In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to the divine 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, 2023 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, we are 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, December 11th email and at the bottom of each Sunday following).
WIN A PRIZE – RANDOM DRAWING GIVEAWAY ENTER BY JANUARY 5th!
- One person wins a space in our Lent retreat on A Different Kind of Fast
- Three people win a space each in their choice of self-study retreats
- Five people win their choice of one of our digital albums
- Seven people win one of our Dancing Monk Medallions
Please share your word with us in the comments below
(and it would be wonderful if you included a sentence about what it means for you)
Subscribe to the Abbey of the Arts newsletter to receive ongoing inspiration in your in-box. You can choose daily, weekly, or monthly. Share the love with others and invite them to participate. Then stay tuned – on January 8th we will announce the prize winners!
475 Responses
The word that has found me is Nourish. I want to pay attention to what nourishes my spirit as well as how I can nourish others.
Pause – I discerned “pause” for 2023. I have always had a tendency to take on too many requests, projects, etc. And now I am the caregiver for my brother who has mid-stage Lewy Body dementia. It is challenging and exhausting to understand and help him cope with the disease. A wise old priest recently told me to respond but not react. Pause is my mantra before I react. I am so grateful to Abbey of the Arts. 2023 blessings to all.
Thank you for the opportunity to participate again in this process. I began contemplating a word in late November and this exercise took me on a journey of self exploration that allowed it to ripen. “Illuminate” is my 2023 word in both active and passive voice- to listen and to respond with light, hope and adventure!
My word came to me just before this retreat started and has been shimmering since then. It was in Isaiah 35 and leapt out of the Old Testament reading for the 3rd Sunday in Advent: “the mirage shall become a pool”. It is filling me with anticipation for the year ahead.
The word chose me early in the retreat but I have been holding it in its infancy. I have enjoyed getting to know it through the activities, especially the visual and my poetry practice. This year my word is “emerge”. I will take it into the new year with silent curiosity and shout-out joy. Thanks Christina and team for your work.
“Gather” – My word is gather. I pushed it away as it seemed to plain. Then, I got the tap on my shoulder again with the whispered word “gather”. I then decided to say, “oh, GATHER!”, as if I had not heard the first time. So, here it is: “gather”.
Blessing: as I stand on the threshold paused and waiting for a word for 2023, I was filled with thanks for all the many blessings I have known and hope I will be a blessing to others in the new year.
Release.
hoping to empty of all old patterns, old beliefs and limitations.
The word that has come to me is Mystery, supported by the scripture “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). This is an invitation for me to go deeper with God, who comforts me in my fear in uncertainty with “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
I always enter into this retreat with trepidation since every word that has chosen me has come to fruition- sometimes difficult fruitions. I trust that the word that chose me for 2023 will bring many blessings and not too much pain- rootedness.