Systema

An amazing thing happened to me this morning. The 90-year-old member of our household offered to assist me in learning the Russian Martial Art called Systema.
The picture on the left shows you are never too old.

This all started because I was around at the home of some friends last weekend. Their 21-year-old son told me of a new form of martial arts that he was learning. He liked it because it was Christian-based. Before I left he had given three DVDs of the Russian Martial Art called Systema.

Having been in a few physical confrontations during my life, I was impressed by the instructor's desire not to harm his opponent because he recognized him as a human being like himself. Well, that is a based principle of Gospel-in-Action blog site.

Then he spoke of being relaxed when under attack. If we are not relaxed, it is because we are not humble. Well, that hooked into my Christian conscience.

After watching the DVDs, I delved a little deeper on the Internet and found that Systema’s breathing exercise was from the ‘Jesus Prayer’ of the Orthodox Faith. The Jesus Prayer has been used for centuries by Russian Orthodox Monks to experience the presence of the Blessed Trinity.

I have been to a couple training sessions during the week. Learning to relax while someone is punching you is a humbling experience. It may do good to my spiritual life.