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
Behold!
This word shimmered during a Lectio recently. It is tugging at me to steady my gaze so I can receive the holy in each moment. A great portal for a present moment practice! Plus, it’s just fun to say out loud!
My word for 2024 is grace.
My word is word. It’s unusual and I am excited to explore it and journey through the next year with it.
Surrender is my word for 2024; letting go and letting God.
The word that jumped out at me is “unbecoming”! It found me before I even knew I was looking.
The word I have received for the coming year is ‘Surrender’. My initial response to this word was one of turning my nose up and hoping it was just a word for that day!! However, leaning into this word already has lifted a weight from me, and has brought relief and peace. God may not always give us what we want, but he does give us what we need.
Wholehearted (word for 2024). This wasn’t a word I formally selected for last year, but it ended up being a concept I wrestled with, in response to scripture, to define in real world terms. For the coming year, I feel called to now live it, however imperfectly or ill-defined it still is for me.
My word is identity. Which identitys are the ones given to me by god? Which identitys took I on, because I choose to? What storys do I tell myself about me?
We have so many different identitys moving through our days. I want to be more mindful, which feel true and honest for me, and which feel constricting and burdening…
The word that chose me this year is ALIVE!
I am still here,
alive
awake,
aware,
amazed
and in awe of this life I share with all that is.
It is enough.
It is everything.
My word is “yes”. Focusing on what I want to say “yes” to in my life. When I found out that one way to say “yes” in Irish Gaelic is “tha”—pronounced as ha—my whispering longing to exhale became a part of my “yes”. These past couple years have felt like a time when I was either holding my breath or inhaling and seeking “what can I do?” With my Irish “tha” I can be reminded to exhale a long “ha” and rest in God’s presence, trusting the answer is there. When I breathe, in time I will know.