The Power of Carols Or Christmas in Trenches – True WW2 Story

The Power of Carols Or Christmas in Trenches – True WW2 Story (Sahaj in Spirit!)

chile-night-2009

Magdalena is one of my family’s first friends made in Canada, when we’ve arrived here a while back.. and later on she sent me the text below as a Christmas message/email in 2002. The Photo above, with a beautiful dark-red evening, was also shared with me by Magdalena, this year, from Chile; tonight I had felt that words & image come together as a Christmas Serious (but Sahaj too!) Message – the Times are still Dark and wars in all shapes and forms are lingering around but the Hope is always there and it reveals itself so spontaneously, always from The Star within: The Spirit; hopefully we’ll all meditate on it, as sahaja yoga meditation prepares us to, reading Magdalena’s message below. Thank you, Magdalena and A Peaceful Christmas to All!

I found this article very inspiring……originally published in 2002. I find if enough of us spread the word….peace may in fact be a reality some day. There are enough disasters in the world….we do not need to help agravate things with our greedy self-serving ways….let there be peace in your heart today and for many, many more days to come……. Magdalena

Christmas in the trenches
by Jim Wallis
“Silent Night,” by Stanley Weintraub, is the story of Christmas Eve 1914 on the World War I battlefield in Flanders. As the German, British, and French troops facing each other were settling in for the night, a young German soldier began to sing “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht.” Others joined in. When they had finished, the British and French responded with other Christmas carols.

Eventually, the men from both sides left their trenches and met in the middle. They shook hands, exchanged gifts, and shared pictures of their families. Informal soccer games began in what had been “no-man’s-land.” And a joint service was held to bury the dead of both sides.

The generals, of course, were not pleased with these events. Men who have come to know each other’s names and seen each other’s families are much less likely to want to kill each other. War seems to require a nameless, faceless “enemy.”

So, following that magical night the men on both sides spent a few days simply firing aimlessly into the sky. Then the war was back in earnest and continued for three more bloody years. Yet the story of that Christmas Eve lingered – a night when the angels really did sing of peace on earth.

Folksinger John McCutcheon wrote a song about that night in Belgium, titled “Christmas in the Trenches,” from the viewpoint of a young British solder. Several poignant verses are:

“The next they sang was “Stille Nacht,” “Tis ‘Silent Night’,” says I.
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
“There’s someone coming towards us!” the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one lone figure coming from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright
As he bravely strode unarmed into the night.

Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man’s land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave ’em hell.
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeeze box and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men.

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
“Whose family have I fixed within my sights?”
‘Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they’d kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone for evermore.”

My prayer for the New Year is for a nation and world where people can come out of their trenches and together sing their hopes for peace. We here at Sojourners will carry on that mission, and we invite you to continue on the journey with us.

Blessings to you and your families.

(click!) Halton’s Sahaj Christmas Seminar 2010 in PHOTOS & EXPERIENCES

Check also the video below – Carmela’s Christmas Meditation 2022

This Post Has 11 Comments

  1. Vlad Vasilescu

    Great story indeed. In fact there is also a recent French movie describing this story in detail. It’s called “Joyeux Noel”.

  2. Rabi Ghosh

    Nothing is more awe than the ‘silence’ that prevails within after reading through this wonderful inspiring tale or the annecdote.

    Great and simply superb.

  3. adrian

    This is a wonderful story to remind us that we are already connected… and that conflict does not serve any purpose other than to separate.

    1. adrian

      “Only Love is Real”

      All else is part of…
      the experience of…
      Illusion!

      You choose
      How you choose…
      What you choose…
      When you choose…

      You mean we have a choice?

      Always…

      When you wake up…

      You realize that you create…
      everything that you…
      experience…

      You choose…
      You choose…
      You choose…

      So why not choose what you already have…

      LOVE…

      Is it that simple?

      You choose what you want “to Believe”…

  4. Priyanka

    How collective! Perspective is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?!

  5. armaity

    The idea of an unofficial ceasefire way back in 1914 goes to show that people have always longed for peace and amity, but it is only the vested interests of nations which have kept this away from them. By nature, man is a social & moral being who longs for a higher life, but by appealing to his lower instincts in the name of patriotism, religion, materialism, he is made to forget this and compromise himself to a life filled with hate and violence .
    Till today, man’s longing has remained the same as he thirsts for peace , looking for it within himself and in his environment.
    Now we are at a stage when this longing has become more pronounced and universal as we are slowly going down in our values and morality. Hopefully after touching the base, we will bounce back higher and slowly move together towards our higher desires and work for their fulfilment.

    Wishing each and everyone a Joyous Christmas with a prayer that may the Lord Jesus Christ be resurrected on your agnyas and his qualities of pure love and forgiveness manifest fully within you. Also, a Very Happy New Year 2012 filled with every happiness, peace, prosperity, good health, balance and harmony .

  6. armaity

    On this subject of peaceful world that we are all seeking today, I would like to share one of my poems on this subject.

    “Thy will be done” is so true today
    The drama has got to be staged
    on this world’s empty stage.
    The evil through and through
    has got to be destroyed,
    alongwith why the apparently innocent
    have to suffer, only Thou would know.
    Thy Divine plan, we should not question,
    we should not even try to fathom;
    but still I venture to implore Thee–
    O Lord, contain Thou Thy wrath,
    give one last chance
    to Thy floundering children
    and light their way
    to find their way home !

  7. Rabi Ghosh

    This is after a long spell I re-read what I had read years ago in 2009 as Ioana had so beautifully decorated it . It just springs alive from pages. as if I too had been there and witnessing while so efforlessly the article had been composed. It is probably the love as Adrian so beautifully comments.We are connected….It is undoubtedly teh love that connects us we feel resurrected on this day…as love flows without bounds.
    Thank you Ioana to refresh us again on this Christmas ’11. Thank you dear Armaity didi . Your poem is so beautiful and comments so powerful. Its again the expression of love. Hanging on to these stories and pages are certainly no less than receiving gifts from Santa on these days.

  8. armaity

    Thank you Rabi da, your words filled my heart with joy and eyes with tears. I can see and feel your pure love.
    And Ioana, my dearest sister, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your beautiful compilations after thorough search.

  9. Shilpa

    Wonderful story..I read it first time, and it really fills you up with silence and its true that all humanity wants peace, but vested interest of few on all sides leads to such bloody wars and divisions all over the world…

    May we all pray..such people are pushed to sidelines by the larger humanity forever…

  10. Tracy

    That is an amazing picture of the sky the colors are so beautiful. The vibrations were strong with the story about the war just incredible. Thank you for sharing this.

    Love Tracy

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.