Holy Redeemer Lutheran Church
1948 The Alameda
San Jose, CA 95126
San Jose, CA 95126
At Holy Redeemer we believe that everyone should have an active, intentional prayer — and we move together in our faith journey with that as one of our bulwarks. We cannot conceive of any active Christian going through a day without coming Face to Face with God in an act of prayer. In order to help members with this part of their faith journey Holy Redeemer offers a number helps and invitations during each month — among these are the prayer insert, the prayer wheel, our monthly prayer vigil for peace and other prayer vigils. Those are the obvious ones, but there are more. Each time Chrysalis is printed, we will try to offer another example (or several examples) of our corporate prayer life (either currently active or potentially active), so that you might add to the richness of your personal prayer life.
Contemplation and Communion (Friday at 10 am)This is actually a time of prayer for the office staff, begun by Pastor John almost 7 years ago. The office staff gathers in the sanctuary to engage in meditative prayer concerning the congregation, the church at large, the world, and anything else that might be on their prayer agenda. There is no structure to the time together, other than that it begins at 10 and lasts until the CD that the staff is listening to comes to an end. At that point those who are present greet one another in the peace of the Lord and take communion.
Contemplation and Communion is not just for the staff, however. It is for anyone who would like to come and spend some time in prayer. We have visitors that come for 5 or 10 minutes and visitors that stay for the entire time. Some visitors attend almost every week and some only attend on an intermittent basis. Some have come once and never returned.
This is a chance for anyone who has a little time on Friday morning to enrich their prayer life, by meditating on what it is that God is saying to you and by spending an hour coming Face to Face with God.
Prayer Vigils (intermittent schedule)Every month we offer a number of prayer vigils in which members might participate. On the 7th of each month we have a Prayer Vigil for Peace in the Middle East. This vigil is a response to our national bishop inviting congregations to engage in this particular prayer vigil. Members are urged to take between 5 and 30 minutes out of their day to sit quietly and pray for peace on this day.
On the second Sunday of each month we join with the Friends to hold a quiet vigil for peace and an end to the war in Iraq. This takes place on the nearby overpass and everyone in the congregation is invited to walk over for a short time (between 11:30am and noon).
Other vigils also take place during the year and members should watch for information concerning them prior to the time they occur (example: Vigil for the Tomb on Good Friday).