Making the News (March 1994)

The La Crosse Tribune, La Crosse, WI, of August 2, 1993 featured a TCC article (with this picture) of Sister Marian Massman. Quoting excerpts: Massman, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, is a T’ai Chi Chih devotee and an accredited instructor who teaches the movements at the Franciscan Spirituality Center in LaCrosse. The words “gentle” and “exercise” may seem contradictory, but that is the premise behind TCC, a series of 20 movements that proponents say will energize and renew the body. “The more you practice and use the movements, the more benefits you get from them” says Sister Massman.

The movements, which employ various circular hand and arm movements and the shifting of weight and balance from one leg to another, can be learned by nearly everyone, including elderly and disabled people. Even people who can’t use their legs can adapt the movements for use in some form. Massman, who has been practicing T’ai Chi Chih daily for more than a year, said she experiences a sense of relaxation, deeper breathing and more harmonious well-being. She has also noticed that her body is more supple and that occasional pains in her knees have disappeared. Now that she’s teaching T’ai Chi Chih, she said her students report similar benefits.