Click here to sign up for daily motivational text messages!
...
Click here to sign up for daily motivational text messages! ...
WEEKLY FELLOWSHIP! JOIN AROUND THE CAMPFIRE!
Sundays at 11:30 AM ET. Click here to join via Google Meet!
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 #417: Bizarre, obscure, and unwritten.
Heritage Rough ‘n’ Tumble seeks to reconstruct, resurrect, and preserve American Rough ‘n’ Tumble – a manner of no-holds-barred fighting that originated in the Southern Virginia backcountry during the Colonial Era. Never formally codified, American Rough ‘n’ Tumble is an amalgam of the techniques brought to America by colonists and over 900 indigenous tribes.
The reconstruction work of Rough ‘n’ Tumble is made harder by the fact that it was and is deeply imbedded in the time, place, viewpoints, and lifeways of the men who practiced it. This poses a serious problem when doing historical research, reading historical documents, old books, period newspapers, diaries, journals, and so forth.
People don’t write down the things they think everybody knows.
For example, when writing in your diary that you emailed your cousin Larry, you don’t include detailed instructions on how to turn on your laptop and navigate your operating system. When you record that you ran a load of clothes through the washer, you don’t include how to operate a washing machine. If we’re going to understand the true subtleties of Rough ‘n’ Tumble, we need to actually get involved in the outdoor skills, fitness methods, and spiritual pursuits of the time. Some things that we think don’t matter might actually be crucial. It turns out that a dedicated student of Heritage Rough ‘n’ Tumble also becomes something of a living history buff and an archaeological reconstructionist.
If you want to be like the old-timers, you need to practice self-defense, fitness, outdoor skills, and spiritual development the way the old-timers did.
Does a totally free program that incorporates self-defense, fitness, outdoor skills, and spiritual development sound like your cup of tea? 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 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 8/4/24 – Father Mitch
Readings: Ex 16:2-4, 12-15, Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54, Eph 4:17, 20-24, Jn 6:24-35
John 6:24-35 World English Bible
When the multitude therefore saw that Jesus wasn’t there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
26 Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.”
28 They said therefore to him, “What must we do, that we may work the works of God?”
29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
30 They said therefore to him, “What then do you do for a sign, that we may see and believe you? What work do you do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven† to eat.’ ”*
32 Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, it wasn’t Moses who gave you the bread out of heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 They said therefore to him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
Inmates released after many years of incarceration often feel disoriented by the lack of structure. They feel unmoored and adrift because they have no one preparing their meals, telling them when it’s time to eat, time to take recreation, time to bathe, and so on. People like rules. They’re easy. They’re comforting. Sadly, some criminals intentionally re-offend so that they can return to the familiarity of incarceration.
It's understandable. Being set free means facing difficult choices and decisions, and they may lack the skills required to function in the new system. A man incarcerated since his youth may not have ever had a job. Perhaps he’s never set an alarm to get out of bed, may have no idea how to plan his morning so that he gets out of the door with enough time to arrive at work by the start of his shift. What we take for granted is for him a very complex and daunting set of tasks. This is why we have half-way houses and special programs to help inmates adjust to life outside the prison framework.
When the Israelites receive their freedom from the tyranny of Egypt they grumble. Unable to feed themselves, God sends them manna from heaven, angelic food. They say, “What’s this?” Moses has to tell them what it is and give them specific instructions on how to gather and eat the manna. They’re like a released prisoner who has spent his entire life in and out of juvenile detention facilities and penitentiaries. Handed a box of macaroni and cheese, he says, “What’s this?” He’s never prepared his own food, and to him it’s just a blue and yellow box.
After Jesus feeds the multitude, they follow him across the sea to Capernaum. Finding him there, they say, “When did you get here?” This silly, prosaic question shows just how out of touch they are with what is happening. They just witnessed an incredible miracle, and this is the most insightful question they can come up with? Next they ask, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” He’s been telling them why and how they can go forward in a whole new way of being in the world. And they respond by saying in essence, “Just tell us what we’re supposed to do.” People like rules. They’re easy. They’re comforting.
No matter how tempting it is, we must not fall back on the comfort of the rules. Jesus answers their question, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” We must start with an internal transformation in faith, not a to-do list. We must believe, and then allow our belief to give rise to physical action. The prisoner, if he is to adapt to life outside prison, must start with a change of heart and not look back or he will re-offend.
St. Paul, always the brilliant psychologist, understands this phenomenon. This is why he tells the Ephesians in today’s reading they need to think in a whole new way. He says, “put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth.” Those liberated from a strict structure, as Jesus was liberating the Jews from the law, must remake themselves and acquire a whole new set of skills.
Christian life isn’t a chore list. It’s an open-ended, joy-filled journey of liberation from sin and death. And it begins with faith – belief in transformation through Jesus Christ.
------------------------------------
† 6:31 Greek and Hebrew use the same word for “heaven”, “the heavens”, “the sky”, and “the air”.
* 6:31 Exodus 16:4; Nehemiah 9:15; Psalms 78:24-25