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
Let go- In the recent past, I have taken on a new role as I age. Instead of relaxing in retirement, I have added new responsibilities. I need to limit the responsibilities to what they need to be. I need to understand what I am able to do and what I need to limit.
Generosity – Nothing keeps me out of a victim’s posture more than generosity.
Gratitude – Nothing keeps me our of a victim’s posture more than gratitude.
‘Love’s connection’
…. the life giving spring … all ways ….
The first word came to me as I have decluttered a lot of things, but there are still boxes of papers; hone. To sharpen, to perfect. Rather than decluttering think about how I can hone those boxes and in doing so gather then together for a purpose. Allowing the purpose to arise as I read, digest, edit, or throw away.
Today as I was walking in a fairly high-energy setting I had a deepening sense of inner discord. I believe my word today must be GENTLE. Reminder to self to approach even the most tenuous of situations in a way that creates an inner sense of GENTLENESS.
Transcendent – A reminder that any viable move in the direction of transcendence is not to go beyond the sacred ordinary but rather to make an adjustment to ego affording a vision of the sacred inherent in the ordinary
The word coming into my heart today is the word REST. Nature rests during the darker days and longer nights. Nature’s internal clock knows that REST will provide time to recover, to wait until it is once again called upon to provide us with all the nourishment that it so lavishly does in the longer days. So we also wait and REST.
The word that rises up in me is HOME. In that word I mean our earth, our natural world, our church community, our family. It is an all encompassing word that I embrace and one that has become very important to me. In our HOME there is work to be done but there is also joy to be found, peace, contentment and a feeling of safe belonging. We want to care for our HOME and look after it as we look after all that dwells therein.
Mystery – I like thinking that my spiritual responsibility is to have a compassionate relationship with the mystery of myself, the other, Nature, and the Transcendent Other (God)