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Get your tickets now for the 1st Annual Heritage Arts Campout (CLICK HERE FOR THE DETAILS)

Event starts at 4 PM on Friday 10/13/23 and runs through noon on Sunday 10/15/23. Martial arts, fitness, outdoor skills, and spiritual development — for just $25/ticket. CLICK HERE for all the details.

Mettle Maker #365

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.”

Fitness: Be Argus-eyed for the waste and drain of junk volume. In Greek myth, Argus Panoptes (“all-seeing Argus”) is the many-eyed giant who job it is to guard the priestess Io against the advances of Zeus. I spent months doing a deep dive on the Farmer Burns wrestling correspondence course, actually testing the methods laid out there. And one of the first things that jumped out at me was the amount of junk volume. Don’t get me wrong. There’s some great stuff in there! I was surprised how much I liked some of his self-resistance exercises, breathing exercises, and some of his dumbbell exercises. But the proportion of supportive work to actual wrestling is about 80/20, which should be reversed! If you want to be a good wrestler, wrestle. Don’t waste time on dozens of isometric and isotonic exercises, jumping rope, running, vibrating machines, “internal massage,” and so on. Look at your program. More isn’t always better. Get rid of junk volume, and jealously guard against it's re-entry. Looking for a fitness coach to help you design a training program or keep you on track with regard to your fitness goals? Click here to participate in one of our free programs!

Self-Defense: How tight is your Square Choke? Everybody knows the Rear Naked Choke, and to the untrained eye, the Square Choke is virtually the same. But it ain’t. Square Choke is a forearm attack, and it works like a draw knife rather than as a triangle. And what’s great about it is that it doesn’t matter much where you lay it on — under the chin, across the chin, under the nose, across the cheek, eye-line, or jaw. To practice your square choke power, set a 3-minute timer and latch onto your heavy bag with the proper Gable grip, attacking forearm palm down and as close to parallel to the ground as possible. Now lift your legs off the floor and hang. When you can hold on no longer, switch sides. Alternate until the timer beeps. Put in a few rounds a week this way, switching up chokes from time to time. Now, if you want to know the secret that increases your hang time and your submission power by about 25%, you’ll have to enroll in the Heritage Self-Defense distance learning program. Click here to get started!

Wildwood outdoor skills: Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus), the delicious flower food. Every part of this little beauty are edible, except the roots. It contains a heaping helping of vitamin C, and more lutein than any other plant, more even that kale and turnip greens. And the flavor? it’s about as peppery and delicious as all get out! The best news is that it’s easily grown from seed, and it’s not picky about soil. It just needs plenty of moisture and sun. Sprinkle the seeds in a pot, planter, or bed in May and you’ll enjoy your plants all summer. Need more tips, inspiration and education regarding outdoor skills? Click here and sign up for the 100% free Heritage Wildwood distance learning program!

Holy Communion is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 9AM EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy communion, CLICK HERE.

Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sunday 7/23/23 – Father Mitch

Readings: Wis 12:13, 16-19, Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16, Rom 8:26-27, Mt 13:24-43

Matthew 13:24-43 World English Bible, Catholic Edition

24 He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds† also among the wheat, and went away. 26 But when the blade sprang up and produced grain, then the darnel weeds appeared also. 27 The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did these darnel weeds come from?’

28 “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’

29 “But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

31 He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took, and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.”

33 He spoke another parable to them. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast which a woman took and hid in three measures‡ of meal, until it was all leavened.”

34 Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitudes; and without a parable, he didn’t speak to them, 35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying,

“I will open my mouth in parables;

I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.”*

36 Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house. His disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field.”

37 He answered them, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38 the field is the world, the good seeds are the children of the Kingdom, and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling and those who do iniquity, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Various translations use different words for “weed” in Matthew 13:25. The King James says “tares” were sowed among the wheat. Tare is an old-fashioned word for a weed. The Douay Rheims uses “cockles” and the RSV just says “weeds.” But, interestingly, the Greek and Latin both use the word zizanium which is a weed that closely resembles wheat. I believe the meaning here is that there are Christians, and there are look-alike Christians, and it’s hard to tell the difference. But Jesus knows. And when he returns to judge the quick and dead, he’s going to separate the two. There’s going to be a reckoning.

As I meditated on this scripture, I remembered a man I haven’t seen in many years. When my father passed away in 2008, my mother and I were stumbling through the darkness of grief. Thankfully, my father had prepaid for everything and made all of the arrangements. The only major thing we had to do was arrange the funeral service itself. The funeral director put me in touch with a total stranger named Reverend Harry Bowman. Reverend Bowman was a whip thin man in his 60s who had officiated hundreds of funerals. He met with us to prepare the eulogy and service, Mom first, then me. When it was my turn, he gently asked me questions about my father, and got me talking. I felt like I’d known Reverend Bowman my whole life. I told him all about my father, about how he was a god-fearing man who had considered becoming a Presbyterian minister as a young man and who read the Bible to me from the time I was born until middle school.

During the interview he asked me why we weren’t church-going. I explained that some kind of financial scandal involving the minister and the board had disillusioned my mother and father. They had left the church for good. As for me, I said, I just grew up and stopped believing. I’m ashamed to say that I asked him, “You don’t actually believe all that stuff, like Jesus rising from the grave, do you?”

He smiled warmly. And with calm confidence, he said, “Yes, yes indeed. Without question. And you should too.” I confess, I remember that he did a good job with the service, but I really don’t remember the rest of our conversation or even the details of the service. It has all been swallowed up in the hazy clouds of grief and time. But his witness to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ echo down the years. And by the way, he also helped me bury my mother, eulogizing her when she passed in 2016.

In my story, the weeds that look like wheat are the ones whose betrayal of their church so disillusioned my parents – and who knows how many others! -- that they left and never went back. Woe to those look-alike weeds brothers and sisters! Jesus said, “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire.”

And the good seed? Well that’s Reverend Harry Bowman, who stood firm in his witness to the truth of the Resurrection. Who patiently, calmly spoke the truth to a confused man like me. Who has made a career out of guiding strangers through their darkest hours, steering them patiently toward Christ.

† 13:25 darnel is a weed grass (probably bearded darnel or lolium temulentum) that looks very much like wheat until it is mature, when the difference becomes very apparent.

‡ 13:33 literally, three sata. Three sata is about 39 liters or a bit more than a bushel

* 13:35 Psalm 78:2