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
Wow I thought I had posted my word but could not remember it, so read through all the posted words of others. Never found my comment, but in the process remembered my word is awareness. To use all of my senses to be aware of God’s presence – to see God in every person, every event, all of nature. It is very Ignatian spirituality. I am coming probably to the last decade of my life, and awareness of seeing God in all things will be helpful in achieving the peace I have sought all of my life.
DANCE is the word I chose: In light of the election in the USA, dance was the word that came to me, but not in the way you might think. I think of dance as movement, action, partnering with others, advancing, being energized, doing, purposeful, and step-taking. I remember listening to an Australian instrumental group that had a song on an album titled, “Dance the Devil Away.” That seems appropriate. For me the dance is also bringing about joy and beauty into the dark places. It’s about not sitting still and doing something, taking positive action.
My Desert photo. This Yucca plant was here when we bought the house 15 years ago. Then it was huge, with several bunches poking out from each other. A couple of years ago, the whole thing died and I had to dig it out. I thought it was gone–then last year, a new shoot sprang up and by the end of summer this shin high plant remains. There are also California Poppy seeds awaiting spring below the snow. It is amazing to me how barren deserts seem at first but when one looks closely, one can find life. This Yucca lives in my black & red Scoria landscape area (truly hot and arid as far as landscape materials go.)
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For this year, it is “Vibrant Integration”
Wanting to reclaim
that lost piece of me
knowing
beyond knowing
that my vibrancy is deep within
and longs to be without
Outside
shining, sharing, connecting
Bringing forth
not only a re-claiming
but a beginning
an openness
a collecting
Bringing together all of the pieces
Seen
and unseen
into the me, that is.
Beautiful Pamela…every word perfectly chosen and placed..so powerful–your last few lines blew me away…eloquent
…bringing together all of the pieces
seen
and unseen
Into the me, that is.
Thank you for sharing!
best, peggy
The word that chose me is “weakness” – so opposite of the world – especially over the last year. The freedom of weakness – depending on the strength of God. I’m still living in the word that chose me last year. “Flow” – flowing into the truth of my own weakness.
The word that chose me was “permission.”
I know the contest is over, but I feel the need to share my word with the community, as if sharing it makes it “real”. My word this year is Divine, or more specifically, Namer of Names. I see a year of exploring all the names for that which we call God.
Embrace. As in, be OK with all that is present, both within and without. WIth the mystery and the unknown; with the uncomfortable and the painful; with the uncertainty and the wildness. More than just accept, embrace. See it all as the limbs of the Divine.
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My word for 2017 is the word “ease”. Hopefully this word whispered often, and written on the fridge and on my mirror to greet me each morning,
will remind me to go about my day with ease , to do the chores with ease, to do the things i enjoy with comfort and ease, to speak with ease, to act with ease, living my 2017 with a new found awareness of being and doing things with ease.
My word is “holy pause,” it will be a difficult but necessary practice…