Adult Faith Formation

Prayer &
Spiritual Life
This curated list of online learning programs includes free to use resources and fee-based resources. Many of the fee-based resources offer subscriptions for churches so that the programs can be provided to everyone in the church. Courses offered by colleges, seminaries, and organizations are usually for individual or small group use. They can still be included in a church's adult faith formation offerings with a note that the program is fee-based and intended for individual or small group study. ​

Online Courses
Boston College STM Online: Crossroads ($ and free)
www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/stm/sites/crossroads/crossroads-courses/prayer.html
STM Online: Crossroads, a program of Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, offers non-credit online courses for adult spiritual enrichment and faith formation. With a focus on shared reflection in an online learning community, Crossroads models the kind of conversation and participation that lead to deeper understanding and personal growth in faith. Follow the link to courses on Prayer. 

FULLER Equip Courses ($)
https://equip-courses.fuller.edu
FULLER Equip Courses are designed to bring provide practical skills and accessible training outside of a traditional degree program. Courses are created by Fuller’s faculty, experts, and network of trusted voices. Each course engages people in interactive, multimedia learning experiences that can be applied immediately.
​Learn25 ($)
www.learn25.com/product-category/catholic-courses/
Learning 25 Catholic programs are podcast-style audio and video courses intended for personal study (you can add a small group component). The Learn25 lectures are presented in 25-minute segments by engaging university professors. Combining scholarship with lively instruction, the presenters enlighten and entertain, engage and inform. Many of their courses include free study guides with outlines, suggested readings, and more. Go the "Spirituality and Prayer" section for courses. 

Spirituality & Practice ($)
​www.spiritualityandpractice.com
The Spirituality & Practice website includes over 150 e-courses and retreats on topics in spirituality, spiritual practices, and explorations into spiritual traditions. The e-course fees are affordable, and the programs designed with computer ease in mind for people of all ages.
  • Retreats on Classic Practices: Step-by-step instructions from well-known spiritual teachers on practices from the world’s religions. Emailed lessons, audios, videos, teleconferences
  • Retreats on Sacred Texts: Passages from sacred texts and commentaries by our teachers on living the wisdom.
  • Elder Spirituality: E-courses that reframe aging, plus practical programs on the spiritual work of this stage of life.
  • Practicing Spirituality: Programs using representative excerpts from books by teachers from each tradition, each with a suggestions for how to practice the wisdom in your daily life. 
  • Practicing Spirituality - Places, Activities & Relationships: Using book excerpts and practice suggestions to show how to be spiritual at home, at work, in nature, during illness, with children, and more.
  • 21-day Programs: Spiritual nuggets and practice suggestions for your personal transformation. Inspired by the idea that it takes three weeks to change a habit or start a new practice.​​ ​

Practices, Activities, and Videos
Building Faith
buildfaith.org
Building Faith, a service of Virginia Theological Seminary, provides hundreds of articles and activities for faith formation with all ages. Use the "Articles by Topics" category to find prayer activities and resources.
Christian Practices: Prayer
www.lifelongfaith.com/practices.html
Lifelong Faith's Christian Practices project has produced faith forming activities - for age groups and for families - with a teaching plan for ten Christian Practices. All activities are included on separate MS Word document so that you can create handouts for sessions, a booklet, online playlists and activities, social media posts, etc. Each Activity can be done in 20 minutes (approximately). ​There are 26 reproducible prayer activities. 
Creighton University Online Retreat
​onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/cmo-retreat.html​
This is a retreat designed for people too busy to make a traditional retreat. People can experience a relationship with God coming alive in the midst of everyday life. A simple Guide each week places themes, reflections, questions and desires into the background of our busy lives. We learn to find greater focus and to let one week build upon another. People can make the retreat alone, with a spiritual director, or form a group to make the retreat together.

Explore Faith - Spiritual Guidance for Anyone Seeking a Path to God
​www.explorefaith.org
explorefaith.org is dedicated to providing tools for spiritual nourishment and faith formation and spreading the joyous news of God's love and grace.

