Today was certainly a day full of activity. The morning began with the reading of the Obednitsa which included the tropars and hymns of the feast for the Myrrhbearing women. The was followed by a simple lunch which included much to my joy, a sandwich. Why was that such a big deal, you are asking. Well, since I am still on a strict diet with no wheat bread, no rice, no potatoes, no sugar, no alcohol and so on, having a sandwich made with rye bread was a real treat. Someone had brought to the monastery a loaf of white rye bread and it has been carefully and thoroughly, enjoyed. Now you want to know what kind of sandwich. It was peanut butter with thinly sliced onions and butter, not margarine. Along with this was a juicy and sweet orange, a large glass of Inka and a hand full of dried apricots. Very tasty and nutritious.
Following lunch, at 14.00 came a Zoom Meleti which Archbishop Lazar had set up in his office. There were cables strewn over much of the floor so that it was difficult to walk around, to check connections and so on. Somehow it was done and the Meleti seems to have been a success.
At the same time as the beginning of the Meleti, Kirill came to the monastery and brought Mimi, the little golden chihuahua whom everyone loves. Kirill worked all afternoon clearing away rubbish, helping with the myriad cables in the office and checking with Vladika Lazar concerning jobs that needed to be done at this time. He also cleared away rubble from the construction of Fr Shio’s room because the rubble had been left downstairs, just at the entrance to the building. After clearing away the rubble, Kirill then swept and vacuumed and dusted and set up the area like an outdoor sitting room, which I took a few photographs of and posted to Archbishop Lazar.
In the afternoon, Archbishop Lazar and I were talking about the Obednitsa and I mentioned that I have a copy of it, in English. It is an excellent service which people can serve at home, even without a priest. It is easy to learn how to serve the Obednitsa and we are going to reproduce the text so that it might be available to any who might wish to have a copy; please just tactfully remind us because sometimes we are a bit slow and this is an important project.
With this bit of entry into the daily diary, I’ll close with the festive and meaningful salutation: “Christ is Risen!”
