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
The word that has called me forth is Behold …. this word invites me to pay closer attention to what is going on around me & within me and to name the synchronicities as God inspired invitations.
My word for the year is settle. Life has been splintered in the past 2 years and I sense a need for groundedness. A place where my feet hit solid earth and my fingertips can touch brush the sky, but all in between is present in reality. Settle is to be grounded in my present moment, a place of spaciousness connected to reality, a rhythm, a framework of life.
Seeing, listening
Expectantly
Treasure
Time, Treasure
Life
Enter and embrace the present moment
Listen. Lean in. Learn. Active, yet waiting and passive. Womb like. My word for 2018 is LISTEN. And my name is Lise!! Mmmmmmm……
Remembrance/Awakening/Chrysalis seem to be one word for me this year. I am going to spend 2018 finding and releasing the Poet that I felt in me so powerfully at one point in my life, and this idea/word seems connected to making that happen.
My word for 2018:
GRACE.
Growing slowly
rivers of Mercy
accepting what is
connected in
everlasting love
As in the past, there were a couple of words flowing around me, Renewal and Possibility, seemed to keep appearing. However, this 1st day of the new year, the word LISTEN, came forth very strongly. So, I will attempt to LISTEN to what the Holy Spirit is calling to me, listen to my inner voice, and listen more to those around me. What better gift can I give to both myself and others I am in conversation with. This is my 8th year of following my One Word. I continue to learn more about myself and what I am capable of doing.
I must begin by telling you that I was not eager to accept my word. The first one to come to me was FLAME in the midst of our southern California wild fires. I liked it, but it was only a fleeting thought. The next, as I gazed at our neighbor’s throbbing fruit tree, was ORANGE BLOSSOM. I relished the thought of having the sweet perfume of the orange with me all year. That also vanished, and the word that I had kept pushing beneath the surface suddenly would stay hidden no longer – SURRENDER! To me it seemed so negative. Who wants to admit defeat and give up? As I followed the activities of the retreat, I became more and more aware that in surrendering I would become alive, My walk in nature was a drive south as the hills began to cover the setting sun. The sunset was magnificent, bright pink giving way to rays of orange and finally translucent purple streaks. Still unconvinced, I waited for another word even as I checked out the etymology of surrender and discussed it with a Jesuit scholastic. Days later, I surrendered as I returned to the sunset. The sun had surrendered to time and night was born. In relating to my word, I am not retreating, not giving up, but sitting back to let the grace of God take over.
Surely, I
underestimate the
restful,
relief of
engaging
nature;
depending
entirely on the
reality of the divine.
My word for the year is sabbatical.I look forward to how the Lord will unfold this word.I do need rest..I run pretty hard … a word I would not have chosen, but somewhat comforted by the fact that God chose it for me.
My word this year is Shine and not letting anything or anyone dim the light that shines from within me.
My word is “unfurling” & the image I have is fabric being unfurled from either being folded, bunched, and squashed up. Or, flowers opening…opening to freedom.
This word also spoke to me recently. I looked up the word, and the second part of the meaning really spoke to me: to be open to the Wind, meaning the Spirit to me, especially since my word for the year is ‘wind’.
Here is South Africa the sunflowers are opening up daily. It is a beautiful image for me of unfurling… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ebd3b6ec62928af87bb5e04320089414e325b5f196a1d9117d1c44ee2e09057.jpg
Blessings on your unfurling this year!