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
My word phrase for 2018 is resting place. I relate this to the Hebrew word menuchah and the Greek word meno. In the busyness of life, in the stress of aging parents in three states different from my own, in the supporting of my husband in a ministry that can be very heavy at times…in the midst of life…how can I find that resting place to remain forever in the grace and peace and quiet of my inner soul?
My word for 2018 is “grace,” that unmerited divine assistance which I need to ask for in humility and trust.
My word is “birth”. I have been meditating and “waiting for” my word to appear and it came to me this morning when I felt and saw moving in me something unborn and mysterious. The image was of undulations under flannel, an enormous living writhing creature. In previous meditations I had seen again and again a glimpses of a baby’s head crowning. What or who is this that is unborn in me? With great clarity my word for 2018 popped out at me–Birth, the birth of this mystery. I wanted to tinker with it, name it “rebirth” but recognized there was no “re” involved with this process. Whatever I am trying to give birth to in my life is unprecedented. So “Birth” it is. My word.
Several weeks ago I discovered sophronismos – Greek for a sound and disciplined mind, and received it as my word for next year. I was in a car accident in September and now have what I can see is the gift of a concussion. It has opened up awareness of all the areas of life that are too cluttered, too chaotic, too demanding and too draining. I have spent years scattering my energies far and wide attempting to be all things to all people and ignoring my self, ignoring inner wisdom; my mind ungrounded and pulled around by every wind of emotion. So I have been given a unique gift of brain damage which feels like my body working to make me aware that I’ve been mentally “out there” trying to corral the chaos instead of rooted in the wisdom of now. It is helping me learn to listen to self so I can return to a place of soundness and wholeness, of sophronismos. From that sound and solid foundation, living grounded in the reality of what is instead of in the controlling judgmentalism of how I think things should be, I can love and accept others unconditionally. The wisdom of the body is already at work in me!
My word is “resurrection”
Bellwether: the leading sheep of a flock; an indicator or predictor of something; someone or something that leads the way–that shows what the general future of changes or developments will probably be. Synonyms: harbinger, herald, indicator, predictor “bellwether of change”
I doubt that anyone could have been more shocked than I was when I received this word within the first five minutes of the first day of this study. I have never asked for a word for the year and, to be honest, I often don’t take the time to even read this wonderful blog, but in the very early morning of the first day, when this came in my email, I decided to go through the 12 days. I was intrigued by coming up with a word and I did exactly what the second lesson said NOT to do–try to think of a word myself. And then the word ‘bellwether’ popped into my mind, seemingly out of nowhere, and I wasn’t even sure I knew what it meant! Actually, I know that I did not know what it meant. I looked it up. And I’ve been studying it and chewing on it a lot the last couple of days-and I’m sure I will continue to do so. I know that somehow it is connected with the fact that my husband and I have lived in the same state, Florida, all our lives (we are 59), and in the same city for 30+ years, but we have received opportunities for major CHANGE in both of our lives–good and God-changes–dreams we have been praying about for quite some time now. Even so, the changes are a little scary. We have had many indicators to make a move to the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina to walk out and live those dreams. Anyway, with this word, I am finding confirmation and comfort. I sense that God is first and foremost our bellwether, and then the opportunity that was presented to my husband last week, makes my husband a bellwether, as well, for our family and future–the male, head sheep leading us in these changes (but he is still a sheep following the Shepherd!) And, lastly, God will make us bellwethers to others in ways I won’t elaborate on. Wow. Thank you for this “mini-retreat”–
“Come out” Don’t hide your achievements, gifts and abilities any longer. This little phrase came to me after pondering two surprising and almost identical dreams that I had during a break to a far away place.
In the first instance this place helped me to see what I wouldn’t be doing in my retirement. I am not called to walk an impossible path, nor am I called to a place of false grandeur.
I am called to be fully myself, as myself, with what I bring – to be seen, and to bring my colour and flavour to life, and to life.
And since these pondering I have been able to say a clutch of new yeses for the year ahead.
Yes I will help run more contemplative services that more people are finding helpful. Yes I will run some art events for the contemplative prayer group I belong to, to see if we can make a piece of art for our church. Yes I will invest in travelling to places that my heart desires to see where they take me. Yes I will be honoured to be part of something new, and seek to bring it to fruition, in my work.
This finding a word for the year ahead is something new to me. In the past I have been able to see what the word was retrospectively. I rather like walking ahead with my “come out” in my pocket.
As I noted in my reply to Odille Gaudet, below, my word during this time is (tender) COMPASSION.
“Kenosis.” After I read Christine’s post today, I was drawn to joining this community. I decided to stay open to receiving a word, allowing it to come to me. I continued reading my Sunday e-reflections, and suddenly, there it was: “kenosis”: “self-emptying.” I KNEW this was my word. This past year I’ve been learning Buddhist meditation practices. “Emptiness” is a major theme of Buddha, just as it was with Jesus. I want to see how I may grow with the word “kenosis.”
YES is the word that shimmers in me. 3 years ago I lost my husband and some how I felt that life had stoped. Today I say YES to life, to newness, to joys and challenges. YES to love, to trust. Yes to walk on a new road.
Thank you Christine for providing this opportunity.
Thank you Odillie. My husband has Parkinson’s and PK dementia. I don’t know how long this process will continue, but I know that our love is depending daily as a result. I feel very blessed that we can be together as we are now, staying in the present moment as much as possible. My word at this moment of reflection is TENDER COMPASSION. It is essential in our relationship, towards him and towards myself with all that we face on a daily basis.
Hi Susan, Here I am with a big hug! your comments went directly to my heart and felt so connected to your experience even if mine was different; his death came very fast, no time for those beautiful conversations at the end but certainly had many meaningful conversations at different moments in our life together.
Your word COMPASSION is a very rich word sounds very appropriate for this moment when your 2 hearts are deeply connected. Some times we tend to be compassionate for the other but I encourage you to be compassionate, tender with yourself!
This is a journey where the YES will be helpful as well. Yes to sadness, to little joys, to frustration, to tenderness, to fatigue. All those feelings come up all mixed and all are valid and part of the journey… You are not alone, I will keep you in my prayers.
I did get your reply, you did just fine: Yes! I have had a very busy week and just now opened what you wrote. We went to see two of our granddaughters dance in a recital and one play “Carol of the Bells” on the piano.They were wonderful (of course), then we stopped on the way home for supper. We were both tired after a very nice, but 3 hour long program. He had trouble ordering his meal and mostly didn’t remember who I was. A time of compassion and sadness, and yes to our being able to negotiate the concert in his traveling wheelchair.
I appreciate your note to me and your encouragement. I surely did need to read your message tonight. Thank you.