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
HOFFNUNG (HOPE) is my word for 2025.
My word for 2024( subsequent to attending the Retreat last year) was Courage and I indeed made some brave decisions, the most important one means that I will be going on early retirement at the beginning of February 2025.
So HOFFNUNG/HOPE has the promise in it of new beginnings and renewal in the next season of my life. I am looking forward to finding a creative, spiral and more contemplative way of living!
With the uncertainty of the upcoming year and my own health related concerns, the word that has chosen me for 2025 is Resilience. That was a significant part of my military ministry along with parish ministry. Resilience is what I need in the upcoming year.
My word is Adventure. It’s a surprising word, but I know it’s the right one.
MY word for 2025 is BEAR. It’s not the word I would have chosen though I’m reluctantly certain that it’s chosen me.
To bear…
give birth to
carry
tolerate
sustain
endure
support
hold
render
testify to the truth of
“Enough”! I was moving toward a different word when I heard “enough” come to me in the liminal space between waking and sleeping. So, a year of “less is more!”
For 2025, the word that shimmers for me is surrender.
The word that came to me for 2025 is tend. Thank you for encouraging this fruitful practice.
enough
I’m not sure I really like this word but I’m trusting that God will show me all the meaning it holds for me.
This year, I have been on a healing journey. This journey has included somatic therapy, which has been instrumental in a more holistic healing approach: mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, I have three words for this year that come together in a braid representing mind, body, and spirit: TRUST, COURAGE, and RELEASE.
Earth Love. I hear the Holy Three calling me into a deeper and reciprocal relationship with Mother Earth this coming season. As I am nurtured by this love; my prayer and plan is to find meaniful ways to tread more lightly and invite others to do the same.