In her book, Braving the Wilderness, research professor, Brené Brown, recounts a story of women who lived in a village and would gather by the river often to wash their clothes together. As these women all began to transition to using washing machines, the rates of depression in the village increased. 

It wasn’t the washing machines, causing the depression but the loss of connection and community that gathering by the river do the washing had provided.

Instead of gathering at the local river to do laundry, let’s gather at the river of prayer and wash our souls together.

Fiat90 is a 90 day journey to the river. For 90 days, faith-filled women will partake in daily prayer, sacrifices, and connection with a prayer partner. They will meet weekly to check-in, share struggles and triumphs, and build community.

Here are the elements of Fiat90

Prayer

• Intercession: choose people to pray for each day as you work through the daily disciplines.
• Try to attend at least one extra Mass/week 
• 15-30 minutes of quiet prayer each day, more if you would like.  
• 10 minutes of Scripture reading each day (can be done during daily prayer time) preferably Exodus  
• Monthly confession 
• Nightly Examen (5-10 minutes following St. Ignatius’s guidelines: 
  1. Awareness of God’s love, 
  2. Asking for God’s help,
  3. Reflecting on the day with both gratitude for God’s gifts and repentance for personal failings, 
  4. Ask for forgiveness, 
  5. Make reasonable resolutions for tomorrow  https://www.discerninghearts.com/catholic-podcasts/examen-prayer-audio-guidedreflection-daily-use/ )  

Physical Disciplines 

• Abstain from snacking/eating between meals
• Sleep 7-8 hours if possible (mom’s with small kids, we see you and we hope you get sleep. Don’t let this stop you from joining us.)
• Heroic minute – don’t snooze the alarm. 
• Exercise 3 times a week for at least 20 minutes.
• Abstain from sweets, sugary drinks, and alcohol. Also, no doctoring your caffeinated beverages - black coffee and tea. 
• Fast and abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays. Fasting looks different for everyone, especially nursing/pregnant moms. We’ll talk about creative ways to fast that work with your schedule and lifestyle. 

Mental Disciplines

• Abstain from unnecessary screen time (includes news and social media).
• Abstain from swearing.
• Avoid non-essential purchases.
• Avoid gossip and complaint.

Support & Accountability

• Come up with a meaningful, few sentence “Why” statement and refer back to it each day. Utilize the questions: Why am I doing this exercise? Who am I doing it for? My spouse? My children? What habits do I want to build or break?  
• Meet weekly with small group (Open in prayer, each person check-in for 5-10 minutes with how the disciplines are going, pray the Hail Mary together)  
• Check-In daily with your anchor (This should usually be a brief meeting or phone call [couple minutes], but on a busy day a text conversation is acceptable.)  
• On Liturgical Solemnities and special occasions you may relieve one penance that day (e.g. each Sunday, Nov 1, Dec 8, wedding anniversary)

Resources

https://www.discerninghearts.com/catholic-podcasts/examen-prayer-audio-guidedreflection-daily-use/ )  

More coming soon.