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6th annual Mettlecraft month is here!
What is “mettlecraft?” Mettlecraft is the art, skill, and cultivation of endurance, unflagging determination, and resolute strength of mind, body, and spirit.
This year’s Mettlecraft Month challenge is to walk a marathon or, if that’s too much, to set a personal walking record appropriate to your current health status. Post your efforts in the comments or send an email to mitch@heritageartsinc.com with your progress notes and I’ll include them here!
Week 4 UPDATE: It’s your last week to step up! Attempt your walking record and post your comments below!
Week 3 UPDATE: Walking? Maybe not. I seem to be the only one who’s really gotten into this year’s walking challenge. No big deal — every year can’t be a smash hit for everybody. So last Thursday the local Heritage Self-Defense group ran through the 2022 challenge known as #86 and got through 15 reps of each in 15:00 flat. Not too shabby!
Week 2 UPDATE: I tried to walk the Richmond Marathon on 11/11/23. Unfortunately the pace trucks caught me at the 16-mile mark (about 4:40). For those who haven’t done a marathon, the trucks that break down the course (gathering up water and medical stations, picking up trash, removing traffic barricades, etc.) follow the participants through the course. They proceed at the slowest pace speed (the equivalent of a 16-minute mile) to ensure prompt closure of the event at the 7-hour mark. Local police reopen traffic behind them. If you don’t stay on pace, you have to walk without traffic control and race support. I’m a heart attack survivor, so it would’ve been very unwise for me to continue walking without water and medical staff. Even though I didn’t finish, it was a fun event, and I’m happy that Heritage Arts raised $100 to support Sportsbackers youth fitness programs. Photo set below — click on the pics to view my comments.
Want to reminisce about Mettlecraft Months of the past? Here are some links…
5th Annual Mettlecraft Month 2022
4th Annual Mettlecraft Month 2021
3rd Annual Mettlecraft Month 2020
2nd Annual Mettlecraft Month 2019
1st Annual Mettlecraft Month 2018
Mettle Maker #381
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.”
Heritage Self-Defense: Who’s the scariest villain in the movie? Who’s the most intimidating wrestler on the mat? Who’s the strongest man in the gym? The answer is the same: the dude with the biggest neck. The neck is a smart fighter’s primary target, when striking, grappling, and wrestling. A martial artist with a weak neck is at a serious disadvantage. So for years I did the Farmer Burns exercises. But as I’ve gotten older, my neck just got smaller and weaker. Frankly, I began to suspect that Martin “Farmer” Burns just naturally had a big, strong, superhuman neck, or possibly even that he didn’t actually practice the neck strengthening exercises he advocated in his correspondence course. So I went after his program assiduously, training daily, for months. All I got was neck pain. So I embarked on a quest for an effective, sensible, evidence-based, commons sense program. The result is the program in the video above. It takes about 10 minutes 3 times a week, and it added 3/8” to my neck diameter. Try out and let me know your results. Interested in American Rough and Tumble martial arts? Join the martial arts club in Richmond, VA or click here to sign up for the Heritage self-defense distance learning program!
Here’s picture of this CNL as it appeared in my training log. Are you keeping a training log? No? Hmmm…
Heritage Fitness: Try the constitutional pictured on the left. 25 reps of each: Calf Raise, Genuflect (a.k.a. Rear Lunge), Back Bridge, Bicycles, A-Frame Push-ups, Side Planks, and Single Leg Raises. Look, if you can find a cheaper, faster, safer way than the calisthenics and walking combo to increase your fitness level, please let me know, because I’d like to know! Need a free fitness coach to help you build a program that suits your specific needs and goals? We’re a 501c3 charity! Click here to sign up for our distance learning fitness program!
Heritage Wildwood: How's your weather wisdom? More weather proverbs! Do you know which tidbits of old-timey weather wisdom are reliable and which are merely myths? Is a read sky at night really a sailor's delight? Do trees really show the undersides of their leaves before a storm? Last time I suggested you evaluate an excerpt from Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting For Boys (7th Edition, 1915). This week, take a look at the photo set on the right — all taken from Harper's Camping and Scouting (1911) — and do the same. Which ones are legit, and which ones are old wive’s tales? Looking for a comprehensive adult outdoor skills program? Click here to sign up for the Heritage Wildwood distance learning program!
Holy Communion 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 communion, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Sunday 11/26/23 – Father Mitch
Readings: Ez 34:11-12, 15-17, Ps 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6, 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28, Mt 25:31-46
Matthew 25:31-46 World English Bible Catholic Edition
Jesus said to his disciples, “But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. 36 I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? 38 When did we see you as a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?’
40 “The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,§ you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
44 “Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’
45 “Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Brothers and sisters, God is a unifier. He wants to “seek that which was lost” to “bring back that which was driven away,” to “bind up that which was broken.” (Ez 34:16). He wants to join and mend. The devil, on the other hand, is a divider. He is diabolic. Diabolic comes from Latin. It literally means di-, which is “two” and abolere, “to abolish, destroy, annihilate.” The devil wants to divide and conquer God’s flock. And, with our willing cooperation, he’s had done a masterful job.
Satan’s first success was the Great Schism of 1054, in which there arose between the Western and Eastern churches a two-pronged argument over the proper understanding and expression of the Nicene Creed and whether or not the bread used during Mass should be leavened or unleavened. This is how the Devil works. Knowing how badly we want to be right, he uses the idolatrous bait and switch. He offered each side the opportunity to worship the subject of the dispute rather than God himself, and both sides took the bait.
The devil’s second great diabolic success was the Protestant reformation. In response to serious corruption and misdeeds, reformers from within leveled sincere, valid, and much-needed criticisms against the Western church. But soon both sides took the devil’s bait and began to worship their positions rather than God. And this split, by far the evil one’s greatest victory so far, was the first domino in a series of cascading, ever-toppling, still-unfolding schisms.
The evil one’s third triumph will be the destruction of the world’s largest Christian denomination, the Roman Catholic Church. Even now, many arguments are brewing, the most contentious and petty being over whether or not the Mass should be said in Latin. It’s approaching fever pitch. The more the Church attempts to force all believers to perform Mass in native languages, the more traditionalists cleave to Latin. Once again, the devil is performing his diabolic bait and switch, tempting each side to worship the words they speak rather than the Word who created the universe.
Notice brothers, and sisters how, in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus says that at the Last Judgment, both sides will say the same thing: “Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison”? In this great teaching, Jesus tells us that, in the end, both the righteous and the unrighteous are ignorant of the fact that how we love our neighbor is the measure of how we love God.
We would be wise to remember that the God’s first commandment is “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” or as Jesus restated it in the Gospel, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.” (Mark 12:30). Only our King, who will come again, can judge between the quick and the dead – between those who are alive in love for him and those who are dead in their love for their own devices.
§ 25:40 The word for “brothers” here may be also correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”