All events are in Phoenix, Arizona timezone.
Arizona does not participate in Daylight Saving Time, if you live outside AZ, please google or use the link below to find the time zone conversion for your location.
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Soul Care Day Series
Come for one or two soul care days throughout 2026
REGISTRATION FOR SOUL CARE DAYS
April 30, 2026 // 9a -3 pm Soul-Care Day: Response – From Knowledge to Friendship
Awareness leads to invitation. This day focuses on how we respond to God’s presence with trust, surrender, and love. We consider the tension between traditions that emphasize right thinking and those that emphasize heartfelt experience, discovering that true maturity requires both. Drawing from scripture and stories of revival, we explore how response transforms belief into friendship with God. Through prayer, confession, and acts of obedience, we learn that concepts alone cannot comfort—only presence can. Response is the movement from hearing God’s call to saying, “Here I am,” allowing the Spirit to set our hearts ablaze.
September 24, 2026 // 9a-3p Soul-Care Day: Distraction & Resistance – The Fire That Refines
After awareness and response, we encounter forces that pull us away—distractions of comfort, ambition, and fear—and inner resistance to surrender. This day examines how these challenges are not signs of failure but invitations to deeper transformation. Like gold tested by fire, resistance refines us, burning away what is unholy and awakening virtues like love, wisdom, and joy. Through scripture, silence, and honest dialogue, we learn to hold our questions in faith, trusting the Spirit’s work even in trial. Distraction and resistance remind us that becoming “all flame” is a journey—one that passes through struggle into greater freedom and intimacy with God.
Location: Franciscan Renewal Center – 5802 E Lincoln Dr, Scottsdale, AZ 85253
Cost:
Regular Registration – $55 per soul care day
General Member Registration – $50 per soul care day
Full & Professional Member Registration – $48 per soul care day
Contemplative Nature Hike & Lunch in Pine, AZ
May 2, 2026 // 9:30 am
Location: Pine Trailhead in Pine, AZ
Step away from the noise and come join us for a Contemplative Hike, a guided time of stillness, prayer and connection with God in creation. There will be lunch afterwards at a local restaurant to spend some time in community.
What to Bring: Comfortable shoes and plenty of water!
Led by: the SFSAZ Team
No cost. Lunch is your own cost.
Anxiety and Prayer: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why
Tuesday, May 12, 2026 // 11pm-1pm AZ time zone
Location: online via zoom
In this insightful session, our guest presenter X. Nader Sahyouni, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Spiritual Director, will explore how not all prayer practices are equally helpful when dealing with anxiety. In this webinar, we will draw upon insights from psychotherapy, spiritual formation, and brain science to discover how to pray when we’re anxious in the present, walk through the root causes of anxiety with God, and prayerfully build resilience to better face anxiety in the future.
X. Nader Sahyouni is a licensed clinical professional counselor and a spiritual director with a Doctor of Ministry in Spiritual Formation. He regularly speaks at retreats and conferences on the intersection of psychotherapy, spiritual formation, and brain science. Nader is the author of Anxiety Transformed: Prayer that Brings Enduring Change as well as The Three A’s of Anxiety: A Prayer Workbook. Nader lectures annually at North Park Theological Seminary’s Center for Spiritual Direction. He is Assistant Director of Spiritual Foundations for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship where he works to support InterVarsity staff nationally.
Led by: SFSTX
Cost: $25
Sabbath as Sacred Resistance and Rest
Soul Care Day
Saturday June 13, 2026 // 9:00a-11:00a AZ time zone
Step away from the noise and rediscover the gift of Sabbath as sacred time, soul-deep rest, and quiet resistance to a hurried world. This guided 2-hour online experience weaves together Scripture, reflective practices, and moments of quiet presence to help you reconnect with God, yourself, and what truly matters. Come not to achieve, but to receive.
Location: online via zoom
Led by: SFSAZ – Ben Gores and Ted Wueste
Cost: FREE, donations accepted
Immerse in Silence & Solitude
July 20-24, 2026
Our longest silent retreat is 5 days of silence and prayer with God.
We will begin and end in a shared space together.
Rooms and single occupancy with bedsheets and linens provided. Meals and all materials needed are provided.
Transportation is not provided.
Led by SFSAZ Team
Location: Prince of Peace Abbey, Oceanside California
Cost: Non-Member $725, General Member $652, Full and Professional Member $625
Practicing Silence & Solitude
October 23-25, 2026 // 1pm begin and 1pm end
48 hours of silence and prayer with God.
We will begin and end in a shared space together.
Rooms and single occupancy with bedsheets and linens provided. Meals and all materials needed are provided.
Led by SFSAZ Team
Location: Franciscan Renewal Center – Scottsdale, AZ
Cost:
Regular (Non-Member) Registration – $428
General Member Registration – $385
Full & Professional Member Registration: $364
Contemplative Hike
Monthly at 8am – December thru April
Location: Dreamy Draw Recreational Park, 2421 E Northern Ave, Phoenix
Step away from the noise and come join us for a Contemplative Hike, a guided time of stillness, prayer and connection with God in creation. Each month we will examine a different contemplative practice: Silence, Centering Prayer, Breath Prayer and Lectio Divina.
Each hike will be approximately 3-4 miles.
What to Bring: Comfortable shoes and plenty of water!
Led by: the SFSAZ Team
No cost.
creative pause. soul care for your creative self
Refund Policy
In-person events: 30 days or more prior to event: 100%, 14-29 days before event: 90%, 7-13 days before event: 60%, 1-6 days before event: 30%
No refunds available after an event.
Ongoing Contemplative Prayer Offerings
Be/Still
Camino de Phoenix Walk
Available anytime
Location: Walk begins at Cross Roads United Methodist Church (7901 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85020) and ends at Canaan in the Desert (9849 N 40th St, Phoenix, AZ 85028).
“Pilgrimages are not about one place being more holy than another, for God is everywhere. Making pilgrimages involves a response to something inside us that longs to move toward, that seeks the holy beyond.” – Father Murray Bobo
The walk is approximately 9 miles.
Visit the Camino de Phoenix website for more information and a map of the walk.
Created by: the SFSAZ Team
Contemplative Prayer Group
Taizé Prayer
Other Offerings
Renew
Renew: individual private retreats designed by our SFSAZ team to fit who you are and where you are in your life with God. Retreats include accommodations and meals at a retreat center as well as time with a Spiritual Director and Pastoral Counselor to help process all that you are experiencing as you spend time with God. Retreats can be anywhere from 2-5 days. Let us know and we can consult with you in designing a retreat. Great for times of discernment, transition, and/or simply needing the space to reflect and be renewed in your life with God and the ministry to which He has called you.
Please fill out this form to initiate the process.
FORMATIO: the art of caring for souls
A two-year cohort journey in learning the art of soul care. Based around six retreats, participants will learn to more fully care for their own soul as well as coaching others in the ways and rhythms of Jesus. The art of caring for souls is companioning someone in their journey of experiencing God in awakening to the love of God, growing awareness of self and God, increasing attentiveness to His presence and voice, and abiding in/with God. This invites a lifestyle of intentional practices and rhythms that form us in the image of Christ. Some of those practices include: silence and solitude, prayer and listening, and discernment and detachment in the context of Scripture and community. Click here for more program information.