The Trexo Practices
The core of the gym is not learning about Christianity, but Practicing our way into deeper relationship with God.
The Trexo Practices are developed from ancient disciplines of the Christian faith, restored and made accessible for your life right now.
The earliest Christians didn’t invent these. They received them - from Scripture, from the apostles, from the people who knew the people who knew Jesus.
They practiced them together, daily, as a way of staying close to God in the middle of ordinary life. And they passed them on. Generation to generation. Monastery to monastery. Community to community.
All the way to here. All the way to you.
The Practice Levels
1. The Daily Anchor (Individual Practice)
Short, simple practices you can do every day, wherever you are. The monastics prayed at fixed hours, round the clock.
You have your own fixed hours - the rhythm of your daily life. Start here.
This is where closeness with God becomes a daily reality.
The Daily Anchor Practices form your whole life - as you are living it - in relationship with God.
2. The Weekly Rhythm (Community Practice)
Practices that shape us in community, and radical acts of hope in a world where it can seem in short supply.
You can’t do these alone - they require you to find others to practice with: already established congregations, or more informal gatherings of Trexo (or other community) members.
Weekly Rhythm Practices anchor you in the life of the Church - the community of believers gathered around prayer, worship, and formation in the faith.
3. Seasonal Intensives (Deeper Training)
Times of preparation before the most important events in the Christian faith — the birth of Jesus, and his death and resurrection.
We practice most intensively during the times leading up to the most important seasons in the church: Christmas and Easter. During the seasons set aside for preparation since the earliest church: Advent and Lent.
Seasonal Intensive Practices align us - personally and communally - with the ancient and eternal rhythm of God’s saving actions in the world. And our response to these.
The Seven Practices
Hearts Up!
The Sursum Corda (from the earliest Eucharistic prayer)
‘Lift up your hearts’
’We lift them to the Lord’
Orientation to God. An ancient command to orient your entire self - mind, body, spirit - toward God’s presence. Available to you every moment of every day..
Practiced: When you wake. When life is frustrating. When life is glorious. Every time you want to turn and say, ‘thank you, God.’ ‘Help me, God’.
It takes two seconds. As many times a day as you can.
The Jesus Prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner’.
Communication with God. Be in constant conversation with God.
This prayer was developed by ancient monastics to fulfill St. Paul’s command:
’Pray without ceasing’ (1 Thess 5:17).
Practiced: As often as possible throughout the day. When you wake, when you’re stuck in traffic, when you’re sitting with someone in pain. Use prayer beads or rosary to pray the Jesus Prayer. Count your prayers on your fingers, or small stones, beads, or shells. This is how rosaries began.
Bodily Prayer: lifting hands in prayer - orans, making the sign of the cross, bowing, kneeling, prostrating yourself.
Engagement with God. Participate in worship with your whole self.
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord.
Psalm 134:2
Practiced: Sign of the cross at the name of the Trinity, lifting hands when praying or singing aloud, kneeling at the altar or in prayer, bowing before the cross, prostration in grief or deep distress (or thanksgiving).
Eucharist : Gather with the Body of Christ to receive Christ in bread and wine.
Communion with God.
Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
Luke 22:19
Practiced: Weekly (ideally)
Eucharist is the original Christian worship. The first Christians gathered as Jesus had instructed them, broke and blessed the bread and drank the wine ‘in remembrance of him’.
Sacramental Christian denominations celebrate Holy Eucharist, presided over by ordained clergy. Other traditions celebrate Communion, the Lord’s Supper, or Agape meals. All Christians may participate in ‘Shabbat’ style table fellowrship.
But the gathering, the breaking, the blessing, all in remembrance of Jesus’ saving acts are as old as Christianity itself.
Sabbath: one full day of rest from work (or anything that feels like work).
Practiced: One full day each week (ideally).
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
Deuteronomy 20:8
Rest, wonder, trust that God is in charge. A day of rest is so important that it is a Commandment. God rested on the seventh day. We are called to rest as well.
Fasting: voluntary abstinence from food for a spiritual purpose.
Practiced: Primarily in the season of Lent.
Fasting is our call to spiritual endurance training. To hearing God’s voice, and nothing else. To remembering our dependence on God, and our preparation for standing on holy ground.
Vigil: Keeping awake to God’s presence and power
Practiced: Primarily during Advent.
Like fasting, it’s intentional discomfort for spiritual clarity. It’s keeping ourselves spiritually alert and faithfully awaiting the light of Christ, especially in the darkness.
The 6-part Trexo Practice Formula
Every Trexo Practice is built on the same framework - to show the path directly from Scripture to the early church to the great spiritual teachers of the faith through history and God’s grace to us today.
Quick Start : an overview of what the Practice is.
Why it matters today: how this Practice connects you in relationship with God.
Where the Practice comes from : its roots in the ancient Church, tracing all the way back to the people who knew the people who knew Jesus.
Biblical foundation: the Scriptural grounding of the Practice
How to Practice: the step-by-step instructions.
Troubleshooting: this is where the Trainers come in. Basil, Syncletica, Ignatius, and others have lived these Practices, developed them, and taught them to thousands of others, from their own time till today. They’re here with encouragement, wisdom, and a little tough love when you need it.
