News and Updates:

Beginner session starts on 7/1/26. If you’re in RVA, sign up here. Classes every Tues and Thurs from 6 - 7 PM at 8600 Lakefront Dr., Henrico, VA 23294.
Member referral program. Distance learners who get a friend to sign will earn a feat in the program — and you’ll both get a free shirt. Just tell them to put your name in the “referred by” slot on the application. Members in the RVA club, bring a friend and the same goes for you!

METTLE MAKER #503: Habitude 2 of the Founding Fathers

Join us in cultivating the 7 Habitudes of the Founding Fathers! Step into their mindset and embrace their ideals. Embody the view that personal self-government is a prerequisite for political self-government. It’s the the perfect way to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence and honor the great men who made it a reality. Post your experiences with this exercise using the hashtag #7H250.

Habitude 2: Morning resolution

Click the picture to read Ben Franklin’s autobiography at archive.org.

Habitude 2 flows out of, or is a continuation of, Habitude 1. In true chicken-or-the-egg fashion, if you create your set schedule first as part of initiating Habitude 1, Habitude 2 emerges from it; but if the morning resolution comes first, it becomes the egg from which a set schedule is born.

The morning resolution is simple on the surface: decide to make a contribution to the advancement, improvement, health, or wellbeing of your family, place of employment, community, state, or nation. Each day Franklin asked himself, “What good shall I do this day?”

In order to fully comprehend the true nature of this daily interrogative, it’s necessary to understand the larger framework of his thinking. Franklin had maintained a little book in which he kept track of his progress in the pursuit of various virtues. Starting with the virtue of Temperance, he marched through them all, grading his daily performance on a chart – essentially tracking his progress on an 18th century spreadsheet. His little book’s motto was from Addison's Cato:

"Here will I hold. If there 's a power above us (And that there is, all nature cries aloud Thro' all her works), He must delight in virtue; And that which he delights in must be happy."

There was also another from Cicero (Franklin quoted it in Latin of course, but here is J. E. King’s translation):

“O philosophy, thou guide of life, O thou explorer of virtue and expeller of vice! One day well spent and in accordance with thy lessons is to be preferred to an eternity of error."

And then lastly:

"Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." (Proverbs 3:16-18)

Franklin added,

“And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I thought it right and necessary to solicit his assistance for obtaining it ; to this end I formed the following little prayer, which was prefix'd to my tables of examination, for daily use:

‘O powerful Goodness ! bountiful Father ! merciful Guide ! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me’

I used also sometimes a little prayer which I took from Thomson's Poems, viz. :

‘Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme ! O teach me what is good ; teach me Thyself! Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, From every low pursuit ; and fill my soul With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure ; Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss ! ‘

What is perhaps most striking is his desire to repay what he has received from God. “Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me," he says, asking God to accept the caring and kindness he pours out upon others as an offering of thanks for the blessings he has received.

By the light of his prayerful daily routines, we can see that Franklin’s morning resolution was and is no mere daily goal. It is not the first of a series of daily to-do items. Nor is it an egocentric activity akin to some odious, modern, self-help exercise. His morning resolution took the form of a rhetorical question, “What good shall I do this day?” as shorthand for a deep meditation on wisdom, discernment, and care for others.

Undertake this morning ritual each day, brothers and sisters, and set a continuous course for selfless virtue.

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Sacred Reading for 6/28/26

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Lectio Divina is an ancient way to interact with the Bible. Its four elements are reading, meditation, contemplation, and prayer. CLICK HERE for the Sunday Lectio exercise. To watch daily mass, CLICK HERE. For daily gospel reflections in your email box, SIGN UP HERE.