VIDI AQUAM TEA CEREMONY

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Camellia sinensis, the ancient tea plant, is among the oldest botanicals known to humankind—an evergreen that survived the Ice Age and continues to offer its grace across centuries and continents. Once hailed as a panacea, tea has been revered not only as a beverage but as medicine—for heart, for mind, for body. In the stillness of its preparation, and the reverence of its sharing, tea becomes more than drink; it becomes communion.

The origins of this sacred leaf trace back to Shennong—the Divine Farmer and ancient emperor of China—the first to discover tea nearly 5,000 years ago. Known as the father of Traditional Chinese Medicine, he tirelessly tested hundreds of herbs to understand their healing properties, often using his own body as the vessel for experimentation. One day, as he boiled water beneath a wild tree, a breeze carried a few leaves into his pot. Curious, he drank the infusion and felt instantly refreshed, clear-minded, and at peace. That tree was Camellia sinensis. From that moment, tea was revered not only as a tonic for the body, but a medicine for the spirit—a divine gift that harmonized the inner organs and awakened the heart.

The tea leaf would undergo its next transformative phase with Lu Yu, an 8th-century Chinese scholar-monk whose devotion to tea gave birth to its formal tradition. His seminal work, The Classic of Tea (茶經), shaped the cultural and spiritual philosophy around tea as an art form, linking nature, mindfulness, and the sacred. For Lu Yu, tea was a way of life—steeped in humility, simplicity, and divine order. 

Centuries later, the Zen monk Eisai brought tea seeds and the practice of tea to Japan from China. A champion of both tea and meditation, he viewed tea as a spiritual aid—a tool to awaken the mind and purify the soul. Before the 16th century, Japanese tea gatherings were marked by opulence and display, with grand Chinese ware and ornate settings. Yet beneath the surface, a quieter, more contemplative spirit began to emerge.

This spirit would find its fullest expression in the work of Sen no Rikyū. Rikyū’s wabi-cha—a humble, rustic form of tea ceremony—transformed tea into a sacred, silent liturgy. At the same time, Catholicism was quietly taking root in Japan, introduced by Jesuit missionaries like Saint Francis Xavier. As Christianity spread through the islands, it found unexpected resonance in the spirit of tea: silence, service, beauty, offering.

Among Rikyū’s inner circle were seven tea disciples, three of whom embraced the Christian faith. During the persecution of Christians under the Tokugawa Shogunate, many believers became Kakure Kirishitan—hidden Christians—preserving their faith in secrecy. Their devotion to both the tea path and Christ reveals a deep, veiled synthesis—one that would live on in shadows and silence.

One prominent disciple of Rikyū and particularly of the Urasenke tea ceremony tradition, was Blessed Dom Justo Takayama, a Christian samurai, martyr and master of the tea ceremony. A warrior of great honour, Takayama refused to renounce his faith even under threat of death and exile. Stripped of his lands and title, he remained steadfast, leading over 300 Japanese Christians into exile in Manila, Philippines in 1614. There he lived out his final days in peace and holiness—an exiled nobleman, a master of tea, and a servant of Christ. In 2017 he was recognized as a Blessed martyr by Pope Francis. 

Hosted by Edane Hotchkiss, a student of the Urasenke tea ceremony tradition, VIDI AQUAM Tea Ceremony is a quiet remembrance of this hidden history—a sacramental act of beauty and devotion, where the steam of tea rises with incense, and each movement becomes a prayer. In the meeting of leaf and water, of silence and soul, Christ is present. 

90 minutes. Up to 4 people. 

VIDI AQUAM

I saw water flowing from the Temple, from its right-hand side, alleluia;
and all to whom this water came were saved and shall say: Alleluia, alleluia.

 Ps.   Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.

         Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
         Amen.