This has proved to be another hot and humid day, the kind that makes a person want to immerse themselves in a container of cold water and remain there all day. Even so, there was work to be done and so the thought of cold water had to be put aside and then the daily […]
Vladika Varlaam’s Daily Diary
Daily Diary, 15 July, 2020
What a scorchingly hot day today was at the monastery. Today I was especially thankful for the new heat vent which has been installed on my roof for the expelling of excess heat from the attic; I can’t imagine hot hot the attic must be. The usual prayers were read at the start of the […]
Daily Diary, 14 July, 2020
This was another hot and sunny day with more than a little work being carried out. The two most important tasks were: the Riso man came to check the printer and computer set up in the earlier part of the day, and the new heat vent was installed on my building so that heat would […]
Daily Diary, 13 July, 2020
It is hard to believe that already the mid point of the month has arrived. This fact, along with the two funerals we just served on the passed weekend, are excellent reminders to us of what a short period of time we have here on earth. This is one of the reasons we continually are […]
Daily Diary, 12 July, 2020
Today is the joyous feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. We celebrated the day by beginning on Saturday with the feastday Vesper service and then continued on Sunday morning with Matins and the Liturgy. Someone has carefully and thoughtfully posted signs on the church doors, detailing the social distancing requirements and asking people to […]
Daily Diary, 11 July, 2020
This has been a rather full day. We began with a funeral for the servant of God, Augustine, in the big church. As I mentioned in the entry for yesterday, we had the bringing of the coffin on Friday afternoon, followed by the reading of the Psalter, in the church. This continued all night long […]
Daily Diary, 9 July, 2020
Today is the Thursday that the N.A. people have their meeting at the monastery and once again it was well attended.The meeting took place at the fire pit since it was pretty much a dry and sunny day here at the monastery. Earlier in the day, we had an interesting lunch during which we were […]
Daily Diary, 8 July, 2020
This was another fairly relaxed, though warm day. As before, there were hordes of mosquitoes that made any journey outdoors most uncomfortable. As a result, I was once again indoors, doing a bit of research on the computer, working on an icon and also still trying to master use of the little sewing machine. After […]
Daily Diary, 6 July, 2020
Today was a lovely day from the perspective of the weather: not too hot, a bit sunny but, as was true for yesterday, there were mosquitoes in abundance. I walked into the field to take some photographs and the tall grass was swarming with them. Then I went to photograph near Archbishop Lazar’s little house […]
Daily Diary, 4 July, 2020
This day has proved to be an eventful one. Most of the day was spent in a variety of tasks, beginning with the reading of the Saturday prayers for the reposed. As well, I also read a Moleben and the names of a number of people for whom prayers were requested for the next 40 […]
Daily Diary, 3 July, 2020
Here we are already at the ending of the week, Friday. This has turned out to be a chilly, overcast and very rainy day. There is not a lot to report to the diary but still a bit happened. For one thing, Fr Moses completed proofreading the first section of Archbishop Lazar’s future volume on […]
Daily Diary, 2 July, 2020
Another muggy day at the monastery. It is cloudy and gray but still warm. As a result, it was possible to go out and take a number of photographs of the grounds. A number of people have brought beautiful bouquets of flowers and set them up at the memorial crosses which are near the barn. […]
Daily Diary, 30 June, 2020
This day proved to be fairly relaxing and an introduction to the coming secular holiday of Canada Day. Actually, not much happened that is out of the ordinary except that my friend Kirill came for a visit and did some cleaning. I took several photographs of him with the garden hose and sprayer in hand, […]
Daily Diary, 29 June, 2020
Monday was another warm day here at the monastery. Once again the day was spent mostly indoors, in order to avoid direct exposure to the sun. Even so, I did manage to go to the big church to put more oil into the lamp which I try to keep always burning before the icon of […]
Daily Diary, 28 June, 2020
For the first time in many, many weeks, this Sunday felt like a “normal” Sunday, with the serving of the Divine Liturgy in the morning, followed by what has now become the usual combination of tea and lunch. The Liturgy was served perhaps 50% in Slavonic and a little bit in Romanian and Serbian and […]
Daily Diary, 25 June, 2020
As much as I don’t want to repeat myself, let me say that it is hot here at the monastery and quite humid. I don’t know about anyone else but I find this kind of weather difficult to work in. It seems that all my clothes are glued to my body and as soon as […]
Daily Diaryб 24 June, 2020
