SHARE YOUR WORD FOR 2018
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 5, 2018 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 – The Wisdom of the Body
- One space in our Lent retreat – Watershed Moments in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures
- 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!
433 Responses
Simplicity
The word that has chosen me is RELEASE. After all the years of prayer, reflection, and therapy, I am feeling called to let go of the pressures, guilt, and mistakes of the past that still cling to me. Perhaps there are other things I am to release as well; I pray to be open to all the wonderful possibilities 2018 holds.
Maneuvering thru the 80”s calls me to
C contemplation
O overwhelmed
U undecided
R remembering
A anticipating
E energized (eager. edgy)
My word for 2018 is OPEN – it started to appear everywhere and I found I could apply it to every aspect of the Monk Manifesto. I pray I will be open to all 2018 brings.
Open to silence and solitude – what will I hear?
Open the door to others – who will come?
Open up to building community – what shall we share?
Open my heart to Creation – surrounded by beauty, what will I see and appreciate?
Open doors for others through my work as a teacher – what challenges will 2018 bring?
Open my eyes to the need of rest – will I pay attention?
Open my life to transformation – what path will I follow?
Open my world to music and light and movement and laughter…
My word for 2018 – OPEN
My word for 2018 is Believe.
My word for the new year is Receptive, to open my heart and mind more and use discernment with what ever comes my way.
i thought my word was going to be action, and then service…as i go on it’s come to be – Commitment, and Nourish. first to myself and for myself, and then expanding and rippling out.
I am trying to be patient for the word to choose me. So many have crossed my path — Grace, Pause, Ponder, Pray, Guidance, Tenderness, Bold, Gentle, Respond, Play, Fidelity, See, Vision, Seek, Yearn, Comfort, Curiosity, Freedom, Spontaneity, Generosity, Spaciousness — though I don’t think the word has chosen me quite yet.
I’m holding lightly the word “Enough” that someone else here has chosen. Not only as in “God is enough” and “I am enough” but also “That’s enough — I’ve done enough.” Let your servant go in peace.
Thanks so this wonderful bounty of prompts my word had come… Growth. I look forward to savoring and exploring it in the year ahead! Thank-YOU
Explore…I’ve recently received the unexpected gift of remission from a cancer that had been predicted to end my life soon because it was so aggressive and unresponsive to many different treatments. I am feeling an enthusiasm for life that is difficult to describe or even imagine. I have great excitement for the possibilities held in the extended time I’ve been given–more loving, learning, and living outside the box, beyond previously held dreams, discovering and rediscovering through inner and outer experiences of the ordinary and the extraordinary. We’ve recently moved to a completely new area, so we are also exploring new relationships and community, connections and opportunities to use our gifts, skills, and experience, beauty in a different geographical region and culture. There is much to explore and experience in 2018 with deep gratitude and Spirit’s guidance, support, and provision!