Give Me a Word
The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year
by Christine Valters Paintner
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Pub Date Sep 16 2025 | Archive Date Not set
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Description
Your word is waiting, hovering just beneath the surface. All you need is the quiet courage to listen and receive it.
Beginning in around the third century CE, a group of monastics known as the desert mothers and fathers retreated to the deserts of northern Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to pursue lives of silence and prayer. A key phrase, repeated often among the sayings of the desert mothers and fathers, is "Give me a word." 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.
Fast-forward many centuries to the present day, and we find the practice of seeking a word being reclaimed by the spiritually minded in new ways. For nearly two decades, Abbey of the Arts has posted an online invitation to its virtual community before Christmas, inviting people to listen for a word to guide them in the year ahead. Hundreds of participants look forward to the practice each year.
In Give Me a Word, spiritual director and poet Christine Valters Paintner offers thirty contemplative and creative practices inviting you to slow down and listen for a word to guide you through the year ahead. Instead of chasing after resolutions, Paintner encourages a more mindful approach--letting go of expectations and becoming open to wisdom from unexpected places.
Give Me a Word will gently lead you through the process of receiving your word, testing its resonance, and embracing its meaning. As you reflect on and live by this word, you'll find it offering insight, clarity, and purpose throughout the year. Give Me a Word invites you to enter a season of deep listening, inner growth, and spiritual discovery. Slow down and listen for the word that is waiting for you, and prepare your heart to wrestle with your word in the season to come.
Advance Praise
“This book helped me feel the difference between the din and the hum of the world. With its help, I’m learning to quiet the one and embrace the other.”
—Jon M. Sweeney, author of The Complete Francis of Assisi and Sit in the Sun
“Give Me a Word welcomes us into wise, gentle activities for embracing radical simplicity in our day-to-day lives, in community with others. Reading it feels like a desert amma or abba turned up where you live, rapped on your door, handed you a papyrus scroll, and said: ‘Heard you’ve been asking for a map to my cave. Visit anytime for a word.’ Highly recommend it to anyone wanting to live in and from the calm and compassionate intersection of time and eternity!”
—Carmen Acevedo Butcher, PhD, poet and award-winning translator of The Cloud of Unknowing, Practice of the Presence by Brother Lawrence, and works by Hildegard of Bingen
“Paintner not only guides the reader to the point of choosing their own word of life but also invites them into dancing with that word throughout the year. With ancient practices and creative counsel, this book is a constant balm for every ache, joy, and longing along the way.”
—Cassidy Hall, author of Queering Contemplation, cohost of the Encountering Silence podcast, and creator of the Contemplating Now and Queering Contemplation podcasts
“Paintner takes the reader on a thirty-day pilgrimage to search for, acquire, and carry a word for a year. Based on an ancient practice of asking for and receiving a guiding word, this beautifully written spiritual classic overflows with transformative and heart-centered meditations, spiritual practices, and reflections from people who journeyed through this divine adventure. An excellent book for spiritual groups of all kinds.”
—Lerita Coleman Brown, PhD, spiritual companion, speaker, and author of What Makes You Come Alive
“A seedbed of insight, wisdom, practices, and lived experience. This inviting text leads the reader to gently dwell in silence, receive the implanted word and savor the embodied life that desert wisdom offers. Be prepared for creative and surprising possibilities! While good company for the solitary reader, it is also a lovely guide for group formation.”
—Mary C. Earle, author of The Desert Mothers
“Paintner has done us all a huge service by assembling the best of the best of life-giving spiritual practices that serve to nourish our heart’s deep hunger for wisdom. Give Me a Word is a vast treasure trove of both ancient and contemporary spiritual resources that are simultaneously insightful, creative, and, above all, highly practical! Partaking in and of them can only prove to be a rich endeavor of the soul.”
—Wil Hernandez, PhD, Obl. OSB, executive director of CenterQuest; author of Accidental Monk and a trilogy of books on Henri Nouwen
“Paintner possesses a unique gift for bringing ancient, Christian contemplative wisdom into the present for those of us navigating the realities of modern life.”
—Dr. Jamie Marich, author of You Lied to Me About God and Dissociation Made Simple, and founder of The Institute for Creative Mindfulness
“Every chapter in Christine Valters Paintner’s Give Me a Word, and her guided meditations included throughout the book, are grace-filled invitations that not only remind us, but even equip us, to bring our awareness from our mind to our heart, and to live from ‘this place of receptivity and intuition.’”
—Caroline Oakes, author of Practice the Pause
“I cannot recommend this book highly enough to anyone who is searching for a new direction in their life or a deepening of the life they are already leading.”
—Ed Sellner, professor emeritus of theology and spirituality, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, Minnesota, and author of numerous books including Celtic Saints and Their Animal Friends
“Give Me a Word is the best book on lectio divina I’ve encountered.” —Laura Swan, OSB, author of The Forgotten Desert Mothers
Marketing Plan
National and online publicity campaign targeting Christian and spirituality media
Social media campaign targeting spirituality, Christian, and mind-body-spirit readers
Email outreach to past purchasers of Paintner's other books, including A Different Kind of Fast
Christian and mind-body-spirit advertising
Seasonal promotion opportunities such as New Year, New You, and Lent
Contemplative organizational outreach
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9798889831266 |
| PRICE | $22.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 197 |
