双语故事

灵性锻炼: 过去和将来

12/26/2017

新年是回顾过去一年和设立来年目标的大好时机。为此介绍一个灵性锻炼。

首先点亮大蜡烛，它象征基督，即世界之光。

用大蜡烛点燃象征你自身的小蜡烛。

花几分钟来回想过去的一年，想想你生活中的这三个部分：学业，家庭生活和与亲朋之间的关系，个人生活。

在去年的这三个部分中，你最感恩的事是什么？在每一部分里，你都可能有许多值得一提的事。感谢上帝让你经历它们。你可能需要大致把它们记下来，以便日后回顾。

然后再花几分钟来规划今年。从生活中的这三个部分来看，你在今年的祈祷或愿望是什么？把这些记录下来，无论是个人祈祷还是目标清单也好，这样便于你在今年的进步中回顾，并提醒你要感谢上帝回应了你的祈祷。

做些简单的改进，这种修炼还可以与你的家人或朋友共同完成：

点亮大蜡烛，让每个人都花几分钟来回想去年最值得感恩的事情，并记录下来，然后再花几分钟来各自规划今年的祈愿。（亦可事先通知每个人都提前准备好清单，然后再畅所欲言地回顾。）

这样，每个人轮流点亮自己的小蜡烛，并与他人分享去年最感恩的事与今年的祈愿。

Image designed by Freepik.

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圣诞快乐 - Joyeux Noel

12/8/2017

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Joyeux Noël retells the story of a well-documented event that occurred on a battlefield in France on Christmas Eve, 1914.

One engagement of the Great War (WWI) involved some 3,000 soldiers from the Scottish, French, and German armies. On Christmas Eve, the German side began to sing "Silent Night." The Scots answered with a bagpipe accompaniment, and soon all three sides were singing the same song in unison from their trenches 100 meters apart. Imagine them singing together, in three languages, from the same trenches where a few hours earlier they had been killing one another. What a contrast!

Coaxed into peace by the warmth of this universally loved song, the warring sides ventured out of their trenches and agreed on an unofficial truce. In some places along the line, the Christmas truce lasted for ten days. Enemies exchanged photos, addresses, chocolate, champagne, and other small gifts. They discovered that they had more in common than they realized, including a cat that wandered from side to side and made friends with everyone, which both sides claimed as their mascot.

The erstwhile enemies communicated as best they could in each other's language. The German commander, Horstmayer, said to French Lieutenant Audebert, "When we take Paris, it will all be over. Then you can invite me up for a drink at your house in Rue Vavin!" "Don't feel that you have to invade Paris to get a drink at my house," Audebert replied.

电影《圣诞快乐》（2005）（有译《近距作战》）重现了1914年平安夜在法国战场上所发生的一件事。这件事有史料为证。

这次交战发生在第一次世界大战期间，有来自苏格兰、法国和德国的3000名士兵卷入。平安夜到了，德军首先开始唱起《平安夜》。苏格兰士兵随之以风笛伴奏，很快，三方士兵开始从相距100米远的战壕里和谐地唱起同一首歌来。想象一下吧，他们在用三种不同的语言合唱，而在几个小时前，仍在这条战壕里，他们还在相互射击呢。多么大的反差！

这首普遍为人所爱的歌曲传达的温暖把交战各方带入了一种和平，他们大胆地走出战壕，同意非正式休战。某些地方，休战甚至达十天之久。双方士兵互换照片、地址、巧克力、香槟和其它一些小礼物。他们发现，他们竟有那么多共同之处，就连一只猫也在双方之间跑来跑去，跟大家交朋友，双方都称那是自己的吉祥物。

先前的敌人现在竭力用对方的语言来交流。德军司令官豪斯迈尔对法军中尉奥笛伯特说：“等我们占领巴黎时，一切就结束了。那时，你可以邀请我到你位于庐外林（Rue Vavin）的家里喝一杯！”“你不必觉得一定要侵占巴黎才能到我家里小酌，” 奥笛伯特回答说。

The friendship that was forged between the warring sides went beyond mere pleasantries. The morning after the Christmas truce ended, each side warned the other of artillery shelling that they knew was coming from their artillery units. Their newfound sense of camaraderie was so strong that each side even sheltered soldiers from the opposing side in their trenches to keep them from harm.

What brought about this incredible transformation? It all started with a shared love of Christmas music.

This incident reminds us that there is a cure to war, and that is to stop demonizing our enemies and learn to love them. Everyone needs to love and be loved. If we would each make an effort to get to know others with whom we seem to have little in common, we just might find, as the soldiers on that battlefield did, that we have quite a bit more in common than we realized.

交战双方建立的友谊超出了纯粹的轻松交谈。圣诞休战后的第二天上午，双方就警告对方，自己的炮兵要开火了。他们新建立的友情是那么深厚，甚至让对方士兵藏在自己的战壕里，以防被己方的炮弹伤到。

是什么造成了这种不可思议的改变？一切都从那首圣诞音乐所分享的爱开始。

这件事让我们想到，战争是可以终止的，那就是停止把我们的敌人描绘成魔鬼，学会爱他们。每个人都需要爱和被爱。如果我们每个人都努力去了解似乎和我们没有多少共同之处的人，可能会发现，就像战场上的那些士兵一样，我们和那些人之间的共同之处比我们认为的要多得多。

Images from the movie Joyeux Noel (《圣诞快乐》（2005）（有译《近距作战》)

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灵性锻炼: 过去和将来

爱在圣诞节来临！

降生在马槽里 - Away in a Manger

圣诞快乐 - Joyeux Noel

我为何来到世上

圣诞快乐 - Christmas Joy

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