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Mettle Maker #382
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: Here at Heritage Self-Defense, December is always Spirit Month. This the month in which we put a little extra effort into making time, despite our busy lives, to engage in the eight spiritual disciplines. This week, watch the video on the right, or read the below, and try a spiritual discipline you haven’t tried yet, or practice one you haven’t done in years!
Contemplation: “Attention solely to the experience of sacredness.” Contemplation is the act of clearing away mental clutter to permit the full experience of the sacredness of being and the ultimate reality.
Meditation: “Attention to a particular subject.” Meditation has the same root as words like medical and medicine. Like medicine there is an implication of correction, solution, or remedy. It is an active process often using a physical or mental tool such as a rosary.
Prayer: “The offering of adoration, confession, supplication, or thanksgiving to one’s Higher Power.” Prayer has the Latin root precari, 'to beg,' but it is much more than that. There are many forms of prayer, the primary ones being pleas for assistance and words of praise.
Sacred Reading: “Reading of sacred literature.” The Latin word for read is lectio, which literally means to select or choose. Calm, purposeful reading of sacred texts with an eye toward complete understanding in all four senses – the allegorical, literal, moral, and anagogical – is essential to developing a healthy spiritual life and for the cultivation of wisdom.
Ritual: “Human activities that orient individuals, groups and societies within the cosmic order and cultivate as well as manage psychological resources.” Ritual is the most important and fundamental of the eight spiritual disciplines. If we give up performing rituals, we give up our very humanity.
Asceticism: “The willful practice of austerity, renunciation, and self-denial.” Passive asceticism involves giving things up and doing without. Examples include fasting, celibacy, living without modern conveniences, giving up perceived vices like entertainment, alcohol, or tobacco, dressing simply, and so forth. Active asceticism involves deliberate exposure to the uncomfortable or even painful, such as cold baths, sleeping on hard surfaces, self-flagellation or “mortification of the flesh,” etc.
Service: “To provide assistance, labor, or care for others without seeking reward.” Care for “others” can be construed to pertain to individuals or groups, for specific plants, animals, or people, for generalized groups, or even for a shared community resource, such as a stream or park. Service can be organized or impromptu, and can be either one-off or recurring.
Pilgrimage: “Travel to a sacred destination to pray, worship, give thanks, gain wisdom or insight, commune, or fulfil a religious obligation.” A pilgrim is a wayfarer to strange and distant lands, and his journey is called a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage may be to a specific destination, such as hallowed ground or an established shrine or holy place. Or it can be in search of something unknown, lost, missing, or forgotten – to find a wise man or woman, a blessed object, a fragment of sacred wisdom, etc.
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.
Heritage Fitness: Try making yourself a mini obstacle course for all-around fitness. Don’t make a huge production out of it — you don’t have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to build a ninja course in your back yard. Just put something together with what you have. See the video on the left for ideas. A 3’ slice of log is great for practicing balance. A rope to swing on, a ladder to climb, a fence to vault, a rail to scramble under, two marks on the ground to jump over — it’s not hard. Get there! 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: What is vigilance? Read this week’s homily at the bottom of the page. When you’re in the woods, paying attention, and being fully engaged in your environment, is an investment in fun, safety, and survival. 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 First Sunday of Advment, Sunday 12/3/23 – Father Mitch
Readings: IS 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7, PS 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19, 1 COR 1:3-9, MK 13:33-37
Mark 13:33-37 World English Bible Catholic Edition
Jesus said to his disciples: 33 Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don’t know when the time is.
34 “It is like a man traveling to another country, having left his house and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and also commanded the doorkeeper to keep watch. 35 Watch therefore, for you don’t know when the lord of the house is coming—whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning; 36 lest, coming suddenly, he might find you sleeping. 37 What I tell you, I tell all: Watch!”
In biblical times, most people would’ve been very familiar with standing watch. In those days overnight travel often involved staying in open air encampments and in unsavory lodgings where keeping watch would’ve been required. Many jobs, like shepherds, messengers, and merchants, involved keeping watch all night under real threat of harm from human and wild animals. These days, unless you are an outdoorsman, policeman, or soldier, you probably can’t fully relate to “keeping watch.”
Vigilance, as it is commonly understood, is impossible for more than a few minutes. This is something about which I have firsthand knowledge. In the 1980s I was a private security officer and defensive tactics instructor, and I’ve been teaching self-defense and outdoor skills for over 30 years. I can attest that we can only be on full alert for a short period of time. We are easily distracted and grow tired. Our minds wander, our attention flags. We get bored and sleepy. And even if you could maintain vigilance for more than five minutes, you eventually find yourself paranoid, neurotic, and hypervigilant, perceiving everyone as a threat and every place as a danger zone. Those who attempt to live this way day after day, year after year, are on a collision course with stress-related mental and physical health issues.
Healthy vigilance is different. If you make it a habit to fasten your seatbelt, drive defensively, and observe traffic laws, you don’t have to be paranoid about riding in a car – despite the fact that it’s the most dangerous activity in the U.S. If you pay attention to the road instead of the radio or your cell phone, you can relax and enjoy the ride.
When you’re in the woods at night in bear and coyote country, you turn your back to the fire so that your eyes can acclimate to the darkness. You entertain yourself by identifying the calls of the owls and nocturnal animals. You study the constellations and practice telling the difference between the sound of a falling leaf and a footfall. You taste the breeze with your soft palate, trying to smell the flowers that only open at night so that moths can spread their pollen. If you engage with the wilderness you can relax and enjoy the night watch.
A wise law enforcement officer spots bad actors by being genuinely interested in human beings – not by being paranoid, but by caring. He watches, greets, and engages with people. He tries to empathically sense if others are relaxed or stressed, happy or sad, healthy or unwell. If he opens himself to a fuller experience of the world, he only faces stress as a result of actual experience. The rest of the time he can relax and enjoy his shift.
And the same is true for we Christians awaiting the return of our Lord. Obsessing on decoding the Bible, constantly looking out for signs of the end-times or the appearance of the antichrist, is a recipe for paranoia, not vigilance. No, the way to watch is to enter into God’s creation with the good Christian habits. To engage. Christ calls us into deeper relationship with him and all whom he loves. “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.” (1 John 4:16-17) Be like the smart driver, the shepherd on nightwatch and the caring law officer. Engage with the world with curiosity and love, and be you’ll always be ready.