We don't think our way into believing
Welcome to Trexo: a gym for your soul
Hearts up!
Stretch and strengthen your soul with ancient Christian practice for modern life.
Subscribe to Free Range Priest 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.
The Practices
1. The Daily Anchor
Short, simple practices you can do every day, wherever you are. Even if you’re practicing alone, you are still in community with all other Christians - including the first Christians.
Hearts up!
the Sursum Corda (‘Lift up your hearts’; ‘we lift them to the Lord’).
Orienting ourselves towards God. More HERE.
the Jesus Prayer
’Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’.
Being in constant conversation with God. More HERE.
Bodily Prayer
Kneeling, making the sign of the cross, orans (lifted hands), prostration .
Engaging our whole selves in praising God. More HERE.
2. The Weekly Rhythm
Practices that require community: already established congregations/communities, our friends and family, or informal gatherings of Trexo members.
The Eucharist
The breaking of bread and sharing of the cup in remembrance of Jesus. Strengthening our relationship with God.
Sabbath
A weekly day of gratitude, wonder, and rest from work.
Trusting God to be God - and resting in God’s will for us.
3. Seasonal Intensives
Advent and Lent are times set aside for preparation since the earliest church. These Practices align us - personally and communally - with the ancient and eternal rhythm of God’s saving actions in the world - Incarnation (Christmas) and Resurrection (Easter).
Vigil
Not sleeping when our bodies want to - intentional discomfort for spiritual clarity.
Staying awake with God.
Fasting
Voluntary abstinence from food for a spiritual purpose.
Demonstrating radical dependence upon God.
The Trexo Practices are based on what the earliest Christians did: how they prayed, worshiped, gathered, served one another. They didn’t think themselves into relationship with God - they practiced.
And how they taught each other the faith through spiritual practice.
Trexo Practice is 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.
Trexo Practices fit within the specifics of any particular congregation or denomination you belong to. They are the root from which all Christian traditions grow.
The Training
1. Coffee with Coaches
We’re not the first ones to compare spiritual exercises with going to the gym!
Ignatius of Antioch (c. 110) called Christians ‘athletes of God’.
The desert monks who withdrew into the wilderness in the 4th century were called ‘athletes of Christ’.
John Cassian (5th century)used detailed breakdowns of ancient Olympic wrestling techniques to train monks to battle their vices.
The origin of the term ‘asceticism’ (spiritual self-discipline) derives from the work askesis - which means rigorous physical exercise.
At Trexo, we look to the earliest Christians for the Practices themselves, and we invite the voices of early church Mothers, Fathers, monastics and teachers to share their methods and encouragement for training our souls - and deepening our relationship with God.
Three Wednesdays a month (skipping the first), we go live at 3:30 Eastern for ‘Coffee with Coaches’ where we ‘interview’ one of our spiritual trainers.
Gym members get the replay/training email the next day.
2. The Trexo Workout (Rule of Life)
A ‘Rule of Life’ is an intentional, structured set of practices that was first instituted by solitary monastics in 4th century Egypt. It provides rhythm, consistency, and direction for our life with God - which is our whole life.
At Trexo, we call it the Workout - and it is a personalized set of Trexo Practices that gym members commit to for a set period of time (‘fasting in Lent’, for example, or ‘saying the Jesus Prayer 50 times a day for the next 30 days).
It’s about finding rhythm, consistency, and direction for our life with God.
To begin the Workout process, gym members start with the ‘gym intake form’…
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 Trexo Gym is ancient Christian Practice for modern life.
Building our relationship with God by stretching and strengthening our souls.
Trexo: a gym for your soul is a Newsletter that is part of
a Free Range Priest subscription.
(manage your preferences HERE).
Get started stretching and strengthening your soul.
Subscribe to Free Range Priest for Trexo emails and join us for the Hearts up! Practice.
To join the gym, become a paid subscriber and
get all the Practices
join us for Coffee with Coaches
and build your Trexo Workout (Rule of Life)
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I love this, and while we've talked about it before somehow i needed to hear it again lately....