Oh Holy Night: The Peace of 1914

[shodan]

A reflection on the Christmas truce of 1914. The stroy flows from letters written by soldiers describing that day.

[Admin]

A reflection on the Christmas truce of 1914. The stroy flows from letters written by soldiers describing that day.

Please share with us what you like about this book, or how it blessed you.

[shodan]

Reviews here:
http://christianbooknotes.com/2010/o...-by-mike-snow/

http://catholicmediareview.blogspot..../Book%20Review

And at amazon: http://tinyurl.com/2b2gy8y

[shodan]

Newest reviews:

http://emergingjournal.blogspot.com/...e-of-1914.html

http://www.examiner.com/christian-li...umented-review

[shodan]

An excerpt from the beginning of the story of the Christmas truce:

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of
the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men.”
The Gospel of St. Luke


It was still freezing hard on Christmas Eve …
[under] bright moonlight …
13
Oh Holy Night
After a timeless dream I saw what looked like
a large white light on top of a pale … It was a
strange sort of light … What sort of lantern was
it? I did not think much about it; it was part of
the strange unreality of the silent night, of the silence
of the moon, now turning a brownish yellow,
of the silence of the frost mist …
Suddenly there was a short quick cheer from the
German lines – Hoch! Hoch! Hoch! With others, I
flinched and crouched, ready to fling myself flat,
pass the leather thong of my rifle over my head
and aim to fire, but no other sound came …
We stood up, talking about it, in little groups …
other cheers were coming across the black spaces
of no man's land. We saw dim figures on
the enemy parapet, about more lights; and with
amazement saw that a Christmas tree was being
set there, and around it Germans were talking
and laughing together.
… from the German parapet, a rich baritone
voice begun to sing ...

Stille Nacht! Heil'ge Nacht!
Alles schläft, einsam wacht
Nur das traute hoch heilige Paar.
Holder Knab' im lockigen Haar.

...The wonder remained in the low golden light of a
white-rimmed Christmas morning. I could hardly
realise it; but my chronic, hopeless longing to
be home was gone.
Private Henry Williamson,
London Rifle Brigade

...Out went the hands and tightened in the
grip of friendship. Christmas had made the bitterest
foes friends.
Here was no desire to kill, but just the wish of a
few simple soldiers (and no one is quite so simple
as a soldier) that on Christmas Day, at any rate,
the force of fire should cease …