Today proved to be another hot and muggy day here at the monastery. This resulted in my staying indoors once again in order to avoid as much heat as possible and to get a bit of work done on continuing finding frames for the icon prints which I have been saving to give as gifts […]
Daily Diary, 22 June, 2020
This was another sunny, hot and humid day. With it being dry and warm, this seemed to be a good time for a bit of photographic exploration. One of the natural beauties was the various plantings which three ladies have been enthusiastically working on for the passed month or maybe even more. There are bright […]
Daily Diary, 20 June, 2020
Another relaxed Saturday, well, relatively relaxed. Since today is Saturday, the first order of business is the reading of the memorial service which includes the reading of, literally, hundreds of names. This was followed by a call to come over to the kitchen where a small group of people had gathered and made a delicious […]
Daily Diary, 19 June, 2020
This day has proved to be rather productive but still allowed for a bit of relaxation. On the productive side, I found a vacuum cleaner which is light weight and functional so brought it over in order to vacuum a few spots which were in need of cleaning. As well, work has begun on the […]
Daily Diary, 18 June, 2020
Today was another hot and sticky day. I have spent most of the day indoors in order to stay away from the heat and the overpowering rays of the sun. The day began with the usual prayers and then I moved on to work on several art projects, one of which is a large framed […]
Daily Diary, 17 June, 2020
Another interesting and very hot day here at the monastery. There were a number of visitors who called to enquire concerning the possibility of visiting in order to pray and light candles. One Rusisan lady came and brought a bag of treats which consisted of a jar of French jam and another of tuna spread, […]
Daily Diary, 16 June, 2020
The second day of the fast and now that I’ve gotten used to the idea, food is not such an issue. Rather, today I am concentrating, once again, on searching for more picture frames and also on going through my list of names for Moleben services. Some of these had requested only 40 days while […]
Daily Diary, 15 June, 2020
This is the first day of the Apostle Fast and it is off to a good start. Since food is part of the picture, I returned to the kitchen for more culinary exploits. This time, I was concentrating on the creation of a nice lenten sandwich to go with a large glass of lenten Inka. […]
Daily Diary, 14 June, 2020
We began this day, the “Sunday of All Saints” with a Liturgy which was posted on Zoom. With the eased restrictions on social distancing (though restrictions are still being enacted) we had a small congregation which attended the service while managing to retain proper distancing throughout the service. It was wonderful to have actual people […]
Daily Diary, 13 June, 2020
Once again, we find ourselves observing a memorial on Saturday. The event took place at the Heritage Garden Cemetery in Surrey. There was supposed to be the blessing of the new tombstone but due to the settling of the ground at the grave site, it has been necessary to postpone the installing and blessing of […]
Daily Diary, 12 June, 2020
This day has been rather uneventful. It was beautifully spring-like and warm with a lot of sun most of the day. As is usual, the Moleben prayers were read with the lists of names that people have given in order to remember their loved ones.
Daily Diary, 11 June, 2020
This day has been pretty quiet and peaceful. During most of the day, it has been sunny and warm but now that evening is approaching, the clouds have once more begun to cast a veil over the sky and cause the temperature to drop. Kirill came for a visit and to have tea and a […]
Daily Diary, 10 June, 2020
Today was another exceptional day at the monastery, due to the blessing of a 15 year marriage. The blessing was for a youngish couple from Romania who have been married for 15 years, but not in church. They felt that this anniversary of their marriage would be the perfect time for a proper church blessing […]
Daily Diary, 9 June, 2020
Today I have to report to the diary that although the day began as it usually does, it didn’t end up being a “normal” day. The reason for the exceptional quality of the day is that not only is it the Tuesday of Pentecost Week, but the public library now has special arrangements for requesting […]
Daily Diary, 8 June, 2020
This was a long day with quickly changing weather. For one part of the day, it was cold, then the sun came out and it was warm. Later, the sun was covered with thick and dark clouds and it again became cold and rather damp. Since this is a fast free week, I am going […]
Daily Diary, 7 June, 2020
Today is the feast day of Pentecost. We began with the reading before the Liturgy and then began the service in the big church. Archbishop Lazar and Father Shio served and Father Moses was the chanter. Natasha attended the service and assisted Fr Moses in the chanting, which went quite well. Following the completed Pentecost […]
Daily Diary, 6 June, 2020
