If you are a part of any very Catholic circles or friend groups (especially at the University of Notre Dame), then about 101 days ago, you were considering doing Exodus 90 (for men) or Fiat 90 (for women). I was among this group of deliberators, and I decided to jump in on asceticism a full 45 days before Lent began. I was in for quite the experience. 

What is Fiat 90?

Fiat 90 and Exodus 90 are a regiment of physical and spiritual practices that begin 90 days before Easter. There are many, many things to do (and not to do) in Fiat 90 which include, but are not limited to: 

• No eating sweets, no snacking, and fasting on Wednesday and Friday
• Working out six times a week
• No social media
• No entertainment (movies, shows, music, etc) that is not religious
• Daily Mass
• Weekly confession
• 54-day rosary then 33 Days to Morning Glory

You can find more information here. Exodus 90 is pretty much the same with the addition of cold showers. 

I got a group of about twenty girls together, and we set out to do Fiat 90. Most of us modified the requirements in our own ways to fit more practically into the lives of college students and to meet us where we were at in our spiritual lives. I think this modification is absolutely essential. Completely shocking yourself into an extremely rigid, religious regiment will not be as fruitful. Salvation history models a progressive assent to holiness. As God calls the Israelites, He does so progressively. He slowly replaces their practices and culture to be more oriented toward Him and toward love. I usually go to Mass two or three times a week. I committed to going to Mass four times a week for Fiat 90, which was one more time than I typically wanted to go. This was a small, doable step toward holier practices. My roommate, who usually would go to Mass five times a week decided to go all in on daily Mass, an appropriate step forward based on where she currently was in her spiritual life and relationship with the Mass. Even with this modification principle in mind, I cannot say my experience with Fiat 90 nor the experiences of the girls in my group were largely positive. Here are a few of my issues with Fiat 90. 

Misaligned with the Church Calendar and Church Teaching

The liturgical calendar is set by the Catholic Church and sets Lent to start forty days before Easter (technically forty-six days before, if you add back Sundays). These forty days are symbolic of the forty days Jesus spent in the desert before beginning His public ministry. The Church chose forty for a reason, and it is not the job of the lay people to decide how long the period of preparation should be. If forty days is good enough for the Catholic Church, it is good enough for me. Sometimes (such as in 2024), the ninety days of Fiat 90 will overlap with the season of Christmas, a time the Church says is of feasting and celebration. Observing Fiat 90 over Church teaching is elevating it to authority over the Church.

Additionally, the three tenets of Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Fiat 90 makes no mention of almsgiving, meaning that if I blindly followed Fiat 90, once Lent started I would not be following Church guidance because I would be ignoring almsgiving. This lack of almsgiving is not inherently problematic, but it means that once again, if I follow Fiat 90 as my sole spiritual guide, I may be ignoring Church teaching. 

If someone wanted to implement a ninety day spiritual regiment, there is nothing alarmingly problematic. However, making it overlap with Lent and culminate in Easter makes it seem like a replacement, which it is not. Frankly, we should not be trying to replace what the Church has ordained. 

Spiritual Pride

There is already something prideful in the very concept of Fiat 90. When I have described it to people, I often have said “It’s like Lent but on steroids.” How did I not realize then that it probably wasn’t good, just as steroids are not good? Last year, many of my very religious friends did Fiat and Exodus 90, and I thought to myself that I should be doing it too. I was religious enough to do this, wasn’t I? Looking back, I think that the root of this was that because I was “so religious,” then I could do more than Lent. Lent wasn’t hard enough for me. Spiritual pride is already something I struggle with and a very real thing at Notre Dame, especially among devoutly Catholic friend groups. Don’t get me wrong, I genuinely set out on Fiat 90 because I love the Lord so deeply, I wanted to grow closer to Him, and I wanted to order my life toward His heart. I think the culture at Notre Dame made it harder for this goal to be completely pure. 

