Christmas Day Messages by the Sovereign to the peoples of the Commonwealth are a tradition. This year is no exception: Elizabeth II will address to the subjects of her realms and the wider Commonwealth, just as her father did in his reign.
But no Royal Christmas address was more poignant than the one Canada's wartime king, George VI, made in 1939 -- as Canadians joined the the Empire the fight against all aspects NAZI tyranny (including Eugenic sterilization and murder.) Colin Firth's movie, The King's Speech tells how an Australian therapist helped him, while still Duke of York, overcome his stutter in order to speak to his subjects.
The King's subjects across the world sat frozen in the dark winter of uncertain victory when he quoted these words by Minnie Louise Harkins:
"I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.' And he replied, 'Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be better than light, and safer than a known way."
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