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 4, 2026 and you are automatically entered for the prize drawing (prizes listed below).
Read Christine’s book Give Me a Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year for guidance and inspiration.
This book is designed to help you contemplate what holiness is birthing within your soul. Each day there are different practices 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 book, you will be invited to release your thinking mind and enter into a space of receiving.
WIN A PRIZE – RANDOM DRAWING GIVEAWAY ENTER BY JANUARY 4th!
- One person wins a space in the mini-retreat Brigid’s Day (Imbolc) Deep Rest Retreat ~ Emergence with Christine Valters Paintner, Deirdre Ní Chinnéide, and Nóirín Ní Riain
- Two people win a space in our upcoming Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist 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 11th we will announce the prize winners!
270 Responses
Be Bold
My word is Awaken Joy. Joy is a gift, one of the gifts of the Spirit named in the New Testament. I know I have Joy within me. My task ahead is to be aware of that gift and to be and do whatever awakens joy for me. I have much more to discover about this precious gift in 2026 & beyond.
My word is permeability. That I allow the gifts of the Holy Spirit to penetrate more deeply but also allow my doubts & fears to be expressed. Especially in this season of downsizing & retirement.
My word for 2026 is Wardrobe. Over the last weeks I’ve mused about all that word might contain, literally and figuratively: from the actual wardrobe that was my grandfather’s that now holds my yarns and creations; to the C.S. Lewis idea of a place of hidden enchantment and adventure; to the idea of putting away and taking out useful things. This is definitely a “the word chose me” situation, and I’m looking forward to discerning all the layers of meaning and what might appear within the word.
My word (phrase) is ‘remain in my love’ and I am thinking about what practices will encourage me to ‘merely’ remain – that is not striving but simply staying and resting in Gods love.
The word that surfaced for me is ‘encircle’ – an offering and an invitation to wholeness and belonging in our fractious and fragmented world
Ownership. I am my own. I own my choices. I steer my ship.
Two words continue to emerge for me for the coming year: Civility and forgiveness. I’m spending time with both words before and since I recently shared Alice Walker’s poem at my mother’s memorial.
Looking down into my father’s
dead face
for the last time
my mother said without
tears, without smiles
without regrets
but with civility
‘Good night, Willie Lee, I’ll see you
in the morning.’
And it was then I knew that the healing
of all our wounds
is forgiveness
that permits a promise
of our return
at the end.
Love has been with me strongly for the last months of this year as I feel my understanding of this word will better vibrate it into the world. I have been part of a fb group called Ageless, and find I am more and more searching into love and find no fear in passing on my love to others. Heart love that knows no boundaries is what I’m working on.
My word is Hope and it has been hope for several years. Amid the tumult of the world, violence, suffering, sickness and death I need hope!