Ancient practice for modern life

Your soul needs a workout.

If you want to know more about Christianity, but don’t know where to start, Trexo is for you.
If you’re a faithful church goer who’s longing for a deeper spiritual dive, Trexo is for you.
If you’re longing for life that has more direction, grounding, peace, and JOY - Trexo is for you.

Why this workout?

I’m Fr. Cathie Caimano, and I created Trexo to recover the practices of the earliest Church - the spiritual disciplines that the Apostles, Church Fathers, and Desert Mothers used to stay connected to Christ and be formed into His image.

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.

After the Ascension

When Jesus ascended into heaven, his disciples faced an existential crisis:

How do we stay connected to Him when He’s no longer physically with us
How do we share the Good News of his Resurrection?
How do we keep our faith alive until he comes again?

These were not theoretical questions. They were urgent, practical needs.

The answer they eventually developed - guided by the Holy Spirit - was a structured life of spiritual practice: constant prayer, communal worship, fasting, vigil-keeping, bodily gestures that enacted their faith.

These are the practices of Trexo: a gym for your soul.

The Trexo story: 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, 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.

Looking to the Earliest Church

In my life as a priest, I kept seeing people who were longing to know God more fully, but not sure where to start. Or those who wanted to know what Christianity was all about, but reading books about religion was often confusing or contradictory. Even reading the Bible can feel overwhelming without guidance and community.

As I started to believe the answers were grounded more in practice than academics, I also looked for a framework. And discovered it where it always was: right there on my bookshelf.

The practices of the earliest church.

Ancient Church wisdom

I turned to the sources that seemed a little dusty, maybe the language was outdated, but this was the record of how the church started, and how the earliest Christians practiced their faith:

The Acts of the Apostles in the Bible - how those first followers carried on after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. How they were first called ‘Christians’ - and how they formed the church together: praying and singing, worshiping and giving testimony, reading Scripture and healing in Jesus’ name
The Didache (DEE-dah-kay). One of the earliest Christian texts, dating from the first or second century
The Apostolic Tradition. Attributed to Hippolytus, but most likely a collection of texts from the second and third centuries.
Early Church Fathers and Mothers.figures like Cyprian, Athanasius, Basil, Augustine, Syncletica, and Sarah - were not random spiritual teachers. They were:
Direct heirs to the Apostolic witness
Defenders of orthodox doctrine against heresy
Architects of the biblical canon
Creators of the liturgy we still pray today
Founders of the monastic Rule of Life that has sustained Christian practice for 2,000 years

Why “Trexo”?

Trexo (τρέχω) is Greek for “run”—specifically, to run like an athlete: with full effort, clear purpose, and directed energy toward the prize.

We spell it with an ‘X’ because that letter resembles the cross. In Greek, the letter Chi (Χ) represents Christ—part of the ichthus fish symbol (ΙΧΘΥΣ) that early Christians used to identify themselves in secret.

“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.” (1 Corinthians 9:24)

St. Paul used athletic imagery to describe Christian spiritual formation—the training, discipline, and focus required to attain the “imperishable wreath” of union with God.

Trexo is your training ground for that race.

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 transform 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.

Is Trexo church?

Yes and no.

Join Trexo and be connected with all those who are Christian today, and all those who have come before us.

Join as an individual - or join as a community. You can practice Trexo together as your congregation’s spiritual formation.

We don’t gather on Sundays - although you can gather with other Trexo members for practice.

Use the spiritual gym to support your spiritual life and your life in church community, just like a runner might go to the gym for extra strength work.

Or use it as your whole spiritual 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.

Therefore, 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.

AND these practices fit within the specifics of any particular congregation or denomination you are a member of.

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.

You Have Ancient Spiritual Coaches

You’re not figuring this out alone. You have 2,000 years of physicians of the soul guiding you: Cyprian, Syncletica, Tertullian, Basil, Benedict, and more.

Their writings constitute Sacred Tradition - the living voice of the Church transmitted through the ages.

It’s a Complete Rule of Life

Daily Anchor (individual ascesis) + Weekly Rhythm (communal life) + Seasonal Intensives (liturgical formation) = a full Rule of Life (Trexo Workout) that guides our lives.

What Trexo is not

A Bible study (though it’s deeply biblical).
Learning about Christianity (it’s about being Christian).
Replacing your church (you can follow Trexo with your whole congregation; it’s based on the fundamental Practices that all Christians have in common).
Easy or passive (though it’s simple and ancient).

What you’ll find at the Gym for your Soul

The Gym Floor: 7 practice stations drawn from the patristic and monastic tradition

The Trainers: Church Fathers and Mothers with distinct wisdom and coaching approaches

Your Trexo Workout: A personalized Rule of Life that grows with you

Wednesday Live stream with ancient Christian Leaders. Weekly online gathering where we’ll hear directly from Church Fathers and Mothers for guidance and encouragement.

A Community in Practice: Stretch your soul with others following the Trexo Workout - and centuries of Christians participating in these spiritual exercises.

At Trexo, we practice:

Keeping ancient Christian tradition: All practices are Biblically rooted and tested by centuries of disciples.
Centering ourselves theologically. These practices are drawn from the earliest traditions of the church - from before there were any different kind of ‘Christian’. The people who knew people who knew Jesus started these rites and rituals of prayer and worship as a way of staying awake in their faith - and alive in Christ.
Making the faith accessible without losing its mystery: Ancient Christian teachings from the earliest sources are often gathering dust on bookshelves. They can be dense and hard reading. But taking a few bites at time - in a modern context - can help them speak in lively ways across the centuries.

And the center of all of them is becoming closer to the living God.
This is timeless - and beyond explanation. That’s why we experience it.
Formation into Christ: The goal is following Jesus, not self-improvement. We expect to be transformed, but not by our doing. We recognize that we have been made new in Christ by the peace, grounding, direction and JOY we feel.