Christine Smith's Blog

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I will not be updating my blog until after August 2 because I will be on an out-of-state business trip.

Resistance by Jews & Germans to Nazi Tyranny

Today marks 65 years since the July 20, 1944 attempt on Hitler’s life and coup, but it was just one of the forms of resistance against the Nazi tyranny, and only one of the attempts on Hitler’s life.

Films I highly recommend:

Defiance – based on the true story of the Bielski brothers’ partisan group of Jews who hid in the forest, escaping the ghettos and concentration camps, surviving, and fighting. Approximately 1200 Jews became part of their group. An amazing story of the human will. Be sure to view the special features on the dvd as well. (film stars Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski)

Valkyrie – based on the true story of the July 20, 1944 assassination and coup attempt against Hitler. (film stars Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg)

TODAY’S RADIO SHOW: I had another excellent interview on Paul Molloy’s Freedom Works! radio show today discussing the spiritual, political, and violent & armed resistance against the Nazi tyranny including: the courageous production of underground newspapers & anti-Nazi leaflets…the White Rose…Zegota…incredible stories of armed resistance within concentration camps and ghettos…Jewish partisan groups who chose to escape and fight…attempts on Hitler’s life including the July 20, 1944 coup attempt…disarmed populations and tyrannical governments…the 2nd Amendment…and the vital lessons we can learn from history to be applied today.

Though I could only briefly discuss these topics during the 20-minute interview, I encourage you to research the great courage and faith of the Jews, Christians, and others who opposed the Nazi tyranny. Particularly interesting are the details of the revolts within concentration camps and ghettos.

I invite you to listen (audio is approx. 20 minutes): CLICK HERE.

The show was heard live on AM-station WTAN, covering “more than 3,000,000 people in and around” the Tampa Bay, Florida region.

George Friedrich Handel

A day of Handel! I love his music.

From opera, oratorios, and instrumentals, Handel’s music is beautiful and joyous.

Radio Dialogue: Government Accountability – warrantless wiretapping & other surveillance, torture, & covert operations

Today I had another excellent dialogue with Paul Molloy on his Freedom Works! radio show, heard on AM-station WTAN, covering “more than 3,000,000 people in and around” the Tampa Bay, Florida region.

Topic: Government accountability in regards to warrantless wiretapping & other surveillance, torture, and covert operations.

I invite you to listen (23 minutes in length): CLICK HERE.

La noche oscura del alma/Dark Night of the Soul

When troubled, in sadness, confusion, despair, feeling despondent or depressed or doubting yourself…listen not to the lies your mind will tell you, but to God’s voice.  Take heart not in what you see or even feel, but in His promise.  This we must remind ourselves, for when it happens the aloneness and our own mind can distort reality. 

It is reported in My Life with the Saints by James Martin that Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (The Little Flower) said to another sister “If you only knew what darkness I am plunged into.”   

Despite her struggle and pain, she always believed.  Her strength and resolve was combined with beautiful humility.  She wrote of God being there for each soul, as the sun is there for the daisy as well as the tall trees. 

The struggles that produce such inner pain differ for each of us.  We must face them.  With God, in Truth, they are resolved. 

This Saturday, I read the beautiful La noche oscura del alma/Dark Night of the Soul by Spanish poet, mystic, Carmelite friar and priest, St. John of the Cross (Third Revised edition,Translated and edited with an Introduction by E. Allison Peers from the critical edition of P. Silverio De Santa Teresa, C.D.).
 
Your “dark night” may last over years, be there and be relieved and come again years later, or may pass quickly but intensely until a time it returns fiercely another night be it a year or years later bringing more revelation…it is a long path…the journey of your soul.  All is well.  The light will return, the disturbance of your soul will calm, and you will again see…you will see more, and more clearly.

Though we interpret this experience as darkness, it brings light.  Humbling, emptying, it brings freedom.

If you have sought God’s truth, love God, yet are aware of afflictions causing turmoil or lack of peace within at times and a perceived interference in your communication with God, I highly recommend you read Dark Night of the Soul as it will enlighten you in your own stages of union with God…an experience beyond expression and beyond the mind’s understanding. 

Acceptance

I was speaking with my father about God’s will as it pertains to those things which may or may not be attained but which we feel we wish to do. He spoke of what acceptance means. We spoke of this but for about five minutes, but that brief conversation was about a topic I’ve pondered for years, as well as now. It is something I’d like to share my thoughts upon here.

Acceptance is very different from resignation. Acceptance maintains peace, joy, and gratefulness in this very moment, while as resignation implies a disappointment or even bitter resentment of the way things are.

If we trust in God’s will, we simply orient ourselves on the path the light leads us upon; we may have a destination (or goal) in mind, but if for whatever reason our plans do not result in being able to complete said project/plan, we trust in His perfect plan and will for our life.

