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 is PRESENCE. God is withus and in us. Being to all creation, cosmic presence uniting all.
My word is ‘lightly’ – to see, hear, touch, hold and carry everything lightly as it comes into my life and stays for awhile, for me to experience and absorb the meaning of its presence until its journey is called on from me.
TRUST: I want to better trust & rely on God rather than trying to be so independent & apart from Her.
Patient : The second reading at Mass this morning from the Letter of Saint James 5:7-10 spoke to me. It begins with the word Patient. I want conflict to be solved now! A patient approach in waiting for healing to occur is a goal.
My word for 2023 is grace.✨
Wholiness- to see myself and others as whole and holy.
I am so appreciative of this offering as we near the winter solstice and a new year. I have yet to decide on one word or phrase because at this time in my life I am truly at a threshold I would never have expected: a rare and incurable head cancer that is described as unrelenting. After surgery and proton radiation treatments I have so many words: Life, Love, Light, Create, Contribute. Fortunate to have so many beautiful and meaningful words tumbling around my thoughts, but how to choose one or create a phrase with all so important to me?
ACQUIESCE is my word this year. I acquiesce that life is not what I thought it should be. I acquiesce that life is not what I hoped it could be. I acquiesce that life is not even what I thought it actually was. I acquiesce that life is beautiful and worth living, in spite of these things, perhaps even because of them.
The word–and its consequences–is kindness. This word has been showing up in my daily reading and prayer. Time to heed!
RECIPROCITY