Coffee with Coaches:
Ignatius of Antioch and the Eucharist

Ignatius lived in the late first and early second centuries, in Antioch (modern Turkey) - one of the major cities of the Roman Empire, and one of the first centers of Christian life.

Tradition remembers him as a disciple of the apostle John, and as the third bishop of Antioch after Peter and Evod…

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I just can’t get this week’s Spiritual Trainer out my mind.

Each week at Trexo, I ‘interview’ a spiritual Father or Mother from the early church.

Through the magic of AI, I formulate questions of based on the Trexo Practice we’re currently focusing on, and I get answers in the voice of the Trainer, based on their writings, and other facts that we know about their lives.

This week I interviewed Perpetua - a third century martyr, publicly executed in Rome for her faith.

She was 22 years old. She had an infant son at home. She wasn’t even baptized yet (she was in the catechumenate - preparing for baptism). She never received the Eucharist.

And yet she went joyfully to her death. Not because she wasn’t afraid. Not because she wanted to die.

Because she knew Jesus protected her - and was bringing her to eternal life.

Because she felt the presence of tens of thousands of saints around her.

Because she knew that no current suffering could compare to the love of God.

In Easter, we’re focusing on the Trexo Practice of Eucharist: breaking bread and sharing the cup in Jesus’ name.

Perpetua reminds us over and over that even though she never actually participated in the sacrament, she was fed by Christ.

She was fed by the joy - the sweetness - she received, knowing that Jesus gave his life for her, and for all of us. And the promise of eternal joy through Resurrection.

When I ‘asked’ Perpetua what she would want us to know today: far removed from her time and her suffering, she reminded us all that when we come to the table, we are saying yes to Jesus.

Yes to his death. Yes to his resurrection.
Yes to the same surrender - in whatever way your life asks it of you.

This ‘yes’ that we say when we come to the table is the ‘yes’ we say to all of life, in good times and in bad.

It is the center of meaning for us as Christians, and that meaning is eternal life - and joy.

It’s how practicing our faith - strengthening and stretching our souls - shapes us for a life of gratitude and abundance.


Hearts up!

Gym members: here’s this week’s interview with Perpetua…

You were made for more than this.

Find out how much more when you commit to stretching and strengthening your soul. When you discover that your whole life is life with God.

When you join the Trexo gym…

You could find life-altering levels of love, peace, contentment and JOY.



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Who Was Perpetua?

Vibia Perpetua was a 22-year-old noblewoman living in Carthage, North Africa (modern-day Tunisia) around 203 AD.

She was educated, well-connected, nursing an infant son - and a brand-new Christian, still preparing for baptism, when she was arrested and publicly executed under the Emperor Septimius Severus’s persecution of the church.

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I probably say the Jesus Prayer 20 times daily.

It helps when I wake in the night with leg cramps, and this prayer along with YouTube videos has gotten me through countless DIY home repairs.

’Lord Jesus, son of God have mercy on me’.

• EP
  

I asked Trexo gym members how they use the Practices, and what they mean for their lives.

I love that YouTube and the Jesus Prayer help with home repairs!

And that’s one reason I started this current branch of the ‘gym for your soul’ (I’m not the first person who thought of this!):

Especially in an era when fewer and fewer people go to church, spiritual exercise reminds us that being part of the Body of Christ happens everywhere, all the time.

It’s easy to think that ‘church’ is a building, and we go there on Sunday (and maybe Wednesday), then we go home, and we go on with our lives.

But that wasn’t the case with the earliest church - and it’s not the case today.

The earliest Christians gathered with their families and close friends for worship, prayer, service, witness.

’Church’ was their whole lives!

In today’s world, lots of people like the ‘idea of church’, as puts it. But they’re not going.

A third of those who belong to a congregation only attend once a month, so many that it’s now considered ‘regular attendance’.

But the hunger is still there - we still want to know God, and we still want to know how much God loves us.

Of course, we’re still in commmunity.

That’s the beauty of being Christian: you can’t be one alone. Community is baked right into the concept of church - starting with Jesus calling a group of unrelated disciples from different walks of life.

Many parts of our faith lives are personal: we definitely pray, fast, keep sabbath, silence, and vigil on our own.

But we always do so in the context of being part of the church.

During the Easter season, we’re talking about the Practice of Eucharist.

Being called to the table - sharing the bread and cup in Jesus’ name - requires others in order to participate.

It usually requires us to be ‘at’ church, at the altar.

The choice isn’t ‘go to church on Sunday’ OR ‘pray, worship, and practice everywhere else.’

The idea is: we’re praying, worshiping, practicing - stretching and strengthening our souls - everywhere, all the time.

Sometimes at church.

So going to the ‘gym for your soul’ means learning to put this in practice: growing nearer in relationship with God, in all parts of our lives.

And that’s a lot of what we hear from Gorgonia this week at Coffee with Coaches. I’d never heard of her, but it turns out she was a respected 4th century spiritual teacher from one of the most influential Christian families in church history.

And she lived a very busy life, being a wife and mother, a sister and daughter, and a devoted follower of Christ.

The Eucharist was central to her faith - and the way she lived, every day.

You were made for more than this.

Find out how much more when you commit to stretching and strengthening your soul. When you discover that your whole life is life with God.

When you join the Trexo gym…

You could find life-altering levels of love, peace, contentment and JOY.



ARE YOU READY?

Subscribe now

Coffee with Coaches: Gorgonia

The religious landscape of the fourth century was defined by a transition from the ‘age of the martyrs’ to the ‘age of the ascetics’.

Because of this, the ‘Cappadocian’ region - in what is now Turkey, became very important for a new kind of Christian ‘synthesis’ - Greek influenced, devoted to the ancient Creeds.

At the heart o…

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While her brothers - Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, along with their friend Gregory of Nazianzus - are the famous trio known as the ‘Cappadocian Fathers’, Macrina was the intellectual and spiritual teacher who shaped th…

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also known as The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, is an ancient Christian manual dating back to the late 1st or early 2nd century.

It’s one of the oldest surviving pieces of non-biblical Christian literature.

The document serves as a bridge between the era of the original Apostles and the formal establishment of the early Church, providing a …

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Happy Easter!

We had an amazing Holy Week, and thank you to everyone who took part in the virtual Vigil at the Altar of Repose. It was beautiful and deeply moving.

In the next few weeks, we’ll be introducing the Practice of Eucharist.

• The very first worship Christians ever engaged in.

• The meal at which Jesus said, ‘do this in remembrance of me’ … and we have been doing since.

• A practice that we cannot participate in alone - so it’s part of our Weekly Rhythm, and part of our commitment to a Practicing Community.
  

  

  Join the gym to participate in all the Practices
  
  

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This is also your call to increase your commitment to Christian Practice - and being part of the Trexo community.

The first step to this is filling out the Trexo Gym Intake form.

The earliest spiritual training began with a conversation:
‘what do you seek?’
Physical trainers begin with lifestyle and fitness assessments, so they know how to guide their clients.

The Trexo gym intake form is a little of each.

We want to know what brought you here, and what your relationship with God has been like so far...

So we can guide you into deeper spiritual intimacy, and more peace, direction, and JOY in your life.


The link to the form is below for gym members…

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The Trexo gym intake form is a little of each.

We want to know what brought you here, and what your relationship with G…

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