Today is Trinity Saturday so a special day leading up to Pentecost. It was quite hot here at the monastery so, once again, I stayed indoors most of the day, working on the curtains, reading the prayers for the reposed, and continuing the search for frames in which to exhibit icon prints. This evening Vespers […]
Daily Diary, 5 June, 2020
This day has been rather a bit cooler though the sun was shining on and off. Even so, I did stay inside and worked on the curtains until the sewing machine started acting up, which means back to the computer in order to search for how to solve the problem. Lunch today was excellent with […]
Daily Diary, 3 June, 2020
Today is proving to be another cool and overcast day at the monastery. What this means is that it has been necessary to stay indoors which is a good thing since there is always lots of work inside the building that is in need of doing. At this time, there is still a large box […]
Daily Diary, 2 June, 2020
This was another cold and overcast day. For this reason, most of the day was spent indoors. Most of the day was the usual but today, for the first time, I worked on making a new pair of curtains for a window. I thought it would be a simple task but it is proving to […]
Daily Diary, 1 June, 2020
Mondays some times prove to be quiet and uneventful days. Today was quiet but not what could be called uneventful. A number of Georgian pilgrims came to the monastery today, to light candles and pray in the big church and then they spend a good amount of time in the parking lot, just being there. […]
Daily Diary, 30 May, 2020
This is proving to be a relaxed and fruitful Saturday. It is overcast and a bit cold today and is raining so that means mostly staying inside, doing some work. The usual prayers for the reposed were read when I got up and began to function. Not only were the prayers read for those who […]
Daily Diary, 29 May, 2020
Today has proved to be another hot and humid day. I promised not to complain to the diary sooo, that is all to be said about the weather. Again, there was time to work on sewing some repairs to a couple of shirts and I am bagging some clothes that someone had given to me […]
Daily Diary, 28 MAY, 2020
Today is the feastday of the Ascension so we are no longer greeting one another with the Paschal greeting. We did celebrate the Liturgy for the feast this morning and it went well with Archbishop Lazar and Fr Shio serving, Fr Moses chanting and Vanya serving in the altar. Following the service, we did have […]
Daily Diary, 27 May, 2020
This day has proved to be a hot and humid one. To be honest, I find it to be most uncomfortable and am dreading to think of what summer will be like! Since today is the Eve of the Ascension Day feast, one of my tasks was to find the Ascension icon, set it up […]
Daily Diary, 26 May, 2020
This day has proved to be quite spring like with sun, and a gentle breeze creating a cool atmosphere. This afternoon I had the opportunity to have tea with Andy who was eating lunch after a number of hours of work in the field. Again I was sorting through a number of boxes of picture/photo […]
Daily Diary, 24 May, 2020
This day we celebrated the feast of Sts Kyril and Methody who were missionaries to the Slavic speaking people. These are two of my favourite saints so it was a joy to read the Canon in their honour. Saturday evening I read the Vesper service in the big church and Archbishop Lazar read the Zoom […]
Daily Diary, 23 May, 2020
We are back to creating another diary entry. Today has been mostly overcast, though surprisingly warm. Once again, this allowed for capturing some unseen and beautiful areas of the monastery grounds. Over the passed few weeks, a number of people have been busy in the removing of weeds and planting of plants and today the […]
Daily Diary, 22 May, 2020
A very quiet day with mostly overcast skies and quite cold. It feels cold enough to snow. It has been possible to catch up on some necessary reading, after all, a person can never know too much (although, a person can know too much of the wrong thing). Today my reading was concerning the developement […]
Daily Diary, 21 May, 2020
This proved to be a bit of a busy day due to a bit more arrangement of books in the library and also a chance to catch up on laundry. At this time, we are trying to get the library into some kind of working order and this begins with the settling of the encyclopedic […]
Daily Diary, 20 May, 2020
This day was another slow and pleasant day. The weather was a bit cool and the sky overcast for part of the day but not uncomfortable. My riassa was coming apart at the seams so part of the day was spent in sewing the sleeves back on and making repairs (by hand) to the pocket […]
Daily Diary, 19 May, 2020
Life at the monastery seems to be returning to a semblance of what it once was, at least in regard to visitors. As is usual, the day began with the reading of the memorial service and the stack of names that we have been asked to remember. This was followed by a Moleben, again with […]
Daily Diary, 17 May, 2020
This Sunday felt more like what might be called a “normal” Sunday as result of serving a Divine Liturgy in the big church. Archbishop Lazar and Father Shio served and the chanters were Sorin and Georgeta and Fr Moses. A group of Georgians attended the Liturgy and it went smoothly and efficiently. Following the Liturgy, […]