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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Mettle maker #461: Fire with Fire
So there’s no misunderstanding, in Heritage Rough ‘n’ Tumble we use the term scuffling to refer to grappling, stand-up wrestling, what some nowadays call clinch fighting. Scuffling just might be the most fundamental and important aspect of self-defense. These are the skills you’re going to need whenever an attacker tries to take away your freedom of movement by forcing you to the ground, through a door, into a van, etc.
If attacked, should you run if you can? Yes.
Should you keep your distance and avoid scuffling? Of course.
But if you can’t scuffle, you can’t fight. You need to able to fight fire with fire.
Watch the video above and begin to train these basic scuffling maneuvers and takedowns.
The ground is where bad things happen to good people. Avoid going there unless you have to.
The closer you get to the ground the farther you get from safety. The ground is the place where assailants bash your head on the pavement, choke, immobilize, pin, subdue, batter, rape and kill. Stay on your feet if possible.
Keep your head lower than your attacker’s. The easiest way to pick someone up is to get underneath them, as in a fireman’s carry. Bend your knees and get your butt down so that you don’t break good posture. Stay lower than the other guy. If he lowers his head, you lower yours.
Don’t expose your flanks. Face your enemy at all times.
Keep your hands up, elbows bent, and forearms vertical. When your elbows flare out like stubby wings, your arms cease to be shields and become handles that your enemy can use to lift you, throw you, get behind you, and so forth.
Keep your distance. The best way to avoid getting taken to the ground is to keep your distance so that you don’t get grabbed or tackled in the first place.
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Homily for Pentecost Sunday 6/8/25 – Father Mitch
Readings: Acts 2:1-11, Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34, 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13, Sequence Veni, Sancte Spiritus, John 20:19-23
John 20:19-23 World English Bible
When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the middle and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they have been forgiven them. If you retain anyone’s sins, they have been retained.”
In selecting the readings for today, the church suggests that we compare and contrast the account of the descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost as recounted in the second chapter of Acts with the short, simple, and understated story of Jesus’ entry into the locked room in John 20. Both accounts describe the Holy Ghost at work – but they are entirely different. What are me to make of this?
In St. John’s telling, there are no thundering winds, no flames, and no speaking in tongues. Just a simple “Jesus came and stood in the midst of them and said, “Peace be to you.” In the book of Acts we are seeing a phenodrama – a story that emphasizes phenomena, that is, observable events – the outward effects of the Holy Ghost. But in St. John’s Gospel, we are witnessing a psychodrama – a story that emphasizes the psyche, Greek for “soul.” This is the inward action of the Holy Ghost.
Jesus, with no loud sounds, without explanation or preamble, quietly enters the locked room. Each and every one of us is a locked room. None of us can get inside the heart, or know the mind, of another. Certainly we can get to know each other, but in the final analysis, there is no way for us to truly see or enter into the psyche of another.
Only Jesus can do that. And when he does, he doesn’t bring guilt, shame, regret, or fear. He brings the opposite of those things – relief from those things. He brings peace. He brings silence, quiet, calm, mercy, and forgiveness. When he gives the gift of the Holy Ghost, it does not come with thundering winds or flames. He breathes it upon them. Its effect is profound but not visible to the naked eye. My whole life I struggled with panic attacks. But the struggle ended, and peace settled upon me, when Jesus entered the locked room of my heart and breathed into me his peace. Outwardly I was the same man. Inwardly I was forever relieved of a great burden.
The peace of Christ comes without a sound, like a silent breath, as fine and so fair as the breath of newborn child, unable to be heard at all. Visually it cannot even be detected unless the outside air is near freezing. And yet breath is life. Without breath, we are stifled and dead, we drown or suffocate. Jesus puts the air into our physical lungs, giving us the breath of life. But he also breathes into us, if we cooperate with him, the invisible Holy Ghost and the gift of peace.
There is no locked room, no closed off heart, into which Jesus cannot enter. Let us spread this good news far and wide: Welcome Jesus into the locked room of your heart. Receive the Holy Ghost. God will be with you, your sins will be forgiven, and his peace will be with you.