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
My word for 2026 is GUIDE. My desire is to look to and trust Jesus as my GUIDE, the one who knows the way through many family changes in the coming months. In 2026 I will complete my Spiritual Direction training so it’s also a desire to be guided into what’s next as I companion and guide others.
My word is “allow”. Fully allow God to show me the next steps, fully allow my life to be changed. Not allow it grudgingly or guardedly, but with open arms.
My word for 2026 is openness. For me, this word means both openness to receive and openness to letting go. Throughout the year, I want to cultivate an attitude of:
open hands – that remain open to what is, without trying to control,
open heart – that welcomes people in, and also lets them go,
open mind – that adopts new ideas, and is willing to release old ones, and
open arms – that are ready to embrace life in its fullness.
Like the river, I want to stay open to my own unfolding. I long to “embrace the gifts of life unarmed,” as Karin Boye writes in her poem I Want to Meet… (translated to English by Edwin Klint Bywater). As Julian of Norwich writes in Revelations of Divine Love, “the blessed wounds of our Saviour be open and enjoy to heal us”. In that same spirit, I can remain open about my own open wounds – without fear.
I want to live with an open attitude of spaciousness, where there is room for my own needs as well as for relationships with companions of different kinds. I want to be open to the abundance of life as it is, where there is space for retreat and rest, as well as for growth. I want to remain open to being embraced and held by others, trusting that I don’t have to carry everything alone. I want to stay open to the wonders and lightness offered by nature – both in my own backyard and in wilder places. And I want to leave room for the works of the Divine, trusting in that deep sense of knowing that all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
Through prayer, I seek a word for each year on which to focus. I had a pending list of several interesting words like: Clarity, Margins, Wisdom, Cultivate, Presence, Breathe….but none were affirmed by God in my prayers. The last week of the year came and I still was unclear…and then one day the word literally popped into my mind out of nowhere and I knew the Holy Spirit was speaking it to me: Quiet. And it instantly made sense—I am a retired pastor and have spent my life speaking, preaching, teaching, comforting….but I am also a spiritual director who has been learning that speaking less is an art when walking with another. I realize that “Quiet” is a call for me to learn that I do not need to weigh in on everything, or respond or even say anything…I have been planning to write a book and I realize that the writing will come forth from the Quiet…. I am certain that God will reveal more ways in which I need to Quiet my voice, life and soul…and I will seek to receive. So….Quiet it is!
My word is reforged. I am not who i was yesterday and have been at the mercy of god’s grace of the path i have become. i am not following a path, i am reforged from his mercy and grace thru deep fidelity of prayer and compassion to be moving thru the murmurations that bestow us all in the way forward.
This has become an annual practice for about a decade. The last 4 years presented a number of challenges for me in many areas of my life. The guiding word has been an incredible tool for comfort, devotion and growth. I am coming to a crossroad place and so for this year after much prayerful thought I chose or was given two words that I think will intertwine and play out together: Awaken an Purpose.. Here is to a fruitful 2026.
My word is diverse. I, many of my grandchildren and family members have been or could be described as neurodiverse. ADHD and autism is a challenge for us in this buttoned up world. At age 78 I am finding out more about folks like us. I am thinking about the gifts of diversity in our communities and in the natural world, thinking about celebrating the strengths of diversity, thinking about being too quick to judge.
My word for 2026 is NOTICE.
My pantoum for 2026:
A quiet voice within whispers notice.
Notice has arrived as my word.
The sun is shining on me through the trees.
Allowing myself the freedom to explore.
Notice has as my word.
It softens my need to make something happen.
Allowing myself the freedom to become
Who I am called to be
Softening my need to make something happen.
The sun is shining on me through the trees as I Discover
who I am called to be
A quiet voice within whispers notice
My words for the coming year are: Let Go – (then) Go On. Over the past months I have felt the Holy Spirit calling me to something new in my life. It has not as yet come clear and I feel there are many things in life; busyness, too many possessions that need care, bad habits, etc. So this year I will be working toward letting go, so I can better go on to what Spirit is calling me to be or do.
My word is REST.
For me that isn’t doing nothing. It is being intentional and not doing things that do not feed me. It is an active letting go. May it be so in 2026.