Dispatches of Fr. Charitas de la Cruz
Saturday, April 28, 2018

I love watching the old ones doing their Tai-chi. I love how somehow slows the pace of Time. I love the poetry of the motion, not in the same way as the dance but in manner of sculptures reaching into the world of the living. I love the old ones doing their Tai-chi for I think they understand its wisdom.

I believe in this world that is obsessed with going faster and faster, faster than human beings were ever meant to go, that we need the mastery of “slowing”. We need the pace that allows one to truly behold; we need the pace that allows one to deeply consider; we need the pace that allows the vision to appear. But we are driven faster and faster by the life-machine we have created … rather than recovering the pace of Eden.

The old ones move slower, these ones who have learned to pray through Tai-chi. And in their moving slower, they seem to be wiser; and in being wiser they seem more peaceful. Like the drifting of swans or the stately walk of the great heron, or like the falling of leaves or the weathering of wood … so is the life of contemplative prayerfulness.

Yes, I love watching the old ones doing their Tai-chi … they have the look of the Peace of God.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz