Exodus 90: Catholic Men's App

It seems counterintuitive, but living without all these human comforts actually opens me up to others and gives me incredible joy. I couldn’t believe how much time I actually have in a day when I’m not wasting it watching TV. It’s not easy, but it’s well worth the effort and time. Also, starting every morning with a holy hour and ending with an Examen has brought me closer to the Lord than I’ve ever been. It’s changed the way I think and feel about people throughout the day in an enormous way. I actually notice a big difference in myself when I don’t pray in a day. God’s grace is REAL and very potent. I’ve grown deeper in my relationship with Christ through this spiritual exercise and have reaped the fruits of his love for me. This is my second time doing it. The last time after day 91, I noticed that as much as I tried to keep the disciplines I tapered off from them over time. I recommend doing this 90 day cleanse at least once a year. I might even start doing it for Lent and Advent ever year. It’s a great way to prepare yourself to receive the Lord on great feast days! This way you “move the needle” a bit each time you do it until you’ve molded your life around Jesus permanently. Keeping the fraternity is a good idea too, but I feel like that’s easier said than done. I guess I’ll find out soon. God bless!

Having been through Exodus 90 once before with the book, I was highly skeptical about using an app this time around. To my surprise, the app was not only more convenient than the book but it truly helped our fraternity stay more accountable throughout the spiritual exercise—and in turn, made the entire experience more fruitful. I love how the app simplifies every part of the journey—communication/accountability with the fraternity, daily readings and meditations, and notes for personal reflection. And as someone who works in marketing for a living I’m quite picky (read highly critical) about UI, aesthetic design, and functionality of apps. I can’t believe how intuitive and clean this app is; especially for a small nonprofit. It’s truly incredible what the Exodus 90 team has created and I can’t wait for additional features to be released! Beyond the app, the journey through Exodus 90 has truly been life changing. It’s been years since I’ve had a fraternity like my Exodus group and I owe my thanks to this organization.

As a Christian Catholic or a Catholic Christian, however you want to say it...I can say that Exodus 90 has been WELL worth it. It has been difficult, me and my fraternity have not been “perfect” at the disciplines but we have grown closer to God and to each other. There is something magical about a group of men invested in their relationship with God in a way that puts every day to the test. Doing Exodus 90 has taught me about discipline, the strength God provides us all, the power of grace, and the hope of freedom from being a slave to all the little pleasure bursts we don’t even know we are relying on outside of our Lord. Highly recommend. I will be doing E90 every January every year now as a way to renew my hope and love for and in Jesus. Thank you for making this program. I am blessed to have participated.

Overall a very solid app. This is my second time though Ex90 and have discovered a few things that you could consider for future improvement: 1) Consider adding an “email” option or text for each person. Similar to Flocknote. We had one guy that only communicated by email vs text. Also, although unprecedented, have the ability to do group calls maybe? 2) The overall “How are you” thumbs up, neutral or down is great. One other thing to really hold accountability would be to have a simple Habit Tracker type interface for each discipline. I’ve notice when weekly mtgs come around men forget how well or not they really did with various disciplines. Also something I would use regularly after Ex90. 3) I’m not sure why, but both of my Ex90 the guys have suggested using different texting apps; one just the iPhone messaging, and the other was telegram. Not sure why, but something to look into.

One of the participants in a regular parish meeting of the Catholic Men’s Fellowship recommenced Exodus to me and I am glad that I did the exercise. I am one of the founders of the Catholic Men’s Fellowship and I have been to a group meeting over Saturday morning for the past 35 years, finding spiritual grown in every one of them. In the meetings I find strength in the sharing which is a source of actual grace to me personally. As a result I was not looking for Fraternity in Exodus but I did find Prayer and Asceticism to be very valuable. It is not that prayer and self- sacrifice are not taught in the fellowship but Exodus makes them concrete and accountable through interaction on the Internet. I regularly recommend Exodus to my fellowship groups as an individual program. Fraternity is an integral component of the spiritual exercise and agree that it should be, I but did not have success with the ad hoc group that I formed - the affinity did not develop as it has in CMF parish setting.