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 this year is Curiosity. I want to see things from a place of trust and open-heartedness.
Paula, I really like your word. When we approach the world and other people with curiosity, life can be an exciting journey of discovery. I plan to try to stay curious this year. I work in a public library. One of our mantras is “Let’s find out!” Stay curious! ;-)
Forgiveness is my word because I’m struggling to forgive someone & it’s affecting my relationship with that person
Hello Sheila, thank you for sharing your word. I am also working through some forgiveness issues at the moment. I find forgiveness can be difficult and that is more of a process than a “one-time” thing. Also sometimes forgiveness can have layers to it if the other person has hurt you deeply. I try to be patient and gentle and forgiving with myself when I am in the process of working on forgiving others. The work of forgiveness can be difficult at times, but it is worth it because it can lead to a real sense of freedom when are able to reach a of forgiveness for others and for ourselves,
If it might be helpful, let me offer a short prayer of forgiveness that I use sometimes:
“For all the harm I have done to others, knowingly or unknowingly, may I be forgiven.
For all the harm others have done to me, knowingly or unknowingly, I forgive you as much as I can.
For all the harm I have done to myself, knowingly or unknowingly, I forgive myself.”
Shalom.
I appreciate your words & prayer Kevin. Have a blessed day.
My word is agree. I find that I often resist or cling to thoughts that no longer serve me. If I can agree, to truly listen and agree, that will be my challenge in 2018!
Hineni
A Hebrew word meaning ‘here I am’ or as Leonard Cohen suggests in ‘you want it darker’ : ‘I’m ready my Lord’. Or it could simply be translated ‘at your service’
Community. It’s a word that came up 10 years ago and now has different feel. I look forward to seeing what it has for me (and our world) in 2018.
Open.
A fascinating, unexpected word choice for me. So many images to work with, write about, paint, meditate on… open book, open mind, open gate, open heart, open and shut, crack open, pry open, open sesame! Seeds opening in their own time.
This, too, is my word, Sharan. Lovely that you shared it. I posted mine Jan. 6.
Wishing you blessings, peace and light as you ‘open’ the gifts of this new year. Thank you for sharing our word!
s
Easy. As in “My yoke is easy and my burden light.” I’m not sure yet what easy will mean, or what the yoke will mean. But the word comes to me after a year of feeling overwhelmed by and preoccupied with all the things I’m trying to do.
Interesting how the word you WANT and the word you GET aren’t the same thing at all. I tried my best to convince myself that this year’s word was “healed”, because that’s what I want (& thought I needed). I hurt my back badly early last year & as anyone with a back injury knows, it negatively affects every aspect of my life & I am still struggling. But “healed” kept just drifting away. The word that kept popping up everywhere, louder & louder & more insistently until I could no longer ignore it: RESTORE. So I have decided to stop fighting and go with RESTORE, even though I’m not entirely sure I understand all the implications it brings. Some aspects (the most obvious) I get: restored health & mobility, restored faith in my body’s ability to heal itself. But I sense something deeper at work & look forward to 2018 showing me what it is.
Deeper. To be satisfied with what I have and the courage and perseverance to explore in greater depth the realms of spirit, life and creativity.
Acceptance … to understand that some things are just what they are. To let go resisting and controlling and indeed fighting what I can’t change.