For years, I’ve known (and reminded myself when necessary) that the best way to live life is without expectations. Expectations (be they of oneself or of others) sets one up to experience disappointment and all its frustrating emotionalism which is detrimental to growth, joy, and the essential living in the moment. We are all human beings with our weaknesses, as well as situations beyond our control, thus to place expectations upon ourself or another is to unrealistically, and spiritually speaking, is to unlovingly make a point to reach from ideals of our mind (not our heart) which excludes our spiritual nature – thus temporarily making us feel like it’s all up to us to make things happen as our mind had planned. This self induced arrogance is misery! It assumes we know…and the truth is we know only what our heavenly Father chooses, in his ultimate wisdom, to make known to us.

How much more He knows, and will disclose and show to us, in most beautiful miraculous ways, if we trust, follow, and patiently, calmly, and lovingly live moment by moment doing what we see right now is good to do. We need not “understand” everything, for resting in His will for our lives sustains and nurtures in a way our mind can never give! Consider the times in your life when you got all worked up over (how you perceived it) failure to achieve, obtain, or have something. There is nothing wrong with setting oneself on a mission, a goal to be achieved or an accomplishment, but there is everything wrong with making anything a prerequisite for contentment and thus blocking the peace God has and intends for you.

Prayer has become a most important, essential, part of my life now. In it, through it, I find the virtues I seek to maintain and develop being strengthened and my meaningless worries dissolved. I find that even when I make a mistake of allowing some sort of expectation or thought about the non-existent future to enter my mind, I attain correction and guidance when I seek God’s solace, forgiveness, and express my deepest desire to live in His will for my life. In it, in Him, my greatest joy and pleasures will always be.

Trusting in God’s will is most different. It is freedom! It maintains an inner peace no matter what’s going on out there in the world and no matter how that may have altered or affected one’s own life. One may make their plans, eye an accomplishment they wish to achieve, work toward it, and at the same time recognize and accept whatever the outcome becomes with gratitude…with acceptance. As long as we’re on the right path, headed in the right direction, every experience becomes part and links to everything that is to become – we need not – indeed we cannot (and must not try!) to understand with our minds…but need only accept in perfect trust that far beyond our knowledge and perception there is a far greater and mightier plan, in which there is joy and fulfillment, in store for us.

How often our perception, being so close to problems, distorts the reality of the situation. And certainly it cannot apprehend His will, from our small limited human standpoint, for our entire life. God holds all things, or else they would not even be. Why then should we worry, fret, be angry or disappointed in anything whatsoever?

Thinking back on my life, I see so many instances, small and large, where I thought I knew what was best or else I thought that which I was experiencing was not best for me or when things didn’t go according to my plan to do-go-or achieve something, when I lapsed into frustration or even a degree of anger. In every time I recollect, from the perspective of hindsight, that which I so thought wasn’t best turned out to be precisely what was best for me…sometimes in mysterious ways my mind could never have anticipated and certainly not comprehended or imagined…beautiful wondrous synchronistic happenings…miracles…and all for my ultimate good.

Likewise, I can so easily remember things that have happened and people I’ve met which I in no way planned or made happen, which resulted in wondrous blessings in my life. As human beings, we like to rationally analyze everything, but in addition to our minds, there is something far greater and powerful at work here, and that is the spirit. Life in the spirit brings opportunities from Providence. It gives wisdom, patience, fortitude, faith and hope (not in the world, but from God). The certainty of our life is in God’s hands, it encompasses a purpose that we fulfill by knowing and loving Him. Much is revealed, and even when in a state of wondering, it is in this we can trust – and that is most reassuring and comforting.

Kindness, humility, diligence and so many other virtues become a part of our nature, part of our habit, to the degree we replace our mind with His and accept that all is well despite mere appearances to the contrary. We can keep doing what is good to do today, without thought of yesterday or tomorrow. We truly live, experience, and express and experience love to the degree we trust and live within the moment in perfect acceptance and peace.

It is so wonderful to start each day with a sense of newness, wonderment, and openness to whatever may be in store. Free of judgment, one just experiences what is. If things go according to plan, and even if not, one accepts, adjusts, and is not disturbed. There’s far more at work in our lives than our eyes can see. I believe this, I feel it, and I have many times experienced this awareness throughout my life.

“Strike of the Sword” – a fitting name

Again, the U.S. government chooses to name another of its unjustified military assaults with what is supposed to be a heroic strong fearless sounding name.

“Strike of the Sword” is another arrogant expression of U.S. government imperialism.

And as it continues, look for more death, destruction and suffering for the Afghan people…and for U.S. troops.

Frankly, I find the name of this military strike quite fitting, for the consequence of such use of our military will most certainly backfire in my opinion.

The first thing I thought of when I heard the name of this military strike was a scripture:

“Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” (Matthew 26:52, KJV)