Dear monks, artists, and pilgrims,
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 6, 2024 and you are automatically entered for the prize drawing (prizes listed below).
WIN A PRIZE – RANDOM DRAWING GIVEAWAY ENTER BY JANUARY 6th!
- One space in our Love of Thousands online companion retreat to the book
- One space in our online Lent retreat on A Different Kind of Fast
- Two people win a space each in their choice of self-study retreats
- Three people will win a digital album of their choice.
- Three 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)
Winners will be announced on Sunday, January 12th.
If you would love a retreat experience to support you in listening for your word, letting your word ripen, and carrying your word into the year ahead, please join us for our Give Me a Word Advent and Christmas season retreat which begins today! I am joined by many wonderful guest teachers and there is a suggested practice for each day from now until Epiphany!
Join us tomorrow for our Contemplative Prayer Service where I will be joined by Simon de Voil and Polly Paton-Brown to reflect on the gifts of Mary for our journey.
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE
P.S. We are delighted to announce the release of Birthing the Holy: Dancing with Mary and the Sacred Feminine! This digital collection of 12 dances and companion teaching videos by Betsey Beckman and guest artists offers another beautiful resource for engaging with the gifts of Mary.
Image paid license with Canva
233 Responses
My word is “All is gift”. Our culture is becoming more and more materialistic (myself included). For me, this word reminds me to continually trust in God, especially when events in our life, and the world do not offer much hope for the future. It also reminds me how important it is to be a grateful person, to count the blessings in my life, particularly those events or people that I struggle with the most. God is my source and where there is darkness he/she is with me and reminds me that there is much beauty in the darkness.
Carol Ochs
My word for 2024 in Vitality. I am 84 and do not want to OLD but to be an elder. I have seen so many wars and horrors and seen how resilent we can be. I can pass on hope and energy to those coming after me. We will endure and GROW.
My word for 2024 is Surrender. This is something I have been pondering and working toward for several years now. A history of sexual assault, even though many years ago, has made surrender, even to God, difficult for me. But as I grow deeper into my spiritual life I am hoping that 2024 will be the year I finally become comfortable with it.
My word is “Abide”. My desire is to abide in Christ within me and all I see.
My word for the year is passion. This world needs the passion that births love, compassion, and caring. I need to generate passion within myself in order to be my authentic self, to offer my best self in all situations, and to assist others to do the same.
Hi Christine, than you for your deep and kind ministry.
My word for the year is ‘Esperanza’. I do not speak Spanish but this word for hope, when I say it out loud, changes my breathing. I take a deep breath as if I am at the edge of the ocean and have decided to have faith to walk on water in the challenges of the coming year.
I’m sensing my word for 2024 is ‘Ease’ and the invitation ‘to live my life with ease, rather than dis-ease’.
Long have I desired to live as a person of peace, and to be a person of unanxious presence. Sadly, my anxiety often interrupts that desire!!! I now sense with the support of myself and being part of this community of compassion, I am able to cross the threshold, fully come home to myself, and trust that in 2024, the fruitfulness of my deep interior work is leading me to this place, ‘to live with ease, rather than dis-ease. Much gratitude 🙏🙏
My word for 2024 is alchemy. What will I do with what is given. How can God turn ordinary life experiences into something valuable , even magical? I look forward to exploring more with this word and how it will unfold new invitations for me along with the year.
Entering your contest.
My word for 2023 was SAVOR.
I have yet to choose my 2024 word.
Savor…to be present, aware, awake and enjoy moments, life, and love knowing pain and suffering are part of my journey but move through in wisdom.
My word for 2024 is Time. Chronos and Kairpos. What kind of nature material are we made of? What kind of electrical fields do we live in? Do Chronos and Kairpos dwell in separate dimensions?