Here at the monastery, it was sunny, warm and much more what a person might expect springlike weather to be. This was good because we had a small group of people who came today to do what, to me, looked like gardening. Since I am not a gardener, this is only my interpretation of what I saw. People were wearing gloves and had little shovels and rakes and wheel barrows and were carefully scrutinizing the ground. Then they would stoop down with their gardening tools, and do whatever they were doing and then move on to repeat the process. I was at the window, working on an icon since that is the perfect spot with natural light. Occasionally I would look out to see the gardeners doing what they were doing.
It was also possible to complete the search for the Obednitsa service which was mentioned in a previous diary entry. Today I found the perfect copy, which is a translation from the Slavonic. One of the translators from the U.S., whose work I am familiar with, has worked very hard to provide accurate and useful translations in the English language; his desire is that the translations be, both accurate as well as understandable. While doing the search, I also took the time to check out several prayerbooks and was surprised that none of them contain a version of the Obednitsa and this I fail to understand. Hmm, would we call this one of the great mysteries of life?
So much for this daily adventure and the discovery of more mysteries. As is usual for this time of year, I shall sign off by reminding all of us of one of the great spiritual mysteries and that is that, “Christ is Risen!”