The Trexo story
It started with running. And running the race set before me.
Becoming an everyday monastic
I’m Fr. Cathie Caimano, and I created Trexo to find our way back to the basics of what it means to be Christian. To follow Jesus with our whole lives.
WHY?
Because I keep meeting people who want to know more about being Christian, but they’re confused and overwhelmed with all the denominational (and non-denominational differences) and overwhelming - often contradictory - information about what being Christian means.
It made me think that there must be a way to go back to the basics.
AND - that being Christian is not so much about learning about the faith, as it is about practicing the faith. Following Jesus with our whole lives - like the earliest Christians did.
Trexo is something different. Actually, it’s something every Christian has in common.
The Practices come from the people who knew the people who knew Jesus.
Subscribe to Free Range Priest - and follow the directions in your welcome email - to get Trexo posts in your email inbox, and join us for Hearts up! - the oldest practice of Christian worship.
Become a paid Free Range Priest subscriber to join the Trexo gym - participate in all the Practices, join us for Coffee with Coaches, and create a Trexo Workout.
From Running to Rule of Life
I’ve been a runner for over 40 years.
Running has shaped my life: my body, my schedule, my community, my soul. It provides structure, rhythm, discipline, challenge, relationships, and joy.
It was while running that I understood how physical exercise mirrored the spiritual disciplines of my life as a follower of Jesus.
I started to understand that the framework was the same.
We can’t think our way into believing.
We practice our way into relationship with God - and transformation of our whole lives.
Why a ‘gym for your soul’?
The gym metaphor works because it makes sense in our modern world, and because the principle is like physical fitness:
Our bodies aren’t transformed by knowing about exercise. They’re transformed by exercising.
Our souls aren’t transformed by knowing about God. They’re transformed by being in relationship with God.
The Desert Fathers and Mothers called this ascesis (ἄσκησις) - spiritual training or exercise. The same word used for athletic training in the ancient world.
Trexo is ascesis. It is spiritual athletics. It is the training ground for our souls.
Also, it’s not something I just made up.
It’s not my idea at all!
Ancient church teachers, leaders, and monastics (who are also our gym ‘Coaches’), had the concept long ago: work out your soul like you work out your body.
Revered spiritual teachers like St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Basil the Great explicitly used ‘gym’ language for spiritual training and direction as early as the 300s.
And of course Paul wants us running that race!
Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize?
Run in such a way that you may win it.
Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one.
So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Is Trexo church?
Yes and no.
Trexo connects you with all those who are Christian today - and all those who have come before us.
We don’t gather on Sundays - although you can gather with other Trexo members for Practice. You can use the spiritual gym to support your life in a church community, the way a runner might go to the gym for extra strength work. Or you can use it as your whole spiritual formation.
You can join as an individual. Or join as a community - practicing Trexo together as your congregation’s Christian formation.
It’s Pre-Denominational
These practices existed before the divisions of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant. They unite all Christians because they’re foundational to all traditions.
No matter what denomination you belong to - or even if you don’t formally belong to any church or denomination - you are practicing with Christians of all kinds, over all ages.
The Trexo Practices fit within the specifics of any particular congregation or denomination, and you don’t have to be a member of any particular church to try them. They are part of the the root from which all Christian traditions grow
It’s Not About Belief. It’s About Formation.
Belief = intellectual assent to what is true.
Faith = relationship with the living God.
Trexo teaches you the practices that form you in Christ - what the Eastern tradition calls theosis (θέωσις), and the Western tradition calls sanctification.
Not self-improvement. Transformation.
I developed Trexo as a ‘gym for your soul’ to try and capture the spirit of monasticism - a structured community for devotion, discipline, and spiritual growth - and the challenge of athletics - becoming stronger and swifter, pushing the limits of what we think we can do.
My soul needs a workout - just like my body does. I know others feel the same, and I wanted to create a Cage Free Ministry space to reimagine how we grow in relationship with God.
And Trexo was born.
You were made for more.
More peace, more direction, more grounding, more purpose. More JOY.
Get started stretching and strengthening your soul.
To follow Trexo - and get the Hearts up! Practice:
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Follow the Newsletters link to choose what you want to receive from the Free Range Priest publication (follow the link that directs you to your account settings to specify which newsletters you want to receive, and pick Trexo. You can also set your preferences for email and in-app notifications there).
To join the gym - get all the practices, join us for Coffee with Coaches, and build your Trexo workout (Rule of Life), become a paid subscriber to Free Range Priest
(and make your newsletter selections as above)
Free Range Priest. Reimagine Ministry.
