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
WANT as in I shall not want. God as my spiritual provision.
The word TRANSITION has been nudging me for a week or so – a passage of age which I am learning to accept – a bridge from here to there – rather peaceful …
Alchemy is the word that presented itself to me.
The word Hospitality has found me. I desire to offer hospitality to myself, but also to the Christ in all that I meet.
So I am not finished the 12 day course… but I “think” my word is going to be “Present”… as in “BE PRESENT”
I have not yet finished the course either, Lisa, but I believe I have opened to my word as well.
My word found me. I was struggling with an ongoing issue that simply can’t be solved quickly. I was wishing it was already resolved when the word “contentment” came to my mind. I pondered the concept of contentment on and off when it finally hit me: “Hey–that’s my prayer word!”
See. Open my eyes, Lord, that I might see. . .
Wholeheartedness
Have you read Brene Bown’s book, “The Gifts of Imperfection?” Wholehearted was my word for 2014 because of that book. :)
Yes, I have read it once already and working my way back through it. That is, in fact, the inspiration for my word this year.
The word which found me is BETROTHAL – which has come as a surprise to one who has been married for 48 years! Last years word was encounter which brought so many riches, so much to consider in this beautiful world of the cosmic Christ . Somehow I’m being called into a way of deepening with all that our God wills and reveals.
Be Brave and Embrace. My ‘word’/s given respond to the creative and administrative tasks I accepted in 2016. These are not finished, they are in fact pregnant with potential births – those of my own endeavor, and those of others. My impulse is as ever to curl in on myself, I am not a brave person, but brave I must be.