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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 #370
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 — What is “stone strength?” Stone strength is the kind of strength that allows you to use your spine — less accurately, your “core” — in the whatever manner is required to carry out the desired activity. For example: a basketball player needs stone strength in order to uncoil and execute a jump shot or dunk a basketball. A wrestler needs stone strength to bridge and reverse when saddled. How do you build stone strength? Try one or more of these methods:
Add a carry to the end of every training session. Pick one at random: Bear Hug Carry, Suitcase Carry, Farmer Walk, Overhead Carry, Waiter Walk, etc. The key is almost daily work with high variety working at 70% - 80% intensity — that is, when you finish your set, your heart rate should be no more than 80% your theoretical max bpm (220 - age).
Rucking. Put on a weighted backpack and go for a walk a couple of times per week. Start off light and allow time for strength to accrue. This is lots harder than you think it is.
Dragon Flags. Start with bent legs and work your way up.
Bear Walks. This simple calisthenic builds amazing stability. Do 50 - 100 yards of Bear Walks a few times per week working at 70% - 80% intensity.
Add weight to the desired activity. Basketball players, put on a weighted vest while practicing your jump shots. Wrestlers, put on a weighted vest while practicing wrestling moves.
Looking for a free fitness coach? We’re a 501c3 charity! Click here to participate in one of our free programs!
Martial Arts - For blog followers and friends of HSD only: the Raven mettle drill. This video is unlisted on YouTube — it will be included in the HSD training course when it releases — consider it our gift to you! 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!
No, we’re not talking about this. We’re talking about the actual stone known as flint. Big difference.
Wildwood Outdoor Skills — Can you find and identify flint stone? If you need to strike a spark off your knife, you’ll need to find some flint. Search for flint along the edges of streams and beaches. It’s mainly found in clumps inside chalky deposits, in limestone breaks and slides, and inside sedimentary rocks. It’s usually dark grey or brownish in color and has a semi-gloss, waxy appearance.
This is an actual picture of flint courtesy of Wikipedia.
The problem is, flint is far more rare than you might think. In a pinch you can try striking sparks with a chunk of quartz, which shares some characteristics with flint. 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 Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sunday 8/27/23 – Father Mitch
Readings: Is 22:19-23, Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8, Rom 11:33-36, Mt 16:13-20
Matthew 16:13-20 World English Bible Catholic Edition
Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 They said, “Some say John the Baptizer, some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 I also tell you that you are Peter,† and on this rock ‡ I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades§ will not prevail against it. 19 I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.” 20 Then he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ.
In today’s Gospel reading, God puts a frail and faulty mortal named Peter, a simple fisherman from Bethsaida (John 1:44), in charge of his precious church. Thank God he was a successful leader. If he hadn’t been, the church would’ve been snuffed out. The question arises, “Is it truly a miracle that a deeply imperfect man like Peter was successful?”
As a martial arts coach, corporate manager, mentor, and priest, I have three decades of experience raising people up from inexperience to management, from awkward and fearful to coordinated and courageous, and from doubtful to faithful. This process is always and everywhere the same.
In 1990 I accepted my first teaching position as an inner city youth martial arts instructor. I quickly learned that dedication and sincere engagement were the key. Kids and parents ask you questions. You have to listen intently and answer sincerely and truthfully. Every appropriate answer requires you to think, to work, to do research, and to properly order your thoughts. Good teachers learn at the same rate as his students. Out of proper dialogue between and among students and teacher, truth and excellence emerge.
When I got my first management job, I discovered that the same transformative power manifests itself in the business world when there is sincere dialogue between and among management and staff. No doubt this is what Peter discovered. He found that if he fostered a healthy dialogue – if he really listened, and answered their questions with patience and careful attention, everyone improved. He got stronger and more effective and so did they. But the question is, did Peter succeed via common sense management and good old-fashioned patience and hard work? Or did God intervene to make sure Peter could not fail?
In John 1 we read “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In the Greek, the term for “the Word” is Logos. Logos is the root of the Greek diálogos and the English word dialogue. When we have honest and patient dialogues – when we speak and listen with sincerity – the truth emerges. Problems are solved, difficulties are overcome, and everyone gets stronger and smarter. This is extremely profound.
If the universe was meaningless – if there was no God, no Son or Word, and no Holy Ghost – there would be no intelligibility at all. All that would emerge from conversations would be more chaos. There would only be more fighting, more failure, and more fractionation. But that’s not how it is at all. Because God’s order sustains all of creation, the truth is discoverable and goodness is emergent from interactions undertaken in the true spirit of Logos.
So yes, brothers and sisters, it is a profound miracle, and proof of the existence of God’s Logos, that a poor Jewish fisherman was able to be the rock of the church. And it is also a miracle when each of us allows ourselves to be the rocks of our families, our businesses, our communities, and our nations. Truly, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:3). All good things are made and through our cooperation with the Word, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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† 16:18 Peter’s name, Petros in Greek, is the word for a specific rock or stone.
‡ 16:18 Greek, petra, a rock mass or bedrock.
§ 16:18 or, Hell