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WEEKLY FELLOWSHIP! JOIN AROUND THE CAMPFIRE!
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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
What’s new?
Our program is now called HERITAGE ROUGH ‘N’ TUMBLE. To understand why we’ve made this change, read this post .
Skin in the game is now required. The program is still free if you can’t afford a donation of $1/month — but you have to at least hang out with the crew each week or volunteer to be a social media promoter, blogger, researcher, newsletter editor, fundraiser, mentor, artist, or even come up with your own idea.
Mettle maker #415: Hiking and Journaling
Hiking and journaling are relatively frequent topics around here. Why? Because they’re both integral to the Heritage Rough ‘n’ Tumble program. Hiking is important because it’s how you get places, see things, have adventures, experience heights, and so on. And journaling is essential to our program because journals are equal parts training log, self care exercise, spiritual discipline, and historical preservation.
What if Lewis and Clark had been lousy hikers and lackluster journalers?
Last weekend I took my grandson on his first camping trip. We went on a beautiful hike to the top of Sharp Top in the Peaks of Otter. I’ve hiked all over Virginia, and I have to say that Sharp Top is my favorite view. You should’ve seen his young face as he took in that sight for the first time. What if I hadn’t kept my hiking muscles up to snuff? I’d have missed out on a great experience, and my grandson would’ve too!
In the visitor center they had on display the journals of Helen and Julia Smith, famous amateur naturalists whose work on wildflowers proved very beneficial to scientists and park managers in charge of shepherding the Blue Ridge Parkway. What if they hadn’t kept their journals?
Put on a backpack and get hiking. Start your training journal today. You won’t be disappointed in your mind-body-spirit gains.
Interested in a totally free program that incorporates self-defense, fitness, outdoor skills, and spiritual development? Sign up for our free Rough ‘n’ Tumble Distance Learning Program!
Holy Eucharist 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 Eucharist, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 7/21/24 – Father Mitch
Readings: Jer 23:1-6, Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6, Eph 2:13-18, Mk 6:30-34,
Mark 6:30-34 World English Bible
30 The apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus, and they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away into a deserted place, and rest awhile.” For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. 32 They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 They† saw them going, and many recognized him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him. 34 Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
In Jesus Christ all barriers are laid low, and all divisions are healed.
In our Old Testament reading, God says “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to to their meadow.” I’m sure the Hebrews of Jesus’ time who read those words assumed he was referring to all the various Jewish factions – the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Samaritans, and so on, or perhaps to the Hellenized Hebrews in the cities versus the Hebrews of the countryside. How could any of them have known that the prophecy referred to all mankind?
As St. Paul says in our reading from Ephesians, Jesus has “broken down the wall of enmity by abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims.” For the Jews, the 613 laws of the Torah were what united the people to God. But God, by becoming man, removed the barrier between God and all of humanity and tore down the wall between Jew and Gentile. By entering into his creation, God has offered himself to all.
Today’s story from Mark 6 tells us that there was no separating the sheep from the shepherd Jesus. He took the apostles away to a deserted place so that they could rest. The desert, in a mystical, metaphorical sense, stands for the trials and tribulations of life. And the scriptures says that, wherever Jesus went, even into the desert, this flock was there, the scripture says, “like sheep without a shepherd.” The apostles may have rested, but Jesus did not. He guided them and taught them, standing by them even when they were in the desert. Even when they were lost in the barrenness of sin, difficulty, and disappointment.
All of this is as true right now as it was then. I met a fellow just yesterday who had been let down by his church and was allowing his negative experiences sour him against Christianity itself. I gave him assurance that although people in the church might sometimes be absent, or misguided, or even servants of the devil infiltrating the flock like wolves in sheep’s clothing, Jesus the Shepherd is still here to guide, protect and to teach him. Jesus lives, I told him, and he does not rest.
Even when we are in a deserted place, a dry, waterless place far from the safety we want and need; even when some of his people are absent or fall short in some way; Jesus is here. There are no barriers between us and Jesus. He is here, giving us of himself completely and freely. He shepherds us and teaches us still.
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† 6:33 TR reads “The multitudes” instead of “They”