Good Ground Press Online Retreats
goodgroundpress.com/faith/retreats/
Online retreats give you a chance to look at where you are in your journey to God, to be more aware of your journey, and of the loving God with whom you journey.  There are four free adult retreats and two youth retreats.
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Ignatian Spirituality
www.ignatianspirituality.com
IgnatianSpirituality.com ® is a service of Loyola Press, a ministry of the USA Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It offers information on and experiences of Ignatian spirituality from Jesuit and Ignatian sources around the world. IgnatianSpirituality.com provides pathways into the major areas of Ignatian spirituality: prayer, spiritual direction, retreats, and making good decisions. 

Learning to Pray with Fr. James Martin
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFA_2Z1L-3trG2uB4ghong_ QNUTU7j1qB
Based on his book Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone, James Martin, SJ has produced six short (3 minute) videos: Five Common Ways to Pray, What is Prayer?, How Can I Deal with Distractions in Prayer?, Why You Should Pray, What Happens When You Pray, and What is Spiritual Direction.  
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Loyola Press Prayer Resources
www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/prayer
A resource center with prayers and activities for personal prayer, Ignatian prayer, contemporary prayers, traditional Catholic prayers, and more. 

Praying the "Our Father" with Jesus - A Four Part Program
https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/stm/sites/encore/encore-access/our-father.html
In this presentation Michael Simone, S.J. helps us view the Lord’s Prayer through Jesus’s eyes.  This is a personal project that Fr. Simone pursues in addition to his academic research and writing.  Simone reminds us that the library of books we call the Hebrew Bible or the "Old Testament" was the only Bible Jesus knew.  As Simone explores selected phrases or segments from the “Our Father,” he points us to passages and words that may have captivated the mind of Jesus when Jesus uttered that prayer.  Simone’s reflections demonstrate to the modern Christian believer just how powerful a source of revelation the Hebrew Bible continues to be. 

Renovaré ($ and free)
​renovare.org
Renovaré imagines a world in which people’s lives flourish as they increasingly become like Jesus. They provide models, resources, and training on the spiritual practices of Jesus and the historical Church. Go to the Resource pages for articles, online courses, and audio and video presentations.  ​
Saint Mary's Press Resource Center
​www.smp.org/resourcecenter
The Saint Mary's Press Resource Center has resources for download including maps, activities, lesson plans, prayers, articles, worksheets, and videos on many topics in Catholic faith formation. Follow the Prayer link to access resources.
​Soul Care Resources
www.soulcare.com/resources
Soul Care Collective is a free global digital network that exists to offer space, community, practices, and tools for people who are looking to grow in what it looks like to live from a healthy soul and authentically lead others to transformation:
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Spirituality & Practice
​www.spiritualityandpractice.com
This website is devoted to resources for spiritual journeys. The site is organized around "The Alphabet of Spiritual Literacy," 37 essential practices of the spiritual life. The "Spiritual Practices Toolkit" is compilation of links to articles, reviews, and instructions for more than 260 ways people practice their spirituality. The site includes over 150 e-courses on topics in spirituality, spiritual practices, and explorations into spiritual traditions. The e-course fees are affordable, and the programs designed with computer ease in mind for people of all ages.
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Vibrant Faith at Home Activities
​​www.vibrantfaithprojects.org/young-adults.html
​www.vibrantfaithprojects.org/adults--couples.html​
Hundreds of activities for home and church, created by Vibrant Faith, are available to download as PDFs. Young Adult and Adult activities are organized in six categories: Bible Stories, Conversations, Learning about Faith, Prayer, Ritual & Tradition, and Serving Others. Focus on the prayer activities for adults and young adults. 

Visual Faith Activities 
​www.vibrantfaithprojects.org/visual-faith-activities.html
Vibrant Faith has created 32 Visual Faith Experiences that connect a Bible passage to visual images that you can download as PDFs and use as thematic lessons at home or church throughout the year. There is also a guide for using the experiences on online platforms. Use this visual experiences for personal or communal prayer. 

