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
My word is Trust
My word is UNFOLDING. It is a gift from a friend, not a word I chose. Thus it is both stirring and uncomfortable. I want to unfold into my authentic self as I take a risk and change careers mid-life. I will work toward confidence and not surrender to self-doubt. I will live for peace and joy and most of all, kindness, to myself and to others. Peace and all good.
Hi I live in New Zealand and my word for 2017 is trust
Will I be able to trust and listen the whole year? Everyday I can try again.
Blessings!
My word for this year is COMMINGLE. I have just finished a course on John of the Cross and this word has spoken to me. He uses it in several ways; one is in referring to not mixing spiritual food with our own desires which I realize I have done more than I care to admit in this past year. Second way he uses it isin reference to do not doing two good things together, in another words be intentional. If you are setting aside time for lectio divina practice lectio or if you are practicing contemplative prayer do that but don’t do them both in one setting. This spoke to me because I am guilty of starting one thing not and then jumping to another not just in my spiritual life but all of life. 2017, do not Commingle, be attentive.
My word for this year is HEAL. My husband and best friend of 40 years passed away 7 weeks ago. I look ahead and see nothing. My first impulse is to climb into the safety of inside myself but my faith and my heart tells me to open up and allow healing from places I least expect. This has become a challenge for me. I am usually extroverted but am find myself preferring the sanctity of self.
Peace – Prayers – Blessings in your healing journey, Donna.
my word is EXCITEMENT, to be able to abide in the idea God is in charge and that each new day brings the special things that will give me what I need in faith.
WAKE up to each day with a knowingness that it is Gods day for you.
2017 is calling me to claim my “inner authority” and so this is my word.
My word for today is ‘allowing’. Right now it feels as if I have tried a bit too hard to ‘make things happen my way’, especially when it comes to improving my health. Thank you so much Christine for your invitation to ‘give me a word’, some insight already gained, while having fun :-).
My word for 2017 is abide. To continue, remain, and dwell in the presence of the One who created me.
Scotosis is a noun. A term used to refer to intellectual blindness. A hardening of the mind against unwanted wisdom. Wisdom comes to us in many forms, through many ways and I find as I get older, I think I have acquired all the wisdom I need. This new year I will seek to keep my heart-light open and not fall prey to this intellectual blindness… this scotosis.