Give Me a Word
An Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year
- Online retreat
- Self-study, start anytime
- Move at your own pace, in your own place
- Lifetime access
Registration Fee: $120 USD
Program Description
A key phrase, repeated often in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, is “Give me a word.” When a seeker went out to the wilderness to approach one of the ammas or abbas and said, “Give me a word,” they were not asking for a command or solution. They were opening their hearts to a communication which would slowly transform their lives.
We find this phrase repeated throughout the sayings of the desert fathers and mothers, those wise elders who, in the second and third centuries, went to the deserts of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to cultivate a life of radical simplicity and ongoing devotion to the presence of the divine in their lives.
This tradition of asking for a word was a way of seeking something on which to ponder for many days, weeks, months, sometimes a whole lifetime. The “word” was often a short phrase to nourish and challenge the receiver. A word was meant to be wrestled with and slowly grown into.
A monk once came to Basil of Caesarea and said, “Speak a word, Father”; and Basil replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,” and the monk went away at once. Twenty years later he came back and said, “Father, I have struggled to keep your word; now speak another word to me”; and he said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”; and the monk returned in obedience to his cell to keep that also.
This story demonstrates how a word could be worked on for years at a time. The word being sought was not a theological explanation or counseling. It was part of a relationship which had developed and the assumption that this word, when received by the disciple would be life-giving. It was meant for this person in this moment of their lives.
Since 2008 we have posted an annual invitation to listen for a word to guide them in the year ahead. We would share a few short and simple practices with hundreds of people participating.
Now we are offering this as a self-study retreat accessible any time to 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.
Ask the wise presences in your life for your own life-giving word. You will be invited to listen in the stillness, to sacred texts, to your life, to dreams, to nature, to your body, to soul friends, to the ancestors. The word might come from reading a poem or story. It might come in a time of stillness, or it might arrive later in the day, wise words offered from an unexpected source, a dream symbol, a line from a conversation, or an image you stumble upon that seizes your imagination.
The word is something that shimmers for you, catching your attention in a particular way. Shimmering is a way to describe when something in the world is calling to you, beckoning you, urging you to pay closer attention. Sometimes what shimmers is challenging but we know that wrestling will yield something bigger in our lives. Sometimes what shimmers invokes wonder and awe. We notice a felt response in our bodies and spirits that ask us to attune more deeply to what is being revealed.
The purpose of the word is to simply hold it in your heart, turning it over and over, pondering, but not analyzing. Give it space within you to speak. We don’t force it into a meaning for us. We let it unfold slowly.
Once the word arrives, we offer you some ways to help confirm the word and break its meaning open further through creative explorations. And finally, we invite you to make some commitments for the season ahead rooted in your word.
We come to this process, not from a sense of lack, but with hearts open to receiving the greater aliveness that is our birthright.
Five weeks allows a slow process of unfolding and receiving, not rushing through or grasping. You are invited attune yourself to a different way of being in the world.
* This retreat was initially offered during Advent and Christmas. Some material will reference that season.
What's Included
The retreat begins and ends with a video and audio recording of the online Zoom gathering led by Christine Valters Paintner. These sessions include teaching, meditation, ritual, and reflection. Closed captions and a transcript are available in the retreat portal.
The rest of the retreat is asynchronous which means each day a new creative practice or meditation is posted to our online retreat platform to help you listen for your word, receive your word, or carry your word forward into the world.
These practices will be shared by Christine as well as by guest teachers to support you in this journey of listening.
