There are things happening out there but perhaps we can take a break, appreciate the blessings we do have, and share some Christmas Joy.
From Richard Emmons, Editor in chief of the Josephine County Eagle, offers us a way to bridge the gaps using the spirit of Christmas:
Between 9 and 11 million soldiers died during World War I which was fought between 1914 and 1918. There was little peace or goodwill among the combatants during these years of fierce and bitter fighting.
Yet things were different on Christmas Day 1914. On that day the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial ceasefire.
Here’s how History.com describes the day:
===
Christmas Truce of 1914
Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops fighting in World War I sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.
At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. Some Germans lit Christmas trees around their trenches, and there was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.
German Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch recalled: “How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.”
Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines.
The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It was never repeated—future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers’ threats of disciplinary action—but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, the soldiers’ essential humanity endured.
During World War I, the soldiers on the Western Front did not expect to celebrate on the battlefield, but even a world war could not destroy the Christmas spirit.
This Christmas many families will have an unofficial ceasefire over the major battle of 2021.
Yes, the masked and unmasked, the vaxxed and unvaxxed, the boosted and the unboosted along with the socially distanced and the unsocially distanced will cease the debate and enjoy the celebration of Christmas.
And now some good news:
Good news:
More good news:
And more:
https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1473045520855752707?
A Christmas Message from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò:
DEAR AMERICAN PEOPLE, DEAR FRIENDS, for two years now, a global coup has been carried out all over the world, planned for some time by an elite group of conspirators enslaved to the interests of international high finance. This coup was made possible by an emergency pandemic that is based on the premise of a virus that has a mortality rate almost analogous to that of any other seasonal flu virus, on the delegitimization and prohibition of effective treatments, and on the distribution of an experimental gene serum which is obviously ineffective, and which also clearly carries with it the danger of serious and even lethal side effects. We all know how much the mainstream media has contributed to supporting the insane pandemic narrative, the interests that are at stake, and the goals of these groups of power: reducing the world population, making those who survive chronically ill, and imposing forms of control that violate the fundamental rights and natural liberties of citizens. And yet, two years after this grotesque farce started, which has claimed more victims than a war and destroyed the social fabric, national economies, and the very foundations of the rule of law, nothing has changed in the policies of Nations and their response to the so-called pandemic.
Yours must therefore be a work of truth, bringing to light the lies and deceptions of the New World Order and their anti-human and anti christic matrix. And in this it is mainly the laity and all people of good will – each in the professional and civil role he holds – who must coordinate and organize together to make a firm but peaceful resistance, so as not to legitimize its violent repression by those who today hold power.
Be proud of your identity as American patriots and of the Faith that must animate your life. Do not allow anyone to make you feel inferior just because you love your homeland, because you are honest at work, because you want to protect your family and raise your children with healthy values, because you respect the elderly, because you protect life from conception to its natural end. Do not be intimidated or seduced by those who propagate a dystopian world in which a faceless power imposes on you contempt for the Law of God, presents sin and vice as licit and desirable, despises righteousness and Morality, destroys the natural family and promotes the worst perversions, plans the death of defenseless and weak creatures, and exploits humanity for its own profit or to preserve power
May this Holy Christmas illuminate your minds and inflame your hearts before the Infant King who lays in the manger. And just as the choirs of the Angels and the homage of the Magi united with the simple adoration of the Shepherds, so also today your commitment to the moral rebirth of the United States of America –one Nation under God – will have the blessing of Our Lord and will gather those who govern you around you. Amen. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.
Christmas Cheer from Sidney Powell:
1- Red Pilled America is a podcast dedicated to the art of story telling. In this episode they do a fascinating deep dive into the history of Santa Claus. You will learn why they think that Santa Claus was one of the greatest American inventions.
Red Pilled America An Act of Genius . Why did Santa Claus become so popular? To find the answer, we tell the remarkable story of how a 1,500 year old saint transformed into the jolly old soul from the North Pole. And stick around after the show for a preview of our new Christmas Eve special. This episode was originally broadcast on December 20, 2018.Listen on Apple Podcasts
__________
2- Salena Zito tells stories of how the loss of many traditions due to the year of Covid-CCP impacted people. It seems that this year everyone is trying harder to bring them back and enjoy every minute.
