Holy Communion - 9/12/21

Join us today as we celebrate Holy Communion for the Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 9/12/21. To follow along at home, click here and print the Holy Communion Program.

If you would like to have prayers offered for you, a loved one, a friend, for someone who is suffering, ill or who has departed, please email Archdeacon Mitch at mitch@heritageartsinc.com and we will pray for you.

You’ll notice a new painting on the wall behind the altar and some new stained glass. If you’d like to assist in the beautification of St. Barachiel Chapel, please click here to make a donation.

Seasons: Mettle Maker #276

Note: The weekly mettle maker supports all of the Heritage Arts programs — Heritage Self-Defense, Heritage Wildwood, Heritage Fitness and Heritage Spirit.

Seasons: Mettle Maker #276

• Self-Defense: Grappling/clinching skill and fitness. The upcoming week’s focus is grappling/clinching. Near-perfect technique and real fitness are required to overcome a taller and/or heavier adversary. Constitutionals are the answer. Here’s a grappling-specific one. Work it with perfect form: 25 reps each of Bag Lifts, Russian Squats, Shoulder Rolls, Duck-unders, Shots, Sprawls, and Bodybuilders. If you don’t know what these exercises are, watch the video below. Want more martial arts? Join our free distance learning program or come train with us on Tues and Thurs nights from 6 - 7 PM at West End Manor Civic Association, 8600 Lakefront Drive, Richmond VA 23294.

• Fitness: What’s your prehab plan? Many folks have recurring flare-ups, re-injuries, and syndromes, such as ITB pain, various types of tendonitis, and so forth. As discussed last week, overtraining is common and is a leading contributor to these recurrences. Have you reviewed and analyzed your training journals to see what you were doing in the weeks leading up to your injuries and find the causes? Have made changes to your program to prevent future recurrences? Perhaps most important of all, have you put a prehab plan in place to address the underlying strength deficiencies? I just put a prehab plan in place after my second flare-up of wrist pain in connection with martial arts weapon training — see below. If you need assistance with doing this kind of analysis and implementation, sign up for the Heritage Fitness program. It’s totally free (we’re a non-profit, remember?).

• Wildwood: Fall is coming — do you know what that means? A silly question? Not really. Do you know what date marks the beginning of fall? Do you know which trees are the first to change color in your area? Do you know which edible nuts are the first to fall, roughly when they’ll drop, and how to harvest and prepare them? Do you know how long they’ll keep in the shell? Watch the video below for more info, and if this sort of thing is your cup of tea, sign up for the free Wildwood program.

• Spirit: Seasons come and go, ever-repeating. Are you stuck in an endless loop just like the seasons, or are you moving forward in your spiritual practice? “That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.” That’s Ecclesiastes 3:15, and if you can come to an understanding of its meaning perhaps you can make a huge spiritual leap forward. Meditate on this scripture. And if you get stuck, watch the video below, and consider joining us at Heritage Spirit for weekly online church.

Holy Communion - 9/5/21

Join us today as we celebrate Holy Communion for the Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time, 9/5/21. To follow along at home, click here and print the Holy Communion Program.

You’ll notice a new painting on the wall behind the altar. If you’d like to assist in the beautification of St. Barachiel Chapel, please click here to make a donation.

Quizzical: Mettle Maker #275

Note: The weekly mettle maker supports all of the Heritage Arts programs — Heritage Self-Defense, Heritage Wildwood, Heritage Fitness and Heritage Spirit.

Quizzical: Mettle Maker #275

• Self-Defense: Take the attached self-defense quiz. CLICK HERE. Nothing fancy, just twelve short questions, but it’s a nice place to start.

• Fitness: Are you running in the redline too often? Overtraining is common. Most people think they need to train harder when actually they need to train smarter. Answer these five questions and let’s see where you are. 1. Have you had two or more training injuries in the last three years? 2. Have you had more than one bout of tendonitis in the last three years? 3. In the past month, have you been so sore from training that it affected your choice of activities? 4. Have you taken OTC pain relievers after a training session in the last month? 5. Are you sore or injured right now? If you answered “yes” to 3 or more questions you might be overtraining. Click here to sign up for the free Heritage Fitness Program.

