Adopt a Word

I enjoy playing games and completing puzzles. Finding the right word in crossword puzzles/daily Wordles/Jumbles are fun challenges. This year I decided to approach finding my Word for 2025 as a New Year quest, a different kind of puzzle to complete. Where would I find it? How would God give me clues? What would my word of 2025 reveal to me? Would this approach result in greater success than in previous years in holding on to that word as inspiration and modeling its attributes?

My quest started when I accidentally (or not?) clicked on a link within my January 4th Blessed Is She email reflection and watched the following video presentation on How to Pick Your Word for the Year.

As with all new beginnings, praying about it is the first step. What I found additionally helpful was the suggestion to find a Saint that would emulate and remind me of the word/attribute. Quite by accident, I came across my saint and my word a few days after my word search prayers began. I was still doing daily readings from My Little Blue Book for Advent and Christmas Seasons when there he was on January 6, the feast day of Saint André Bessette.

Perhaps better known as Brother André, the introduction page referred to him as “A Saint at the Door.” Very frail in health and uneducated, Brother André was assigned the job of doorkeeper at Notre Dame College in Montreal, Canada. He greeted all visitors and often prayed with them. Another writer christened him as the “Doorkeeper Who Opened Hearts.”

I learned much more about Saint André Bessette after watching a video on his life on Formed. It was an hour well-spent. Such a powerful reminder of how God works miracles through the most unlikely of his servants.

Brother André’s title as “doorkeeper” has grabbed me and already given me much food for thought. In John 10:7, Jesus describes himself as the Gate. If we want all that God has intended for us, Jesus is the door that we must go through.

Saint André Bessette was a man of prayer, hospitality and compassion who was gifted in drawing in others to experience a God who is love. His job was to open doors. This is something we can all do. I want to imitate Brother André’s love of God, his prayer life, hospitality to all, humility, frailty, and even his sense of humor. He said, “When I entered Notre Dame College, they showed me the door. I stayed there all my life.”

What a powerful job Brother André did as doorkeeper. May I practice opening doors for others with the same love, devotion, and humility. And I pray that my own door will always remain open to God’s plans for me.

Blessings on your search for a Word and a Saint.