First Annual Heritage Arts Campout!
Click the pic to get your ticks!
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.”
Mettle Maker #345
DID YOU KNOW…? That you you can get a daily motivational text message from Heritage Arts? Click the awesome (and perhaps a bit cheesy?) scrolling link below to sign up!
Click here to sign up for DAILY MOTIVATIONAL text messages!
...
Click here to sign up for DAILY MOTIVATIONAL text messages! ...
Fitness and Self-Defense combo: How are your pedestrianism skills?
“For short-distance matches, in which contests up to twenty-five miles are included, the number of scientific walkers is reasonably large…” Handbook of Summer Athletic Sports. Capt. Fred Whittaker editor (1880)
Pedestrianism was a 19th-century form of competitive walking, both amateur and professional, in which participants traversed long distances to win trophies, belts, fame, and fortune (large bets were common). Modern racewalking owes its origins to this delightful ancestor.
Walking is one of the best ways to lose weight and shed fat. And, unlike other forms of exercise, like running, biking, jumping rope, etc. walking is extremely low impact — which means it doesn’t interfere with athletic performance in other sports. That’s why it’s so often used by bodybuilders and boxers to shed fat. A 150 lb. athlete can burn 266 calories per hour walking and still be ready for an event.
Probably the greatest walker of all time was Edward Payson Weston. His walking feats are legendary. His first walk of renown was occasioned by the loss of a bet on the results of the 1860 U.S. Presidential election. Weston bet against Lincoln and had to walk from Boston to Washington D.C. -- a staggering 478 miles! -- through late February weather including rain and snow. He completed the walk in just 10 days and 10 hours. Arriving in the capital only a few hours before President-elect Lincoln’s inaugural ball, Weston was totally un-depleted by the endeavor and was able to attend the event. Weston lived to the age of 90. Among his eventual feats were:
· Portland, Maine to Chicago, Illinois -- 1200 miles (1900 km) in 26 days (1867)
· 1058 miles (1703 km) in 30 days (1869)
· 200 miles backward (1871)
· First man to walk 500 miles in six days (1874)
· 109.5 miles in 24 hours (1876)
· 550 miles in 141 hours 44 minutes (1879)
· 5000 miles in 100 days (1884)
If you’re not walking on a regular basis, you don’t know what you’re missing. Need help designing your fitness program? Interested in a realistic and free self-defense program that includes empty hand techniques as well as weapons? Click here to sign up for one of our 100% free programs!
First Annual
Wildwood: Sure, you can build a debris hut on paper — but can you do it in real life? Theory and practice are two different things. Below is a photo set from one of my primitive solos. I started by finding a stick to use as a rake. I used that to clear the area of leaves and litter. it was quite hot, and I knew I’d be cooler if I was on a tarp on the ground. If it had been cold outside, I would’ve left the debris for ground insulation. Then I bult the frame and raked the leaves over. It took several hours. By the time I was finished, after hiking all day and all that work, I was exhausted, slightly dehydrated, and I had a migraine. I crawled into that shelter, drank water non-stop, and watched the rain roll in. Need more nature appreciation and survival insights? Click here and sign up for the free Heritage Wildwood distance learning program!
Holy Communion is now LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 9AM. Due to YouTube LIVE processing times, the weekly Holy Communion video is often partial until late afternoon or evening. If you attempt to view the video, and running time is less than 40 to 45 minutes, please check back later.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW AND PRINT THE HOLY COMMUNION PROGRAM
Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent, Sunday 3/5/23 – Archdeacon Mitch
Readings: Gn 12:1-4a, Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22., 2 Tm 1:8b-10, Mt 17:1-9
Mt 17:1-9 World English Bible Catholic Edition
1 After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves. 2 He was changed* before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light. 3 Behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with him.
4 Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, let’s make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
6 When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were very afraid. 7 Jesus came and touched them and said, “Get up, and don’t be afraid.” 8 Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus alone.
9 As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Don’t tell anyone what you saw, until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”
The desire to categorize people, objects, and ideas is perfectly natural. To some extent at least, we all want to put things in the appropriate box. In Genesis, the first thing Adam does is name all the plants and animals. Nowadays we arrange animals into genus and species, like Homo Sapiens or Tyrannosaurus Rex. We do this because we want to know what things are, how to interact with them, and how to use them properly. We put tools on the wall of our garage in a systematic manner – screwdrivers over here, wrenches over there, and so on. We do the same with ideas – Philosophy on this side, Math on that side, Linguistics over here, etc.
Categories provide utility. Objects and ideas handily organized allow us to build things -- material things, like houses, furniture, and cars, and less tangible things, like cohesive arguments, tactical plans, and systems of government. Properly categorizing things is a skill associated with high performing, successful individuals like Peter – a religious leader in charge of managing an association of apostles, and later, the nascent church.
Peter’s problem in today’s reading is that creating proper categories and putting them into action is easy on paper, but extremely difficult in practice. Certainly, Peter knows intellectually that Jesus, Moses and Elijah are in different categories, and that neither Moses nor Elijah has any need for shelter. But he still suggests building tents. This isn’t the first time that Peter has made this error. Previously, in Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:15-23), when Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Immediately afterward however, when Jesus suggests that his fate is to die, Peter strenuously objects, and Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.” We shouldn’t be shocked to see Peter’s logic overwhelmed at the Transfiguration.
Peter’s problem, which Jesus certainly understands, is a very human problem, one that all of us struggle with in everyday life. We still struggle and fail to act out the things we understand in our hearts and minds. Jesus knows how hard this is. Inside the church, we Christians are still doing it – that is, failing to behave in a manner consistent with our rules and philosophy.
And outside the faith, Jesus is often placed in the same category as Moses, Elijah, Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna, or the Dalai Lama – just another spiritual teacher. But we must get clear on this ourselves, and we must make it clear to the world. Jesus breaks all categories. He is not like Moses. He is not like Elijah. He is in a category of One. He is God, the Creator and Logos. His words are not the words of a man. Jesus is unique. He died. He descended into hell. And on the third day, he rose again from the dead. He sits at the right hand of the father. From thence he will come to judge the quick and the dead.
*17:2 or, transfigured