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Two special events this fall!
Get your tickets now for the 1st Annual Heritage Arts Campout. 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 or get TICKETS here. Or sign up to walk the Richmond Marathon with us on November 10th. SIGN UP here.
Mettle Maker #369
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.”
When using light dumbbells, keep shoulders down and back. Pretend you’re squeezing a lemon between your shoulder blades.
Fitness — Shoulders down and back. When? Just about all the time! Keeping your shoulders down and back is a precious vein that runs through the goldmine of old-school fitness and physical culture. Here are some of the benefits:
Alleviates a host of back and shoulder pain issues associated with bad posture
Protects the rotator cuff and increases output when performing every pushing and pulling exercise, especially the Big 3: Pull-ups, Push-ups, and Dips.
Improves efficiency during pedestrianism — a.k.a. “walking” — which comes in handy when you’re planning to walk a marathon.
Amps the punishment on many locks (if you’re into martial arts)
Makes you more attractive to the opposite sex by pushing out your chest (read this for details)
Don’t believe me? Test it! Go to your bar and pay close attention to your body as you execute a strict Chin-up as you normally would. How high did you get? How did your shoulders feel? What muscles were activated? Now do another one. But this time, pull your shoulders down and back. Don’t allow the bones of your upper arm ride up in the capsule. If you don’t feel better and pull higher, I’ll eat my pretty floral bonnet. Looking for a free fitness coach? We’re a 501c3 charity! Click here to participate in one of our free programs!
Martial Arts - Heavy bag kick combos. Get in front of your heavy bag and execute 10 3-count combos with each of the 10 kicks we regularly use in Heritage Self-Defense (punch-punch-kick, kick-punch-punch, elbow-knee-knee, etc..). If takes practice to turn a foot/leg into a sword! Want to learn Rough ‘n’ Tumble martial arts? Join as the club in Richmond, VA or click here to sign up for the Heritage self-defense distance learning program!
Elderberry flowers — a Virginia native!
Wildwood Outdoor Skills — Native plants are where it’s at. When you start to learn about wild edibles the first thing you discover is that half of the plants you’re trying to identify in wild places are non-native. Plants that naturally occur in a given area are called “native plants.” They share symbiotic relationships with local wildlife and support sustainable habitats. Decorative plants and imports from other parts of the world not only fail to support wildlife as well as native plants but often escape into the wild, choke out native species, and become invasive exotics that destroy entire ecosystems.
There are tons of resources for folks who want to garden and decorate with native species. Check out the U.S. Forest Service’s native plant materials resource page. If you live in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, or Midwest., the National Wildlife Federation will ship native plant sets right to your front door! For those here in my native Virginia, check out the Virginia Native Plant Society’s list of local nurseries that sell native plant species. Want to learn more? For a comprehensive outdoor skills program, click here to sign up for the 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 Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sunday 8/20/23 – Father Mitch
Readings: Is 56:1, 6-7, Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8, Rom 11:13-15, 29-32, Mt 15:21-28
Matthew 15:21-28 World English Bible Catholic Edition
Jesus went out from there and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders and cried, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David! My daughter is severely possessed by a demon!”
23 But he answered her not a word.
His disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away; for she cries after us.”
24 But he answered, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25 But she came and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
26 But he answered, “It is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
27 But she said, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you even as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that hour.
Imagine you are attending a child’s football practice. Some distance away there is a kid watching who’s been following the team around for days. And the players say, “Coach, get rid of that kid will you? He’s driving us nuts.” But the coach wants to see if the kid has what it takes be a player. So the coach says to the kid, “I’m not your coach kid. I’m here to coach these players and these players only. You got that?”
Now, some youngsters would give up. But not this one. He decides to show the coach what he’s made of. He starts following the coach’s instructions and copying the team drills. He starts to really sweat and work. The coach notices. He comes over and he says, “Look kid, my players have earned their jerseys. I don’t disrespect the team by giving a jersey to every loser punk who follows the team around.”
Many kids would be insulted. But not this one, he’s too humble for that. He knows he sort of stinks and that he needs a good coach to realize his potential. And many would kids would get discouraged and give up. But not him – he doesn’t need easy, he just needs possible. So he tells the coach, “Water boys and mascots get jerseys though, don’t they?” Not only is he humble, but he’s also plucky and smart.
Now the coach knows all he needs to know. He says, “Okay kid, you win. You’re on the team.”
This is the story in today’s gospel reading. Traveling in the region of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus is pursued by a woman whose daughter has been possessed by a demon. Jesus ignores her completely at first. But she follows him so long, and so relentlessly, that eventually the disciples ask Jesus to send her away. But Jesus doesn’t. Instead he says to her, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Although his mission is first to the Hebrews, Jesus has come to all the people of the world. Is Jesus lying to her here? No, Jesus doesn’t lie. Jesus is like the football coach who told the kid, “I’m not your coach kid. I’m here to coach these players and these players only.” This is a challenge.
And the Canaanite woman accepts the challenge. She worships Jesus saying, “Lord, help me.” She demonstrates to Jesus, just like the kid doing drills on the sidelines, that she’s not just hanging around. She came to work.
To this Jesus answers, “It is not appropriate to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” And just like the kid, she isn’t insulted. She is humble, smart, and plucky too. She doesn’t need easy, she just needs possible. She says, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”
At last Jesus has heard all he needs to hear. He says, “Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you even as you desire.” And her daughter is healed.
Brothers and sisters, millions of people every day send up prayers that aren’t answered. Why is God silent? We can’t always answer that. His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). But at least some of the time, it’s to encourage us to work harder. God wants us to be like the Canaanite woman. He wants us to be like the kid on the sidelines who desperately wants to learn from the coach and be on the team. He wants us to demonstrate our faith, to be strong, and to be persistent in our prayers.
And he wants us to never, ever give up.