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 for 2017 comes from the Monk Manifesto: HOSPITALITY. And validated by my picking up of “The Artist’s Rule” yesterday after neglecting it for a few months. I turned to the furthest ear-marked page – and there it was, again! Chapter 7: ‘Inner hospitality – welcoming the stranger within.’ To add to this tapestry, my heart was stirred tonight by reading an article on the gift of solitude.
I cannot ignore the serendipity of this invitation….
Neither can I ignore the invitation to extend hospitality outward. I live alone in a home that is crying out for people to visit, to enjoy her offering of peace, space and stillness.
I look forward with anticipation to see how this word plays out in the year ahead.
I had two words one day but since i completely forgot one of them the next day i explored the other following the online suggestions for discerning a word. Broken. My word for the year is broken . I am eager for the pilgrimage this word will take me on.
My word seems to be two words: “let go.”
I was given the word Treasure by a dear friend in my Contemplative Prayer Group. My hope is that I can live into being treasured, continuing to seek true treasure and being a treasure to those around me in 2017 and beyond.
The word that keeps rising up for me is hope in secular and spiritual readings and in my late night thoughts. Hope leads to joy, boldness, faith and love, to comfort and it stimulates good works. In this turbulent time we need to maintain hope, so that will be my guiding light for this year for myself and to spread to others.
I will be living with hopeful, and your comment spoke to me. Thanks! :)
My word is LIGHT – to seek holy light and to be light for others.
My word for 2017 is WAIT. I will wait to see what and where my next appointment is as a pastor.
My phrase for 2017 is SPEAK PEACE. This phrase shimmered out to me during a live performance of Handel’s Messiah. It strikes me as the only way to move through the turbulence in the world.
“Flow” this is the word that has been ebbing and flowing in my spirit for the last couple of months. I will be turning 55 this next year in January. Im starting a new art and workshops venue business. Everything that im doing right now is about allowing and surrendering to Gods perfect direction. …and out of our belly will flow living waters..
My word, which came to me immediately, is ALLOW. It feels like an opening, perhaps into a new place of being. It also feels like a stretching. There is a strong unknowing-ness to it that feels a little disconcerting. I trust I will be able to move into this word in the new year!