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 names being read from the slips left in the church.
Following these prayers, it was time for a snack in the kitchen, washed down with a large glass of Inka.
After snacking, there was time to work on some icons and a reliquary cross that was in need of repair. It is made of olive wood but had a non-canonical crucifix attached with some kind of resin and this had to be removed. The removal took some doing because the resin was super hard and had to be dissected with a sharp knife and hammer. With that being accomplished, then the cross had to be resurfaced and the repair completed. This completion included the coating of the cross with “German Gold” which is an artificial gold that is often used by professional iconographers and secular artists due to the fact that it is less expensive than real gold and also that it has a beauty of it’s own.
Later in the evening, several parishioners arrived with a new couch for Fr Moses; it is both beautiful and comfortable. It was interesting to watch the struggle to take the couch up the stairs because it is a substantial piece of furniture and that means it is heavy as well as bulky. After settling the couch into place, a bit of “cleaning” was done and then several chairs were also brought up to replace some older chairs that were taking up way too much room. All of this activity was a bit unsettling but the end results were quite amazing.
When the work had been accomplished, there was time for briefly chatting, having a bit of tea and wishing one another the paschal greeting, “Christ is Risen!”