10 year anniversary of our Prayer Wall - Rector's Rambling for April 12, 2026

 Alleluia, Christ is Risen!  The Lord is Risen Indeed, Alleluia!

We continue our celebration of Easter today, and throughout the remainder of the 40 days of the Easter Season.  It seems only fair that if we spent 40 days of fasting and penitence for Lent, then the celebration should be at least as long!  The Easter Seasons ends with the Feast of the Ascension, which falls on May 14th this year.  We then add 10 more days of special prayer and intention in preparation of the gift of God the Holy Ghost on the Feast of Whitsunday, also known as Pentecost. 

Thank you to the many people who pitched in last week for our grand celebration of the Feast of the Resurrection.  The music was sublime, the liturgy transcendent, coffee hour delicious and plentiful, and the congregation joyful and exuberant.  It was a wonderful day and I am thankful to God for the Feast Day and to the many people of St. John’s who participated in making it such a wonderful day.

Today marks an interesting milestone.  It was on the First Sunday after Easter in 2016 that we dedicated The Prayer Wall on Montcalm Aveue. 

Joe Alff, who with his wife Marge now live the Chicago area, had a great idea that we needed a place were people could offer their prayers in a tangible way 24 hours a day, without having to come inside the church.  The design is based on the idea of the Western Wall of the former Temple in Jerusalem where people write their prayers on slips of paper and insert it in the slots between stones of the foundation of a place were God dwelt in a special way, until it became redundant because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Joe approached his neighbor Gene Pluhar with an idea for the design, and from there was born the the prayer wall we now have located on Montcalm Street on the side of the parish parking lot.  People walking by for events at the stadiums, arena, and, as well as those  just passing by, stop to put a prayer in the wall.  On Sunday a team of parishioners spend a few minutes out there reaffirming their prayers, asking God to grant them as may be most expedient for them.   I have personally witnessed people stopping to pray very late at night, and very early in the morning.