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 3, 2025 and you are automatically entered for the prize drawing (prizes listed below).
Join our Give Me a Word Self-Study Retreat for guidance and inspiration.
This retreat is designed to help you contemplate what holiness is birthing within your soul. Each day there will be a different practice offered to inspire, challenge, and support you in listening for the word that wants to be spoken to your heart.
The practices are not about resolutions or goal setting, they are not about achieving more in the new year or accomplishing tasks or goals. They are about listening for what is calling to you in a particular season of life. They ask us to trust a greater wisdom at work in the world than our own egos.
Through this retreat, you will be invited to release your thinking mind and enter into a space of receiving.
Learn more here. Use code GMAW20 to take 20% off through December 31st.
WIN A PRIZE – RANDOM DRAWING GIVEAWAY ENTER BY JANUARY 5th!
- One person wins a space in the mini-retreat Holding Paradox: A Retreat with St. Brigid led by Simon de Voil
- Two people win a space in our upcoming A Midwinter God retreat
- Two people win a space each in their choice of Self-Study retreats
- Three people win a Dancing Monk Medallion
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 12th we will announce the prize winners!
201 Responses
RELEASE, in the service of liberation. There are so many things to hold fearfully in the world and culture around us today. While fear can protect, holding fear lead to anxiety anxiety, and anxiety erodes instead of protects. The mystic civil rights leader Howard Thurman wrote (edited for gender inclusivity) “Anyone who permits another to determine the quality of their inner life gives into the hands of the other the keys to their destiny. If one knows precisely what they can do to you or what epithet they can hurl against you in order to make you lose your temper, your equilibrium, then they can always keep you under subjection. It is a our reaction to things that determines their ability to exercise power over us.” RELEASE.
Peace is my word for 2025…. Inner peace; rooted in a sense of harmony within myself.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you……..”, John 14:27. ….NOT as the WORLD gives….
My word for 2025 is flowing. Like a fresh stream running through the forest, like blood circulating through our bodies, like a body moving in vinyasa, I want to move through life with more freedom and ease. I want to practice smoother transitions. I want to get stuck less. With greater awareness and attention and less worry, I want to embrace movement.
Rest/oration is my word for 2025 – in rest I will be restored!
I am 68 and feel I am entering a new season of life. My word is Rebirth. Still uncovering what this will bring.
My word is EVERLASTING. Last year’s word was LOVE. Little did I realize how that word would wrap itself around my heart and soul as my husband’s health declined so rapidly and he passed on July 19th. So now I’m in a deep season of grief and I’m talking to God (and my dear husband) all the time! Some of my friends just smile when I tell them that. Truth is, I believe in everlasting life. I believe God is with me and Harlan is with me…I can sense it. Comfort and guidance come in amazing ways. So, I look forward to the unfolding of EVERLASTING in the days ahead.
I have continued my active life into my seventh decade. However, the last 18 months have been challenging in terms of my health. I have become to accept the slowness of life. A challenge for me, as I am sustained by long walks throughout my day and keeping busy.
I have found that I am able to be with the slowness of life.
I now embrace slowness and try to weave it in all of my day.
Embrace slow. is my word/phrase for this year.