Since 2008, every year before Christmas I have posted an invitation at the website I shepherd, inviting people to listen for a word to guide them in the year ahead.
The word might be a single word, phrase, or image. The practice originally comes from the wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers, those 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.
A key phrase, repeated often in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, is, “Give me a word.” When a novice approaches one of the ammas or abbas and says, “Give me a word,” Rowan Williams writes in Silence and Honey Cakes (Lion Books), “he or she is not asking for either a command or a solution, but for a communication that can be received as a stimulus to grow into fuller life.”
This tradition of asking for a word was a way of seeking something on which to ponder for many days, weeks, months, or 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.
The story about Basil of Caesarea and the monk, above, 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 that developed and the assumption was that this word, when received by the disciple, would be life-giving. It was meant for this person in this moment and season of their lives.
If you feel drawn to listen for your own word, I invite you to release your thinking mind and enter into a space of receiving. Ask the Holy One and the wise presences in your life for your own life-giving word. 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.
I often describe listening for a word as paying attention to what shimmers. Shimmering is a way to describe when something in the world is calling to you, beckoning you, sometimes even urging you to pay closer attention. Sometimes what shimmers is challenging, but we know that wrestling with it will yield something bigger in our lives.
When we bring this desire for a life-giving word to be spoken to us for the year or season ahead, we might be tempted to think our way into the word, to analyze what would be the best, most efficient, and most practical word possible. But it doesn’t work like this. We can’t think our way into this journey.
Rather than thinking about choosing a word, I invite you to let a word choose you. What does this mean exactly? It means releasing your thinking mind and expectations and resting into your heart. If you are thinking of New Year’s resolutions and what word will be most motivating for you to lose those last 10 pounds, this is not the purpose of this practice. It means softening your grasp and letting go of the reaching. It means surrendering into a place of deep trust and receptivity.
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. Once a word does arrive, don’t force it into a meaning.
This is a slow process of unfolding and receiving, not something to rush through and grasp for. Attune yourself to a different way of being in the world.
St. Benedict begins his Rule inviting us to “listen with the ear of our heart.” When he calls us to do this, he means to listen in a way that is different from our ordinary, everyday sense of hearing. Because the heart is our intimate connection to the sacred presence and where our transfiguration takes place; it is the organ for listening to the sacred shimmering through words and our lives.
Practices for receiving your word
Breath prayer
Breath prayer is a very simple practice of aligning a word or phrase with our inhale and exhale. It is ancient and was first practiced by the early desert monks with the Jesus Prayer. It can be any words at all, but I suggest the following prayer to begin.
As you breathe in, say the words I wait to yourself softly. This is not the kind of waiting we do in line at the post office or bank, but a more attentive waiting where we are waiting on the Holy One to shimmer in some way.
As you breathe out, say the words to receive to yourself. Let your hands open even wider in a posture of welcome. Again, this is not like receiving a paycheck or a phone call, but the reception of an unexpected gift.
Breathe in: I wait
Breathe out: to receive
Let yourself steep in this prayer for five minutes. When you find yourself striving or reaching for something, let your breath soften your grip and return to this posture of openness and attending. When you have completed the five minutes, rest in silence for a while and listen for any words that might be shimmering.
Once your word arrives, you could create your own breath prayer to continue to pray with it throughout the coming season.
Read a set of wisdom principles
I invite you to turn to a set of spiritual principles for some wisdom or guidance. These might be the texts of an established wisdom tradition or from a more modern set of guidelines. Consider either choosing some you are already deeply familiar with and reading with fresh eyes, or choosing something far from your life experience that might resonate in new ways.
Here are some suggestions (you can do an online search for these to read about them in more depth):
- Matthew 5:3–12 (the Beatitudes)
- Matthew 25:35–40 (Jesus’ teachings about what we are called to do in response to the least among us)
- Micah 6:8 (What does God require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?)
- The 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
- Look for Mary Oliver’s poem “In Blackwater Woods” and pray with the three things she says we must be able to do.
- At our community, Abbey of the Arts, we have a set of principles we call the “Monk Manifesto,” which is meant to be a source of support for contemplative living and integrates the wisdom from several streams.
- Any other set of spiritual principles you are drawn to reflect on.
Pray with this text in a contemplative way; I am suggesting a rhythm inspired by the ancient practice of lectio divina:
- Center yourself, read through the words slowly, and listen for a word or phrase that shimmers.
- Let this word unfold in your heart by making space for images, feelings, and memories that arise.
- Then listen for any sense of invitation—a call to new awareness or action in your life. Is there a word here for you to ponder over the next season of your life?
- Finish the prayer time by settling into silence.
Write an acrostic poem
An acrostic poem is one in which the first letter of each line spells out a word. In the Hebrew scriptures, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, as well as some of the proverbs and psalms, are written as acrostics of the Hebrew alphabet.
An acrostic can be a potent way to let your word expand and unfold into the images of a poem. The letters become signposts, directing you how to begin each line of the poem. The word itself becomes the overall theme, but you can let the lines of the poem that emerge in this process surprise you.
Poetry also signals the mind to think in a more right-brained way. The language of poetry is not the same as regular text. We are not trying to give instructions or directions, but to let the words dance and shimmer on the page, revealing their meaning to us.
Write your word vertically down the page. Then allow the letters to be the prompts for the lines of poetry that follow.
Writing poetry from a heart-centered place and releasing our thinking and judging mind can lead us to new places and images.
Once the poem is completed, consider posting it by your altar or somewhere you can see it on a regular basis and let it inspire you. Pray with this poem each day to see how your word is guiding you.
This article also appears in the January 2026 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 91, No. 1, pages 15-17). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
Image: Unsplash/Joakim Nådell
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