Wesleyan Resource Center - Adults
​resources.wesleyan.org/?fwp_categories=adults
The Wesleyan Resource Center curates theologically Wesleyan and holistic resources motivated to move people from making decisions to trust Christ to actively following Jesus in close discipleship communities. All of the resources are free. Includes small group studies on a variety of biblical and faith themes, seasonal programs, and videos. 

Online Prayer & Apps
3-Minute Retreat 
3-Minute Retreat invites you to take a short prayer break right and spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.  
Abide
Abide is a Christian meditation app to stress less and sleep better. Listen to stories based off the Bible. Wake up with the daily meditations that will fuel your mind for the day.
d365 - Devotions 365 Days a Year (Young Adults)
In these devotions, you will read honest struggles and questions, all in the context of real faith. As you read the thoughts of the writers, think about your own response to the scripture for the day. Let the writer’s words serve as background for your own conversation with God. Instrumental music is available for your devotional experience. 
Daily Prayer
Daily Prayer is an experiential app designed to develop long lasting spiritual rhythms of prayer and scripture reading. Join in prayer and read scripture in the morning, midday, and evening, 
​Daily Prayer App (Presbyterian Church USA)The Office of Theology and Worship has developed a smartphone app for daily prayer. The Daily Prayer app provides simple, yet rich devotional resources for morning, midday, evening, and close of day. Each service includes psalms and readings from the confessions. Other elements include opening and closing words, biblical canticles, a thanksgiving for light and a prayer of confession. An advanced features menu allows users to customize which elements appear.
Explore Faith App 
www.explorefaith.org/resources/app/exploreprayer.php
The exploreprayer interactive iPhone app features more than 600 prayers to help you think deeply and intentionally about what you want to communicate to God. Choose your prayer intention, and let exploreprayer be your guide. 

Faith Gateway Daily Devotionals
www.faithgateway.com/topics/devotionals

Franciscan Media Prayer Resources
f you are drawn to words of inner reflection, Minute Meditations could be for you. If you find strength and solace in the lives of the saints, you’ll love our Saint of the Day. If you are looking for a simple way to pray, Pause + Pray can provide an easy structure to create a daily routine.
God Pauses
​www.luthersem.edu/godpause/
God Pause are short, meaningful daily devotions brought to you by the alumni of Luther Seminary. God Pauses can be accessed online or delivered via email each morning.

Henri Nouwen Daily Meditation & Reflection
​henrinouwen.org
Drawn from a wide range of Henri Nouwen’s writing, these short meditations inspire and guide people's mind and heart. Each reflection takes less than a minute to read and yet can set the tone for the day. It is sent via email in the early morning.

Jesuit Prayer - Daily Prayer
Jesuit Daily Prayer includes a daily Scripture, Ignatian Reflection, and Ignatian Prayer. The prayer experience is provided every day of the week, with reflections rooted in Ignatian spirituality.
Liturgy of the Hours - Divine Office App
Listen and pray the Liturgy of the Hours on the go. The Divine Office App is an opportunity for you to participate in the recitation of the Liturgy of the Hours, an ancient and meditative collection of psalms, hymns and scripture that represent the public prayer of the Christian community. Also available are three Lite apps: Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer. 
Pray As You Go
Pray As You Go is a daily prayer session, designed to go with you wherever you go, to help you pray whenever you find time, and lasting between ten and thirteen minutes with music, Scripture and questions for reflection.  
Sacred Space
www.sacredspace.ie 
Sacred Space is a daily online prayer experience in six movements including preparing your body and mind, and culminating in reflection on a Scripture passage chosen specially for the day.

Society of Saint John the Evangelist
https://www.ssje.org​
Society of Saint John the Evangelist offers daily prayer via email and seasons prayer activities, as well as the opportunity to join the Brothers online for prayer.
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Soulspace
Soulspace meditation app has been created to help anchor your thoughts to the love of God and the way of Jesus. Soulspace seeks to rid the soul of fear and stress while filling it with truth and life. This creates the opportunity for true and lasting wholeness.

Podcasts
Renovaré Podcast
renovare.org/podcast
The Renovaré Podcast is a place for honest conversations about interactive life with God. Nathan Foster draws wisdom from guests — including authors, pastors, and artists — who are all seeking to be more like Jesus.