Unleashing Inspiration: How Unity Leaders Use Daily Word

To help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Daily Word®, we asked Unity leaders how they have used the magazine through the years. We were amazed at the variety of ways they have found not only to share its wisdom with their congregations but to employ it as a personal spiritual tool for themselves.

Of course, many Unity churches have someone read the Daily Word message during each Sunday service. And it’s no surprise that ministers turn to Daily Word for talk ideas or quotes to support their Sunday lessons. Rev. Michael Jamison, who served as a church minister for 28 years, said he kept hundreds of Daily Word copies in a filing cabinet in his office before the messages were digitized in the online archives for subscribers.

“Searching through hundreds of Daily Word copies looking for the best lesson was often a rather arduous task,” he said. “Yet it was a very pleasant task. Not only did Daily Word help with my sermon preparation, it ministered to me, the minister.”

Rev. Kitty Benson at Unity in Naperville, Illinois, let her congregants vote on the topics they want to hear about. She picked 20 topics from a bimonthly issue of Daily Word and posted them on a banner in the fellowship area of the church. Each person was invited to mark three top favorites, and the most popular topics become her Sunday lessons for the coming weeks.

Daily Word in Troubled Times

Daily Word shows up on the international scene in sometimes surprising ways. Rev. Norma Iris Rosado, while serving as the Unity Spanish-speaking international director, found old Daily Word messages being used as tools for spiritual counseling in Cuba when she visited in 2000. Church leaders “were using Daily Word issues from the 1950s that they had copied for years. At any given counseling session with their parishioners, they would give them a single page from those copied messages. The counselees used those pages as a means of inspiration and affirmation to work and process during their troubled times,” she said.

“To me, that was a very creative way of using our Daily Word in a country where churches were still going through some persecution.”

Daily Word was an enormous comfort to thousands of people during the global pandemic that began in 2020. Subscriptions increased, and readers went out of their way to let us at Unity know how much they were relying on it.

At Unity Minneapolis when the pandemic began, Rev. Pat Williamson gathered a small group every Monday through Thursday to discuss the day’s message. “It was expected that each person had read the Daily Word prior to joining our group on Zoom, and then each person shared an idea or a portion of the Daily Word and what it meant to them. They always seemed to tie it into their own personal lives,” he said. They also shared prayer requests that Williamson wrapped into a blessing for them all.

“This process created a committed, open group that usually averaged 20 people. The Daily Word, along with prayer, created community, connection, compassion, and empathy for this dedicated group. This group has supported one another through the death of loved ones, health and relationship challenges, and work opportunities.”

The Daily Word Prayer Group is still meeting twice a week online, now joined by people from other states.

A Foundation for Living

Daily Word was the start of a lifelong journey for Rev. Suzanne Carter, a minister and counselor in Denver. In 1979, she met a man at a workshop who invited her to attend Unity with him. Her answer was a hard no.

“For six months, he continued to invite me to his Unity church. I always said, ‘No, sorry, but churches leave a bad taste in my mouth.’

“We would go for long bike rides and take turns bringing the picnic. In late November he brought the food, and wrapped on top of my sandwich was a little booklet, Daily Word. The word for that day was freedom. I read the message on freedom, and it brought tears to my eyes. James told me my emotional reaction was the reason he had been urging me to go to his church with him. He told me he knew I would love it, and finally I said yes.

“Long story short, I became a Unity minister in 1986. I have always offered Daily Word to church members to let Unity speak for itself.”

Rev. Carolyn Warnemuende, a retired minister living in Sacramento, was given a Daily Word subscription on her 21st birthday by her great aunt. As a schoolteacher then, Carolyn kept a copy of Daily Word in her desk at school and read it every morning before the students arrived.

“One winter morning I read these words from Isaiah 30:15: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. They resonated with me at a core level. Even as a very young woman, I knew those words would be the foundation of my life. And, indeed, they have been. Whenever I seek solace, comfort, or guidance, I repeat that verse and remember that returning to God in quietness and trust always brings me the strength I need to walk through this earthly life.

“As I have grown into elderhood, I have faced challenges that sometimes have thrown me off center. What helps me without fail is repeating Isaiah’s words—return, rest, and trust. I breathe into them, and peace comes. Not always quickly, but always. What a precious gift Daily Word provided.”

Available Now!

Read more

A Personal Connection for Ministers

Rev. Carol J. Hunt at Unity in Harlem said she uses each day’s word as a personal journaling prompt. She simply looks at the word or the affirmation then begins to write her own thoughts. Only when she has finished writing does she read the full Daily Word message.

Rev. Beatriz Gallerano Bell in Córdoba, Argentina, lets the Spanish La Palabra Diaria message set a theme for the year on her birthday. “I like to think that it has been written for me and that it is bringing me inspiration and guidance for the 365-day journey that I am about to embark on,” she said. “Sometimes in the message I discover there is something I can work on, heal, or serve during that year.

“There are years when the message has been, for example, freedom, forgiveness, compassion. This year it spoke to me about kindness, so in addition to frequently meditating on that, I try to stay kind and express love, even in challenging situations.”

A Burst of Color

Daily Word has been read, discussed, written about, taken to heart, and become the foundation of some lives. It has also been made into beautiful art.

Rev. Jen Hutchins, who heads the Unity Arts Ministry, has read Daily Word since she was a teen. She said in an email, “Oftentimes I deepen my reflection through creative expression in my visual art journal. Using paints, pens, and collage materials, I seek to capture the essence of the word.”

She has taught the process to others and said sometimes the Daily Word page itself becomes part of the artwork—“whole pages glued as a centerpiece, affirmations highlighted, or individual words cut out to create radiating shapes. Using the Daily Word as inspiration for creative reflection can be done by anyone regardless of their past experience of artistic media. It is one way in which creative expression can enrich your spiritual practice.”

And Then There’s Maxine

“If there was a more cantankerous woman, I haven’t met her,” Rev. Judy Voght at Unity of Gulfport, Mississippi, began the story. “Maxine was a jewel. She transitioned to the next plane of existence in 2022 at the tender age of 86.

“I first met her when I came to the Biloxi area after Hurricane Katrina to help. We became great friends, and it surprised me when she bought an RV and hit the road for a while. The one thing she took with her was her Daily Word. As a matter of fact, she made certain she would be able to pick up her latest copy along the way. She told me many times it was the one thing that kept her grounded. If she woke up feeling under the weather, Daily Word always made her feel better.

“She moved back to Biloxi after a few years and settled down in an RV park. She showed up every Sunday for church and every Tuesday morning for the prayer team. She loved to hear the Daily Word read aloud and said she could feel the words as they were spoken.

“It was my great privilege to read the Daily Word to my friend for the few days she was in the hospital. On the last morning, she told me she had pain all over and it was time for her to go. In true Maxine fashion, her spirit moved on and left the tired body behind.

“Now on Sunday mornings I imagine Ms. Maxine sitting beside me as the Daily Word is read. I close my eyes and expect to see her there because I know beyond any doubt that she took her love for that little booklet with her.”