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Mettle Maker #391

What’s the weekly mettle maker? Training tips and educational information in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? According the American Heritage Dictionary, mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”

Heritage Self-Defense: What’s your “get off the bottom” IQ? Self-defense doesn’t get much worse than it is when your attacker is in Top Saddle (a.k.a. “the Mount”). How many methods do you have to get out? One? Two? Three? Four or more? Well, if you’re serious about self-defense, I suggest having three — one for when the ride is low (near your hips), one when it’s a tad higher (up near your lower ribs), and one to use when his knees have reached your armpits (as bad as it gets!). And you should also have a few of variants of each that take into account what your attacker is up to — wrestling, restraining, or striking. Get your techniques together, put them into a logical, working chain, and drill them until the cows come home. Watch this space — a series of YouTube videos covering this topic is on the way!

Interested in American Rough and Tumble martial arts with a spiritual center? Join the martial arts club in Richmond, VA or click here to sign up for the Heritage self-defense distance learning program.

Heritage Fitness: Are you doing your Bearhug Squats? The science is in — sandbag training works. Pick a weight appropriate to your size and fitness level. Most folks age 18 - 50 years of age of intermediate fitness level can manage about a third of their body weight at first. If you train old-school (without pain meds, creatine, and steroids, and with your goal being health, longevity, and functional fitness), put your arms around the bag, hug it to your chest, and start with 4 sets of 6 or maybe 3 sets of 8. Cap your total reps to around 25, and never push to the last rep. Stop at the next-to-last rep. Do them a couple of times a week. When you can get 2 sets of 12, add a little weight and start your progression over. Voila! If you don’t like and benefit from the Bear Hug Squat, I’ll eat my hat.

Need a free fitness coach to help you build a program that suits your specific needs and goals? Or maybe a free adult outdoor skills program? Click here to sign up for one of our free programs!

Heritage Wildwood Outdoor Skills: Some thoughts on sensory input. The human, having changed so little in the last hundred thousand years or so, is not accustomed to living in cities filled with so much input – industrial noise, cars, airplanes, and so forth – much less the modern distractions of video games, video streaming services, 24-hour news, cell phones, and so on.

Consider the consequences of the change in our sensory input over what it once was. If you have not read John Ruskin’s The Opening of the Crystal Palace (1854) here is an excerpt with which you might begin such a consideration:

“But it is one of the strange characters of the human mind, necessary indeed to its peace, but infinitely destructive of its power, that we never thoroughly feel the evils which are not actually set before our eyes. If, suddenly, in the midst of the enjoyments of the palate and lightnesses of heart of a London dinner-party, the walls of the chamber were parted, and through their gap, the nearest human beings who were famishing, and in misery, were borne into the midst of the company — feasting and fancy-free — if, pale with sickness, horrible in destitution, broken by despair, body by body, they were laid upon the soft carpet, one beside the chair of every guest, would only the crumbs of the dainties be cast to them — would only a passing glance, a passing thought be vouchsafed to them? Yet the actual facts, the real relations of each Dives and Lazarus, are not altered by the intervention of the house wall between the table and the sick-bed — by the few feet of ground (how few!) which are indeed all that separate the merriment from the misery.”

We are the same people we once were, evolved to live and respond to stimulus. Our ancestors lived ten or more to a hut, responding to the needs of kin. One of my four children lives in Japan, one in a different city, and other two across town. A few hundred years ago, people of our station would’ve certainly lived in the same village, perhaps in the same home. Further examples of the differences in modern vs. ancient sensory input abound.

Is it possible that we’re so maladapted to the world we’ve created that we are effectively broken as a species? I’ll leave that to greater minds. At the every least, we should attempt to expose ourselves to the natural world and to stimuli asscicated with humanity — our kin, friends, neighbors, and coworkers.

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Holy Communion is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 10 am EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy communion, CLICK HERE.

Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2/4/24 – Father Mitch

Readings: Jb 7:1-4, 6-7, Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23, Mk 1:29-39

Mark 1:29-39

Immediately, when they had come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 He came and took her by the hand and raised her up. The fever left her immediately,† and she served them.

32 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by demons. 33 All the city was gathered together at the door. 34 He healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons. He didn’t allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.

35 Early in the morning, while it was still dark, he rose up and went out, and departed into a deserted place, and prayed there. 36 Simon and those who were with him searched for him. 37 They found him and told him, “Everyone is looking for you.”

38 He said to them, “Let’s go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because I came out for this reason.” 39 He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out demons.

Taken together, our readings today are a meditation on patience. The word “patience” comes from the Latin patior, which means to suffer, endure, tolerate, or put up with something.

Job is the Old Testament paradigm of patience. Repeated trials and tribulations assail and test him, and yet he is patient. Can he rely upon his wife for support? No. She encourages him to be impatient! She says to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Curse God, and die.” But would impatience do Job any good at all?

First let’s inquire as to what impatience is. When you boil it down, isn’t it just refusing to tolerate difficulties, inconveniences, and problems? Perhaps our focus has been interrupted, our precious plans have been disrupted, or our desires have been obstructed. Isn’t impatience just a childish tantrum because things aren’t going our way? Like the character Veruca Salt from the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, we want it now. But does all our impotent impatience solve anything? Does it influence God’s plan in any way at all? Does it do anything other than let off a little steam? Of course not. Impatience is an impotent emotion that not only screws up our faces, makes us say rude things, and contorts our spirit. Impatience profits no one.

Look at old Job. Despite his wife’s ugly remarks, and despite the fact that his three best friends tell him that he’s to blame for his own torment, he is patient. He never curses God or renounces his faith. And as a result, when all is said and done, God restores Job to health and multiplies his blessings two-fold.

In our reading from 1 Corinthians, St. Paul explains how he is patient with his listeners and careful in tailoring his message to suit their needs rather than his own. St. Paul must’ve been almost constantly tempted toward impatience. Imagine how many times he was repeatedly asked the same tireless questions by members of the young church. Imagine how many times he was harassed by soldiers, pestered by rabbis, confronted by scribes and Pharisees. But being wise, he knew that impatience wins no one over – only patience and humility can do that. By making himself small rather than proud, and by submitting himself to the Lord and his Gospel message, St. Paul, like Job, receives for his investment far more than he invests.

And finally we see in our Gospel reading from Mark the incredible patience of Jesus. The essence of his personal character is patience. Jesus is patient with those who persecute him, patient in his dealings with the scribes and the Pharisees, patient with sinners, patient with the suffering multitudes who followed him everywhere begging to be healed, and even patient with his apostles who are confused about his teachings, sell him for silver, and deny him three times. He is patient even unto the cross!

I have often heard the old adage, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” I would venture to say that, “Patience is next to godliness” might be the better refrain. The more patient we become, the closer we get to the Lord.

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†1:31 NU omits “immediately”.