 6TH!
We are delighted to offer some wonderful gifts from the Abbey:
- One space in our upcoming New Year’s online retreat – Spiraling Inward: Seven Celtic Spiritual Practices
- One signed copy each of Illuminating the Way, Soul of a Pilgrim, Eyes of the Heart, The Artist’s Rule, and Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire.
- One space in our online program Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
- 4 people will win their choice of our self-study online retreats
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!
316 Responses
I am down to two options that are related. I’m not sure I like them because they are a little academic, but maybe you all can help me.
One possibility is CONGRUENT – that is, the person I am outside is congruent with the person I am inside is congruent with the person God’s calling me to be. Do I walk the talk? I feel fragmented and incongruent these days.
Another possibility is IPSEITY, which refers to individual identity or selfhood – who is the person that God is calling me to be? what’s my true self?
Any thoughts? Right now, I’m leaning more strongly to congruent.
I am struck by your concern about your words being “a little academic” and wonder if your very uneasiness about this might be calling you towards embracing your self without apology.
Reading your comment gave me shivers. Embracing myself is a powerful idea…
Thank you, Jolene. It’s hard work, isn’t it!
LOCATE. A touchstone for living, a prompt for situating myself in MY reality not another’s and not a mediated one.
REPOSE. In a recent session with my spiritual director, she invited me to choose a heart stone with a word on it. I drew repose and have been sitting with it through this retreat & am finally claiming it as my word for 2017. It means both rest & reposition. Something is birthing in me & I need to rest & allow God to repose me for what I am birthing .
PERSERVERANCE – work in broken communities and always want to give up and escape into a cave. The shadow side.
My word is COURAGE. I’ve been struck in recent months by this quote attributed to St. Augustine: “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” I’ve seen Anger born in 2016; I pray for Courage in 2017.
My word for 2017 is EMERGE. This will be a year of several transitions in my life. My hope is that from these I will be able to emerge as me, able to follow those things which call to and nourish me. I have been the one who helps others on their journeys, but have pushed my own to the back burner.
My word for 2017 is RELEASE.
While it came to be early,
this word companion for the new year,
I let go the initial rush of awareness.
Rather, I listened and waited.
Perhaps a word more grand
might be in the offing.
Then, my heart made clear
what’s mine to embrace.
RELEASE, let go.
It’s your path to freedom.
My word is “INTENTION”
Moving Inward
into Nativity,
I Tend to my own birth,
which is Ever-unfolding:
self-Nurturing
spirit-Transforming
I am Open Now.
RELEASE – so many things!
I have 2 words for 2017 – grow and inspire. Last year my word was growth and I had forgotten by the end of the year. Looks like I still need it for 2017!
Kristen, if the word ‘growth’ was not strong enough for 2016, I suggest you leave it behind and move forward to Inspire.