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
For 2025 my word is balance both physically and literally! At 70 each day presents moments to praise God for so many blessings. I enjoy time being quiet, exercising, Bible study and worship. I am working on service & hospitality more & more. Praying for each of you this year.
The word that revealed itself to me is FAITH.
My word is “weaving,” with the metaphor of “weaving through liminal time.”
I’m holding 2 words as this year unfolds…Unraveling and ReWIREing. The word “unraveling” came to me three days in a row from different contexts. This word feels disconcerting, though it is perhaps the process I began last year in selling and moving from the house I shared with my late husband, and am continuing as I release a long-time job and move more fully into ReWIREment. I suppose a certain amount of unraveling is essential in reWIREing. Grateful to have Christine’s “A Midwinter God” as companion!
My word is Unwaivering
My word this year is Flow and I am very excited to see where this invitation will lead me.
Mary Lou Gormley
My word is saktmodig🇸🇪 which is poorly translated online as “meek” but in my understanding of meek, it’s far from saktmodig! To translate🇸🇪➡️🇨🇦 sakt- means slow and -modig is brave, so more literally saktmodig is slowly brave or slow bravery. Swedish etymology shows saktmodig linked to slow and peaceful and, for me, the best translation to English is equanimity🇨🇦 so my word for 2025 would be EQUANIMITY♡
Divine. I love this word because it can operate in three ways: as a verb, adjective and noun. I want to explore each way. I seek the divine in my life. I seek to divine the divine. And I want to become even more aware of things, people, places, experiences I can describe as divine.
My word this year is love- more specifically self love That idea is somewhat frightening to me since it seems selfish, but I am learning through this journey that if I can love myself first, then I can authentically love others as well. I want to live my life out of love, not fear and to live fearlessly as my authentic self
My word this year is Expansion. I wait to see how the Divine will bring this alive in me. Because of my limited physical ability, I imagine it will be mainly about inner expansion; however, the gift of physical expansion would be open-heartedly welcomed. And it may be neither of those specifically – may I be awake and alert enough to receive whatever is given.