Join Us For Worship

Saint Paul’s celebrates the power of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through participation in weekly worship and special services.

Worship in the Sanctuary
Sundays at 10:30 am
101 N El Monte Ave, Los Altos, California


Holy Communion First, Third, and Fifth Sundays & Feast Days

Matins (Morning Prayer)
Second and Fourth Sundays

What is Matins?

In many times and places, daybreak has been a time of prayer. Jews prayed in their synagogues at sunrise as well as at other times each day. This Jewish pattern of prayer formed the basis of the Christian monastic Daily Office, with its prayers or “hours” at seven times in each day. 


Thomas Cranmer’s revision of the Daily Office for the first English Prayer Book (1549) reduced the number of services to two-one for morning (Matins) and one for evening (Evensong). In the Second English Prayer Book (1552), the morning service was given its present name, Morning Prayer. 


Many elements of Morning Prayer come from the monastic hours of matins (e.g., Venite and Te Deum), lauds (e.g., Benedicte, omnia opera Domini, a “chapter” of scripture, Benedictus Dominus Deus, collect of the day), and Prime (e.g., a second “chapter” of scripture and the Apostles’ Creed).


Psalms were recited at every one of the offices, with the whole Psalter recited once a week. In the 1549 BCP, psalms were read at both Morning and Evening Prayer, with the whole Psalter read “in course” once each month. In subsequent Prayer Book revisions, psalms have come to be used more selectively, although a monthly cycle of psalms read “in course” is still provided as an option. 



The Typical Order of Service:


Processional
General Confession 

The Lord’s Prayer 

The Venite 

Psalm 

First Lesson 

Te Deum 

Second Lesson 

Jubilate Deo 

The Apostles Creed

Collect for the Day 

Collects and Prayers 

General Thanksgiving 
A Prayer of St. Chrysostom

The Grace 


What is Holy Communion?

Holy Communion sometimes called the Eucharist, Lord’s Supper, or the Mass, has been the Church’s principal service for nearly 2,000 years.


The first part of the liturgy is based upon the synagogue service which earliest Christians continued to attend after Christ’s resurrection. It consists of prayers, scripture readings and sermon. The second part involves an act of self-sacrifice. Bread and wine, representing the lives of the people, are placed upon the altar. 


There they are joined to Christ’s absolute act of self-sacrifice and offered up to God. Our lives are then returned to us, imbued with Christ’s own life force. His very Body and blood. In so doing the congregation literally fulfills the word of Romans 12:1:


“I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”


The Typical Order of Service:


Processional
Collect
Decalogue/Summary of the Law
Collect of the Day
Epistle Reading
Gospel Reading
Nicene Creed
Announcements
Sermon
Offertory
Doxology
Prayer for the Whole State of Christ’s Church
Confession and Absolution
Comfortable Words
Sanctus
Consecration
Invocation
Lord’s Prayer
Agnus Dei
Ministration of Holy Communion
Post Communion Thanksgiving
Glory in Excelsis
Benediction
Recessional