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 REJOICE. I rejoice in the precious gift of life, the ordinary moments and the extraordinary moments.
I am sitting with the word BOLD for the coming year.
My word for 2024 is “abide” – I knew it when it first appeared – and tried a dozen other words – but it has remained. It is what my heart longs for – deeper abiding in our triune God. Branch was my word a few years ago – as it abides in the vine – and I learned to be content with being an unnoticed branch. Now I’m already experiencing abiding as being wrapped ‘round’ by a warm throw.
I only settled on my word this morning, and found this not 30 minutes later!
My word for 2024 is Align: I want to align all areas of my life into a life that honours and worships God. I’ll be looking at setting up a rhythm to prayer and worship personally at first, using The Artists Rule, then looking at taking that out into the world with me and sharing it in my Church setting. I want to align the outward life I have with my inward faith.
Thank you for a brilliant website, that I know I will be coming back to again and again.
Peace. While doing a lectio divina practice with the passage about Jacob wrestling God and receiving a new name, I wondered what my new name might be and I felt God say my new name is “Peace”. A lot to wrestle with there as I don’t always feel I embody that word. Definitely something to ponder and grow into.
My word for 2024 is wonderment. It embodies the joyful surprise when I see all the sacred geometry shapes in the fall seed pods, the fact that the praying mantis living in the tomato plant has camouflaged itself in the exact red & green shades as the tomato! It symbolizes the amazement felt looking up at the stars knowing there are other galaxies & stars & maybe someone in one of them is looking out at me in wonderment too!
My word for 2024 is creativity. I am free of the clock now, and able to immerse myself in channeling the great Creator in making–painting, writing poetry and prose, growing food, playing music–spending time with my grandchildren, helping friends and family, and marveling at the world. I approach all with reverence and gratitude, and try to make of every moment something beautiful.
The word for my 2024 sacred journey is “Iosis” the Greek word meaning “the process by which a base metal becomes gold” I anticipate inner transformation as I go through the formative “fire” of as yet unknown challenges and changes ahead.
My word for my 2024 pilgrimage is INTIMACY, or sometimes aptly described as “INTO-ME-I-SEE.”
Intimacy for me is a sense of trust and comfort with another person, the Holy, and, just as important, me. This deep connection lets me peek into my own soul to see how I really am … without the facades or reluctance to be vulnerable. Intimacy is what allows me to feel cherished and loved for who I am. Intimacy creates acceptance and belonging. Below is a blessing about this word that is so much broader than the conventional definition of romance and sex.
May I plumb the depths of my interior tidal pool for clarity and truth.
May I be kind rather than right, transparent rather than veiled.
May I listen to the Holy One’s whisper of what comes next.
Pink – I am exploring it in a similar vein as Hildegard of Bingen’s green and viriditas – the greening power of God. For me, pink is the pinking presence of God bringing joy, excitement, newness, tenderness, gentleness, and compassion. Two poems have come to mind already: Pink – Presence is not knowing; Pink – Presence increases new kindnesses.