My Word for 2022

Over the past month or so, an inordinate number of points of contact in my life have been suggesting that I choose a “word” for the New Year. While not something new to me, the suggestion seems more prevalent or even insistent this year–coming from such disparate corners as an artist I follow, a devotional podcast I listen to, a book I’m reading and my spiritual director. So okay, I can take a hint. The Benevolent Creator of the Universe seems to be seeking my attention.

I only began to seriously consider the choice of a word a few days ago. The holidays were joyfully full and busy with family. But as that time wound down, I was once again reminded of “that Word thing.” And like the nudging towards the act of choosing, there was also a clear nudge for what that word might be. But let me be clear, knowing what the word is…and knowing what it means/or is asking of me…are very different things.

Earlier this week I continued in an online class by Jon Kabat Zinn who in the second lesson was speaking about intention as it applied to mindfulness practice. During Advent, I lead an 18 day retreat where I encouraged participants to have a daily intention for their retrat. This morning as I listened to the Liturgy of the hours, my ears perked up as I heard: Our Lord told St. Faustina, “My daughter, let three virtues adorn you in a particular way: humility, purity of intention and love” ( Diary, 1779). As I heard this third reference to intention, ‘purity of intention’ I was reminded that the lore of my name is that it means pure. “Kathleen as a girls’ name is pronounced kath-LEEN. It is of Irish and Greek origin, and the meaning of Kathleen is “pure”. Variant of Katherine. First used outside of Ireland in the 1840s.”

So by now you know where I am going here. My Word for 2022 is Intention (modified by ‘purity of’). Other than thinking about it over the next few weeks, I’ll try to define it more cleanly for myself and put it into practice. I don’t know what that looks like yet and that’s okay. I am committing to doing some writing once a month about what I’m both learning about and doing with purity of intention–or more likely to be true–what it is teaching and changing in me.

What I am already noticing is that purity of intention likely has practical applications for many of the facets of my life. My interactions with family, with friends, my photography, my art, my ministry will all be impacted in ways I can’t yet imagine by a governor called purity of intention. It will open up things to do and ways to be–as well as limit or curtail other things I imagine.

Unlike those ‘lose 10 pounds’ New Years resolutions which have always been a dismal failure for me, this choosing to be guided by a word seems like an adventure. I’m on the road… to where… I do not know. But it seems as though the ‘pure intention’ to become is itself a success.

Wondering what you are hoping for, planning for, dreaming of, working towards in the year that lies ahead. Do you have a word, a phrase, a plan? My prayer for you is that your 2022 is full of joy and blessings. Happy New Year!

xo, Kathleen the celtic monk