• Wildwood: Do you know the survival formula? When disaster strikes and confusion rears its head, you can regain control by completing a quick seven-point rundown of your situation. If you can’t, you should learn it now. Answers at the bottom of the page.

• Spirit: What’s your purpose? Everybody has a purpose, even if they don’t realize what it is. So sit down and figure out yours. What are you working for or toward? Are you trying to get to the next payday, the next drink, the next drug score, the next sexual partner, the next delicious meal, gadget, toy, video game, car, or motorcycle? The next promotion, trophy, ribbon, or touchdown? When you have your purpose figured out, ask yourself if it’s finite — like all of the things listed above — or something infinite, like being the best parent, husband, brother, sister, son, daughter, citizen or servant of God that you can be? The ancients had a word for people who were focused on the finite. They called them “idol worshippers” and they were very clear that if you worship tangible things you’ll end up in hell. Did they mean “hell” literally or figuratively? Perhaps both. If the various addictions aren’t hell — drugs, alcohol, porn, entertainment, power, and so on — I don’t know what is. There’s another way to live your life. Join us at Heritage Spirit to find out more.

The Survival Rundown

1.Safey 2.First Aid 3.Shelter 4.Water 5.Fire 6.Food 7.Fun

First get out of danger, then apply first aid to any injuries. Next make sure you have shelter — not just from weather but from other dangers also, like humans, insects, predators, etc. Next you need water, followed by fire, food, and lastly fun. Why fun? You have to keep your attitude positive and your heart engaged. Negativity, hopelessness and fear will wear you down faster than you think!

Holy Communion - the Passion of Saint John the Baptist

Join us today as we celebrate Holy Communion and memorialize the Passion of Saint John the Baptist. To follow along at home, click here and print the Holy Communion Program.

You’ll notice a new painting on the wall behind the altar. If you’d like to assist in the beautification of St. Barachiel Chapel, please click here to make a donation.

Hawk's Cry: Mettle Maker #274

If you’re new in these here parts, the weekly mettle maker supports all of the Heritage Arts programs — Heritage Self-Defense, Heritage Wildwood, Heritage Fitness and Heritage Spirit.

Hawk’s Cry: Mettle Maker #274

Warm-up before training.  To avoid injuries, warm-up thoroughly for at at least 8 minutes before you train. Do about 4 minutes each of (a) jogging, jumping rope, or similar activity, and (b) light calisthenics.  Martial artists should do 8 minutes of MBF.  

• Self-Defense: If you can’t run and you’re forced into a physical self-defense situation, what are the three things you must do? Stop and really think about this. Answers at the bottom of the page. Next week is general self-defense week at Heritage Self-Defense. You gotta know — and practice! — this stuff.

• Fitness: What are you doing? What are your fitness goals? Does your fitness support an athletic endeavor? Are you trying to look good with your shirt off? Is health your goal, or perhaps just fun? What percentage of your fitness work is devoted to the goal and what percentage is cross-training? Sit down with your training journal, do an analysis, and make adjustments. If you don’t keep a training journal, that’s going to be a major stumbling block to progress, so fix that. Need help? Sign up for the free the Heritage Fitness program.

• Wildwood: Why should you know the cry of a hawk? The more predators the more prey, so lots of hawks in the area means lots of survival food for you. If you see a hawk making small circles at a couple of hundred feet you can be sure there is small game very close. But often you will hear hawks at off times, when they are not hunting, and thus be assured that they are nesting nearby. Hawks are ambush hunters — they cry to warn other hawks to stay out of their territory and during mating, not when attacking. Here’s the cry of a red-shouldered hawk I spotted just this week.

• Spirit: That which has been is now. Beauty, truth, and salvation itself, are in the things you have put off, crowded out, and chased away. Watch the video below.

The 3 Things You Must Do in a Self-Defense Situation

1. Yell, don’t scream.

2. Deliver short, continuous blows from a low center of mass.

3. Move in, move in, move in!

Avoid conflict at all cost. But if you have to fight for your life, be like a freight train — loud, heavy, and moving forward on a rail!