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
My word is time. Today our pastor invited us to draw a word from a bowl to follow like the star that guided the magi. My word was time.
Listen–may I listen to the Divine and listen within to what Spirit is saying and to what my voice is saying.
I began with the word notice and it has shifted to listen…I’m listening in case it shifts before the end of January.
My word is “donkey”. I used to be a hummingbird but caregiving has turned me into a donkey. It’s my donkey time.
Space.
Because this space between what was and what isn’t quite here yet is where my life is now.
My word is PONDER.
My word is Angels.
I was raised a protestant and angels were not a focal point in prayer or worship. And yet, they have comforted me, guided me, shone God’s light on me, and given me courage. My word is Angels – in gratitude.
Paradox. This is the word that has shown itself to me as one to ponder in 2025. Continuing to move beyond black & white thinking, either/or binaries. Holding the gray and sometimes messy both/and, and at times also seeing that paradox has lots of other colors like green, read, blue, etc., etc.!
Curiosity
Embodied