Daily Practices to Nourish and Inspire You
Part One: Listening for a Word
Day 1: Welcome + Scripture Reflection
Day 2: Pre-recorded Opening Webinar with Christine
Day 3: Lectio Divina with Life Experience
Day 4: Meditation from Aisling Richmond
Day 5: Read a Set of Spiritual Principles
Day 6: Tend the Night Wisdom of Dreams
Day 7: Dialogue with a Word from Richard Bruxvoort Colligan
Day 8: Sabbath rest + Scripture Reflection
Day 9: Consult a Soul Friend
Day 10: Imagination & the Limberjack from Dena Jennings
Day 11: Memento Mori: Imagine Your Deathbed
Part Two: Receiving the Word
Day 12: Allow the Word to Ripen
Day 13: Trust What You Love
Day 14: Lectio Divina and Chant from Carmen Acevedo Butcher
Day 15: Sabbath rest + Scripture Reflection
Day 16: Call on the Angels, Saints, and Ancestors
Day 17: Yoga from Melinda Thomas
Day 18: Pilgrimage of Memory
Day 19: Listen to the Elements
Day 20: Contemplative Walk from Jo-ed Tome
Day 21: Consult the Desert Elders
Day 22: Sabbath rest + Scripture Reflection
Day 23: Bring Your Word to a Threshold Place
Day 24: Create a Pantoum
Part Three: Carrying the Word With You
Day 25: Create a Breath Prayer
Day 26: Hold the Tension from Simon de Voil
Day 27: Choose a Spiritual Teacher
Day 28: Create a Playlist of Word-Themed Songs and Dance
Day 29: Sabbath rest + Scripture Reflection
Day 30: Create an Icon from Claudia Love Mair
Day 31: Commit to a Word-Rooted Practice
Day 32: Write an Acrostic Poem
Day 33: Dancing Mindfulness from Jamie Marich
Day 34: Illustrate the Word Visually
Day 35: Pre-Recorded Closing Webinar with Christine and Deirdre Ní Chinnéide
Your Guides for the Journey
Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE
Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE is the online Abbess for Abbey of the Arts, a virtual monastery and global community integrating contemplative practice and creative expression. Her programs draw on the wisdom of the desert, Celtic, and Benedictine spiritual traditions as well as the joy of the expressive arts, embodied practice, and Earth-cherishing wisdom. Christine is the author of numerous books on spirituality and creativity, including three collections of poetry. She lives on the west coast of Ireland with her husband John and dog Sourney. Find out more about her here.
John Valters Paintner, MTS
John Valters Paintner is the online prior for Abbey of the Arts, where he assists his wife Christine in ministering to global community both online and through in-person programs. John was a youth minister and pastoral associate for four years before becoming a high school religion teacher for twelve years. He has a Masters of Theological Studies from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. His love for the Bible, particularly the Hebrew Scriptures, emerged when he taught the “Old Testament” at an all-boys high school. John is also a lover of the art of story-telling and has written dozens of short stories, one-act plays, and short films in a variety of genres.
Guest Teachers
Aisling Richmond is a Somatic Therapist and transformative guide who is deeply inspired by nature and the wisdom of the soul.
Betsey Beckman is nationally acclaimed as a spirited dancer, storyteller, teacher of SpiritPlay and dancing Spiritual Director.
Carmen Acevedo Butcher is an award winning author and translator of The Could of Unknowing and Practice of the Presence
Claudia Love Mair is a writer, artist, conversation partner for the Abbey’s Lift Every Voice Book Club, and author of God Alone is Enough
Deirdre Ní Chinnéide is a musician, psychotherapist, spiritual director, and workshop facilitator
Dena Ross Jennings is a luthier, musician, writer, Virginia Master Naturalist, and an Internal Medicine physician hosting retreats and meditations on her Farmashramonastery in Virgina
Jamie Marich is a psychotherapist, the developer of the Dancing Mindfulness expressive arts practice, and author of numerous books including Dancing Mindfulness: A Creative Path to Healing and Transformation
Jo-ed Tome is a spiritual director, transpersonal psychology researcher, and self-proclaimed monk in the world leading programs online and in the Philippines
Melinda Thomas is the Program Coordinator for Abbey of the Arts and author of Sacred Balance: Aligning Body and Spirit Through Yoga and the Benedictine Way
Richard Bruxvoort Colligan is a Psalmist, spiritual director, freelance musician, and frequent contributor to Abbey programs
Reverend Simon Ruth de Voil is an interfaith-interspiritual minister, sacred musician, spiritual counsellor, and chaplain
Praise for the Course
Praise for the Course
Registration
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$120
Registration Fee
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