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
Pause in the Shadows
Stop to look,
Stop running,
Feel the pain
Embrace it
Be with it
Grieve through it
Release it.
Shead that tear
Let if fall
Like a diamond
Watch it sparkle.
Watch it’s Light
Open the doors
of your heart.
Watch it wash away
the Shadows…
Pause
The word I have been working with for 2026 is “sizzle.” This word jumped out at me from an advent reflection by Fr. Ron Rolheiser in which he was quoting from The Living Flame of Love by St. John of the Cross. The image is that of a damp log that must sizzle in the fire before it can burn. But, I feel like the word “sizzle” has so many dimensions that I can spend this next year unpacking. How do I need to “sizzle” in this new year? What needs time to gestate? Where do I need patience, transformation, and/or purification before I can be filled with flames of love?
The word choosing me seems to be return—to myself, to the Source, to the land and people who’s lives led to mine, to belonging, to wholeness, to celebration and freedom…
Non-attachment
My word is refresh.
I am settling into NOTICE. Really excited to see where this word takes me in 2026.
My received phrase is “broken angel.” It’s a bit perplexing, but I believe it’s calling me to commune with earthly angels in the coming year.
My word is Connected. This conveys presence, attention, relationship – and awareness of my Beloved who is always with me.
Wisdom is my word for 2025. Within the serenity prayer, ‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. I have been a member of Al-Anon now for over two years as I need the support to learn how to manage my responses to family members with addictions.
I think that my word to settle on is “Tendril” ‘Soil’ and ‘Ground’ both gave me a lot of food for thought, but I was choosing them. During the exercise on planting your word and watching it grow, a bean plant appeared and then Tendril was a word that has definitely found me. It holds the plant up – connecting it to a support, so that it can bear fruit. Delicate but strong to weather storms and always searching.