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
My word of the year is joy. I resonate deeply with Brene’ Brown’s description of joy:
Joy is characterized “by a connection with others, or with God, nature, or the universe. Joy expands our thinking and attention, and it fills us with a sense of freedom and abandon.”
My desire is to deepen my spiritual connection with God, practice gratitude and experience joy in 2023.
Courage/EnCourage:
Courage – to be seen as I step into my authentic self
Encourage – to both encourage myself and others on this path of becoming
My word for 2023 is Balance/Gleichgewicht
I need to regain the balance between my body,spirit and soul.
After three years in overdrive at work, I need to reclaim my equilibrium!
The word that excites and moves me for 2023 is Hovering. The Spirit is hovering all around, in everything I see, in the energy that flows and I feel intensely in my own body, in my rising and falling breath, in the radiating glow of the beauty of creation. The spirit hovers all through this universe. What a promise of life-giving water. What a comfort of never ending expanding Presence.
Good morning, The word that chose me is “BRAVE”. I say chose me, because I it is not a word I would have picked. I have done this practice of choosing a word with a close friend and the practice is certainly one of growth.
Acceptance is the word chosen for my life in 2023
non-permanence
My word is container. Aware that every cell that makes me ‘me’ is filled with the presence of the Divine. An invitation to grow in being my true self for myself and as a blessing to others
My word is
Revelation
Reveal and
Enlighten, Oh Divine One
Vow to
Elevate and
Love beyond boundaries
Awaken me
Today and
Inspire connection to the Holy
Oneness found in the
Now
My Word for 2023 is Wait.
To let the discernment process take as long as it needs and wait for what is mine to do and not to do to become clear.
Lao-Tzu in the Tao Te Ching:
“Do you have the patience to wait till your mind settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving till the right action arrives by itself?”