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
One morning, I gazed upon a splendid sunrise that proclaimed the glory of our creator. Thus, my word is glory.
Having learned from my choice of a word that did not fit last year, I allowed myself the room to explore. Although I approached this year’s exercises quite methodically, I did so with an open heart & my word is OPENING!
By the end of the course, I felt resonance with 10 words, all of which worked together for me;
Threshold
Invitation
Pause
Brokenness
Sanctuary
Question
Available
Hospitality
Smile
Opening
and the last became first!
I received the words WIND/BREATH.
They have already blessed me these last weeks with their Wisdom and reminder to breathe, to pause, to listen, and allow enough space for the Spirit to move…
I will let them open me up daily this coming year.
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I woke up about Day 5 and heard “Trust”. New tasks are beginning this year and feel I am being encouraged to let go of my concerns and be open to God working in my life. Thank you for the nudge to reveal a word/theme for the year.
You were ate Pendle Hill!!!
I don’t always choose my words as intentionally as I did this year, nor do they come to me at the end/beginning of the year, but since I was leading a 4 day New Year’s Art retreat at a Quaker center over the weekend, I incorporated the idea of letting go of something in the old year, and finding a word/phrase that was calling to us in the New Year. The prompts here were helpful to my own personal discernment. I thought I was getting nudges that my word might be “wild”, but over the weekend, in our work with the labyrinth, my word came bursting forth on its own, and it was clear it was meant for me: “Abundance”. It showed up in my journal and my artwork and in the abundance of love and care and gifts amongst our participants. It is clearly asking me to look at 2018 from a standpoint of abundance and not scarcity or fear. I am happy to step into 2018 with this word as my gentle friend.
You were at Pendle Hill!!!
RELEASE: release of physical objects I no longer need, release of metaphors that no longer fit, release of old expectations I carry for myself, release of judgements and grudges I carry for others, release of my identification with my thoughts, release of could have beens from the past.
My word which called me is healing. Thanks for this journey, I’m loving it!
My word for 2018 is:
permeable
Permeable membranes keep our bodies alive, growing, and healing–I want to be
permeable to the Holy Spirit this year.
I really enjoy reading everyone’s words!
Despite having decided not to follow Give me a Word this year, a word found me anyway! It’s Yeshua, and arrived while I was reading a poem. It seems to speak of both intimacy and strangeness.
Metanoia.