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 I’m ‘hearing’ often is “Be” —- just be.
For the year 2026, the word that is shaping up for me is Patience!
For the year 2026, my word is EXPLORE. I am going to be an explorer, open to new possibilities and adventures. Whenever I can, I will share what I have discovered with others.
My word is ‘Threshold’.
Threshold as discernment, not pressure – A time to pause, reflect and choose with intention what comes next in this phase of life. Not every open door needs to be crossed. Some doors exist simply to show that I could — and that knowing is enough.
Threshold as pacing. To pause and test the ground with one foot. Engagement doesn’t require full immersion.
Threshold as intention
• Does crossing this threshold deepen my life or merely fill my calendar?
• Does this reflect who I am now?
• Will this still feel meaningful a year from now?
Threshold as blessing – a pause to honour both what has been and what is becoming. Nothing is dismissed. Nothing is rushed.
Not stepping into “more” but stepping into truer.
The word ‘spaciousness’ has been arising in recent days.
I continue to listen …
On my urban Nordic walk today, I asked God again for a word. I progressed through SLOW, STEADY, ROOTED. Then, as I turned the last corner towards home, ANCHOR rose up and it immediately felt right. Though landlocked, I love the sea. I crave steadiness and stability. I need nourishing, grounding, rooting daily habits. And I need the assurance of safety in my wild storms.
My word is Gentle Mother.
I had one! I think that much of the time I was a gentle mother and grandmother.
Aging for me and my husband, and cognitive decline for him, have presented massive changes for him, me and us. Especially this last year or so.
I shared this word with my spiritual director yesterday – she wondered what it might reveal to me if I were to consider being ‘Gentle Mother’ to myself in the days and months to come…
My ‘secondary’ word keeps coming up in various ways: Courage
I Wrote a French Pantoum as suggested…. Thinking that it included my word
trust trust trust
Gold Leaf
Fields of Gold
All is well
God is with me
And all shall be well
The garden of my Soul
God is with me
Gold leaf
The garden of my soul
All is well……..
then all of a sudden in this morning’s quiet time when talking to my spiritual friend passed over …. the word flew into my awareness …… WINGS….. and I smiled knowingly.
Right now my word is remind…re-mind…re-mined. It is going deep in my mind, to remember, to slow down the rampant ideaphoria.
The “being-in-my-head” part of it though disturbs me some so my second word “Invitation” is growing. It is gentle, no big sticks or shoulds and oughts. It can involve my mind and also my body and my spirit, my emotions and my whole being. Invitation I think will encourage my creativity in 2026.
Apprehend.
When the word first approached me, I tried to shoo it away.
True to what I now grasp in this word of double meanings, it stayed and demanded to be apprehended.
I am only just beginning to apprehend this surprising new guest in its various tenses.