I got lunch with a friend a couple days before Lent started, and she asked me what I would be doing for Lent. I then proceeded to tell her that I’ve already been doing Lent for forty some days, and I’m doing this long list of things that was way more rigorous than what she planned on doing. My goal was not to make her feel bad about herself, but it’s hard to say you’re doing Fiat 90 without some level of arrogance. I felt like I was telling her that I could do more than she could, and I somewhat invalidated her Lenten resolutions. I felt like I was saying that following Church recommendations simply isn’t enough for me. I could be better than what the Church has asked. 

Gnostic Principles

One can fast from something bad or from something good, and I feel like Fiat 90 blurred these lines. Giving up all secular entertainment has been horrible for me. Going into Fiat 90, I wasn’t particularly on social media often nor did I consume a lot of media. I was a busy college student who enjoyed listening to One Direction on her runs and would manage to maybe watch an episode or two of a TV show once a week. I didn’t consume any short form content or play any video games. This wasn’t an area of my life that was problematic and needed fixing. I think that if this is an area where one over consumes, giving this up for Lent would be a great idea. This was not my scenario. Instead, I feel like I have confused myself.

By giving up all secular entertainment, I felt like the attitude was that these were bad things, things pulling me away from God. I swapped my hype running playlist for my Christian playlist. I stopped watching my favorite commentary YouTuber (who may be comparing types of bubble gum or talking about his local state fair) and started watching Catholic apologists. However, my usual worldly entertainment is not inherently bad. One of the many beliefs of gnosticism is that the physical world is bad and must be replaced with the spiritual. This felt like what Fiat 90 was doing. One day, I was feeling pretty depressed, and I “broke the rules” and listened to my joy playlist filled with some of my favorite songs like “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Party in the USA.” I felt better. Then, I felt worse because I messed up Fiat 90. The world is not inherently a bad thing, and Fiat 90 made me feel like it was. 

Creating Division

One thing about Fiat 90 that I have loved is the community with the other girls doing it. We have loved our weekly dinners and plan to keep doing them once Fiat 90 is over. However, there has definitely been division between those doing Fiat or Exodus 90 and those who are not. My boyfriend and I love watching YouTube together, specifically entertaining educational videos (we are both engineers), woodworking videos, and building tiny models. We haven’t been able to do one of our favorite activities together, and we both have felt kind of sad and like it’s sort of pointless to be giving up something we love to do. Objectors might say that maybe we should replace this time with praying together. We already pray together every day. We read the Bible and go to Mass together often. Sometimes we want to watch and talk about a cool robot some YouTuber made.

“I constantly feel bad about myself”

Once Lent actually started, I was already feeling burnt out from and caving on some of my original Fiat 90 resolutions. This was a common sentiment among the girls in my group. Doing Fiat 90 has made our Lenten seasons worse. It’s almost as if forty days is a good amount of time to be fasting before you start to fizzle out, crazy right? Because there are so many things to be doing every day, it’s practically impossible to be perfect. This means that every day, I’m constantly aware of the ways I failed, instead of the ways I fulfilled my goals. One of the girls in my group said verbatim “I constantly feel bad about myself,” which is not an attitude of the Lord and not what the program intends. However, it is a real outcome.

 Additionally, because I’m doing ten different things each day, it’s easier to cave on one or two of them (which then feeds into feeling bad). If I had just committed to doing a couple things, I would be able to do them more consistently and in turn, not feel like such a failure. 

Conclusion

I didn’t want to give up on the idea of Fiat 90 because I’ve heard so many positive experiences from friends and the religious community at large. When I think of the ways I would want to improve or change Fiat 90, I realize I just invented Lent again. Make it in line with the liturgical calendar, make it incorporate almsgiving, make it more personal, and make it less overwhelmingly box-checking. Boom, we’ve got Lent. The other way would be to move it to the long stretch of Ordinary Time between Easter and Advent. If you’re in the mood for a spiritual upheaval, do it then, when you aren’t going to contradict the feasting of Christmas or try to supersede Lent. 

With all of this in mind, I think that if Fiat or Exodus 90 has had a good impact on you and your faith life, continue to do it, but keep in mind prioritizing what the Church teaches over what the program promotes.