(Salena Zito)Middle of Somewhere: The Christmas Tree Capital, like all of us, missed holiday ritualsQUOTE: INDIANA, Pa. — Sandy Fritz has been baking Christmas cookies with someone in her family for nearly all of her 82 years. It began for her as a young girl in nearby Punxsutawney with her mother and her aunts, a ritual she continued with her own daughter, Amy, as a young mother; each time they baked, she didn't just share the secret ingredients she had memorized along the way, but also the stories of the women, hardships and triumphs that shaped her family."Carrying on traditions in families is very important to me. It always has been," said Laura. "It is something that my parents instilled in all of us." Laura's brothers Luke and Eric had just spent the past couple of weeks deer hunting with their father Ted — like they always do — in the days following Thanksgiving, a tradition Ted still does with his father, Don Fritz, as well.Drive into this town from any direction and you are greeted with signs that boast the fact you're entering the Christmas Tree Capital of the World — a title the town earned because the first pines and spruces planted here a hundred years ago gave them domination in the market in post-World War II America, a domination that caught the attention of the national press in 1956 when over 700,000 trees were cut in the county that year.The trees are just a part of why this town is symbolic of any place in America — large or small — that values the continuation of Christmas traditions, rituals large and small that fill us with the aspiration that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, something that not only came before us but also something we can pass on to generations after we are long gone.Laura Herrington, executive director of the Indiana County Tourist Bureau, said most of all the rich traditions the town has held for decades — like the Christmas Parade, outdoor markets, caroling in the park and even the Jimmy Stewart festival — were either closed or held virtually.Ms. Herrington said that wasn't just hard economically, "It took away many traditions people rely on as this sort of comfort and connection to their past, and for young parents it was hard because they could not share those traditions with their children."This year Ms. Herrington said the parade was one of the highest-attended in its decade-long history; caroling is back; all of the museums are open, including the Jimmy Stewart Museum — and families are enjoying the bonfires, roasted marshmallows and camaraderie in the town square in the shadow of the giant Indiana Christmas Tree.She thinks of the town of Indiana as the sort of everyman of communities all around the country that are embracing something they may have previously taken for granted — "And that is not just tradition, but also anticipation. Through loss we have rediscovered the richness of that emotion, and what is happening here in Indiana — and in small towns, cities and neighborhoods all across America — really reminds everyone how important those qualities are in our lives."
__________
3- Among the best Christmas traditions is the singing of Christmas carols. Lauren Green, the religion reporter for Fox News, explains why these songs are so important.
(Fox News)Christmas hymns are important for three key reasonsQUOTE: First, they remind us of the power of the Gospel.Second, God gave us the skill and the command to sing, and He can be glorified even in good secular music.And finally, they remind us of our complete reliance on the grace of God.One of the hymns I just love is "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." The carol describes a scene that Luke relates in chapter 2, verse 14.As we celebrate Christmas less than a week from now, we know that "God chose to send His son to us as a gift, creating a chance for our relationship with Him to be reconciled," says Lauren Green in her thoughtful essay. Two of the founding ministers of Methodism, George Whitefield and Charles Wesley, contributed to the lyrics, which are set to the music of Felix Mendelssohn, the great German composer famous for the oratories "St. Paul" and "Elijah."The song begins with "Hark! the herald angels sing, 'Glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.'"That last statement, "God and sinners reconciled," reflects what Jesus was born to do and heralded for all mankind. Humanity can now be reconciled with God, because God chose to send His son to us as a gift, creating a chance for our relationship with Him to be reconciled."Every heart, really, when it sings, is ultimately singing to God," she says.We sin but we can be redeemed through God's grace.That is what makes Christianity what it is.
Listen to this exquisite version. Charlotte Church - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
__________
4- The most beloved Christmas carol of all time was born out of chaos over 200 years ago. The history is fascinating and knowing it makes this song even more beautiful and meaningful.
The Humble Origins of 'Silent Night'
QUOTE: Over the centuries, hundreds of Christmas carols have been composed. Many fall quickly into obscurity.Not "Silent Night."Translated into at least 300 languages, designated by UNESCO as a treasured item of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and arranged in dozens of different musical styles, from heavy metal to gospel, "Silent Night" has become a perennial part of the Christmas soundscape.Its origins – in a small Alpine town in the Austrian countryside – were far humbler.As a musicologist who studies historical traditions of song, the story of "Silent Night" and its meteoric rise to worldwide fame has always fascinated me.The song's lyrics were originally written in German just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars by a young Austrian priest named Joseph Mohr.In the fall of 1816, Mohr's congregation in the town of Mariapfarr was reeling. Twelve years of war had decimated the country's political and social infrastructure. Meanwhile, the previous year – one historians would later dub "The Year Without a Summer" – had been catastrophically cold.The eruption of Indonesia's Mount Tambora in 1815 had caused widespread climate change throughout Europe. Volcanic ash in the atmosphere caused almost continuous storms – even snow – in the midst of summer. Crops failed and there was widespread famine.Mohr's congregation was poverty-stricken, hungry and traumatized. So he crafted a set of six poetic verses to convey hope that there was still a God who cared."Silent night," the German version states, "today all the power of fatherly love is poured out, and Jesus as brother embraces the peoples of the world."
__________
5- Speaking of storytelling, few have surpassed O. Henry and "The Gift of the Magi".
Here is a beautifully read audio version of this classic story with it's enduring message of love, sacrifice and gift giving.
MERRY CHRISTMAS,
Defending The Republic
"May the Peace and Joy and all the promise of God in the newborn Christ fill your hearts and souls and renew your spirits with His strength, power, and goodness. Merry Christmas to all!" -
- Sidney
Regardless of who wins any election, in order to have confidence in the outcome, we must continue to demand (1) real paper ballots, (2) hand counted in a bipartisan transparent process, and (3) citizen voter ID.
