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Mettlecraft Month is Here: “Imperium Armorum”
8th annual Mettlecraft Month is here! What’s Mettlecraft Month? Every November we push a bit harder, and ask a bit more more of ourselves, in our quest for true mettle. What’s mettle? Fighting aspect, physical endurance, unflagging determination, and resolute strength of body, mind and spirit.
Imperium Armorum is designed to build basic competency with a walking stick in just 1 month.
Week 1: Black Tie & Buckskin Basics
Week 2: Mortality, Sparring and Movement
Week 3: Grappling and Retention
Week 4: Impairment and Stressors
Mettle maker #484: Imperium Armorum Week 3 — indomitability, Grappling, and Retention
Last week we introduced the Three Theological Virtues — Faith, Hope and Love — and we noted the great quote by St. Paul that is one of the primary and early historical references to them:
“Let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8).
This week, let’s meditate upon his words and use them as a doorway into the cultivation of our mettle.
“Let us be sober” — To be ‘sober’ is to be discreet, sensible, and possessed of self-control. When we give in to unruly passions, we never fail to become unmoored from our moral precepts. Serious errors begin with small lapses. We can never be perfect, but we can try to watch ourselves for the small cracks — annoyance, frustration, grumpiness, sarcasm, snark, crude banter, disdain, and so on — the stress fractures before the shattering of our sobriety.
“putting on the breastplate of faith and love” — The best way to avoid eating unhealthy food isn’t fasting, but rather to substitute a healthier choice. In a similar way, the best defense against negative behaviors is not inaction but replacement with positive behaviors. Rather than pushing down on your faults, lift yourself up in faith and love. Faith is not mere propositional belief, but rather trust in action. Trust that God is Love, that good wins in the end, and act accordingly. Believe that love conquers all; work with it and and let it work in you. You don’t have to do anything huge and dramatic. Start small. Offer to help your elderly neighbor with chores, treat your coworkers to lunch, donate a few bucks to charity, reach out to relatives and friends you haven’t spoken to in too long, drop a greeting card in the mail for no particular reason, give a small but thoughtful gift to someone. Little things become big things, and small acts of love mean more than you know.
“and the helmet that is hope for salvation” — Too often our heads get so battered by negativity and the pressures of the day-to-day that we lose our hope. We become unhappy, discouraged, or even depressed. Money problems, personal problems, employment problems, political nonsense, current events, relationship difficulties and more — they all seem to conspire to make us feel fatalistic. But if we love God and keep the faith we can rest in the promise of life everlasting. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” ( John 16:33)
This week, and for the remainder of November, let us focus on behaving in accordance with the advice given by St. Paul.
Imperium Armorum Walking Stick Self-Defense Week 3: Indomitability, grappling, and retention
Note: For the remainder of the month and ongoing there is a 25 Push-up penalty each time you drop your walking stick.
The Pledge of Allegiance and Student Pledge (2 mins)
The Wheel Mettle Drill. 100 strikes vs. air with each hand — see video — 200 total (5 mins).
Sparring. Put on headgear with face shields and use padded weapons. Focus on grappling. Run some rounds that start with an unarmed partner holding the stick of the other. Start some rounds with each partner holding the other’s cane. Ditch the dueling and do some rounds that start with 2 unarmed attackers coming at the one person who is armed. Those training solo, watch this video. Then put a pool noodle training arm on your heavy bag, bungee the “hands” together to simulate encircling arms, and practice the maneuvers as best you can. Ex[eriment! to insure that you are hitting as realistic an enemy as possible (20 mins).
This week’s constitutional. Hang a heavy bag and set a round timer for 21 rounds of 1 minute each, and run through this three times:
Encircle the bag, grasp your stick with both hands, and squeeze with the talon as hard as you can for 1 min
Strike heavy bag as hard as you can with close up cane shots for 1 min
Encircle the bag with the stick and square choke with unrelenting force for 1 min
Holding the bag against your body with stick, do as many Squats as you can for 1 min
Let go of bag and do as many Push-ups (knuckles down with stick in hand). as you can in 1 min.
Flip over and do as many Jackknifes as you can in 1 min, striking the air as you work.
Slide walking stick through a loop of rope secured to to a sturdy object and do as many Plank Rows as you can in 1 min
Repeat twice more for a total of 21 mins.
Cool Down (3 mins)
Spiritual Training: Meditation on 1 Thessalonians 5:8 (9 mins) .
Total: 60 mins
links to weeks 1 and 2:
Week 2: Mettle maker #483 — IMortality, Sparring and Movement
Week 1: Mettle Maker #482 — Black Tie and Buckskin Basics
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Homily for the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, 11/16/25 – Father Mitch
Readings: Malachi 3:19-20a, Psalm 98:5-6, 7-8, 9, 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12, Luke 21:5-19
Luke 21:5-19 World English Bible
As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said, 6 “As for these things which you see, the days will come in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.”
7 They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?”
8 He said, “Watch out that you don’t get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he‡,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ Therefore don’t follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and disturbances, don’t be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately.”
10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12 But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13 It will turn out as a testimony for you. 14 Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict. 16 You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death. 17 You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake. 18 And not a hair of your head will perish.
19 “By your endurance you will win your lives.
Brothers and sisters, we all want to be successful in our endeavors, to live long lives, to be free of disease and suffering, to have enough money to live comfortably, to enjoy some entertainment, and so on. In order to secure those basic needs, we have to avoid missteps, errors, and calamities. So if we can afford it, we pay for auto insurance, health insurance, renter’s or homeowner’s insurance, and life insurance. When we are able, we put some money into a 401K account, into a savings account, or at least tuck some money into the sock drawer or under the mattress for old age or a rainy day.
These things are instinct. If we didn’t do them – if we didn’t have a survival instinct and a natural tendency to predict and avoid calamity – the human race would’ve been driven extinct before it ever got started. But our instinct with regard to the material realm must be kept in right relationship with the heavenly realm. Just as the moon and earth, by revolving around one another in right relationship ensure the beneficial tides and place a guiding light in the sky to guide our steps by night, we mustn’t let our survival instinct out of its proper orbit.
There are many, many descriptions of the end times in our Bibles. The Orthodox Study Bible lists Dan 7-12, Mark 13, Luke 21, 1Cor 15:51-55, 1Thess 4:13-17, 2Thess 2:1-10, and the Book of Revelation. They all differ on the details, and are impossible to line up coherently. And in today’s reading, Jesus tells the disciples, in essence, not to try. He tells them – and by extension, us – not to be led astray by people saying that the end times are here. He’s telling us that there are going to be wars, but even they won’t mark the end. He’s telling us not to be afraid. He even tells us that we shouldn’t worry about what to say when we are persecuted for our beliefs – not if, but when! – because persecution is inevitable.
So what are we to do? We should not waste precious time and energy trying to figure out when the end times will come. We should instead focus on perseverance in the moment. We should obey God, and listen to his Son. By all means, we should do what we can to preserve our health and welfare in our everyday lives. But we mustn’t elevate that work over and above the work of Christ – that is, we should endeavor to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31).
The end is always coming. That is not our greatest concern. As St. Paul says in our epistle reading from his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, we should not busy ourselves by “minding the business of others” but rather “work quietly” and eat our “own food.” Does he mean this literally? Of course. But there is also a metaphysical, spiritual reading which reminds us to maintain focus on what we have on our plate. The work of being a disciple of Christ is enough to keep us busy each and every day of our lives.
It is enough.