A day of Paschal Quiet in the monastery, and much needed! We have had a lot of visitors and more are expected next week. Getting the balance right between being welcoming and not destroying the very thing people seek when they visit is always difficult. The difficulty is compounded by the boring necessity of earning a living/cleaning the house/filling in our Tax Return/keeping appointments and generally doing everything else that living in this world requires. Fortunately, the monastic sense of humour is "an ever present help in time of trouble" (cf the "biblical" definition of a lie as "an abomination unto the Lord; and an ever present help in time of trouble", which shows the devil can cite scripture well enough.) I think the Risen Christ of the gospels had a keen sense of humour, too: eating broiled fish before the disciples' eyes, preparing a barbeque breakfast on the seashore, and teasing poor Peter into a threefold admission of love to counterbalance his threefold denial. I hope there's humour in heaven. If not, some of us are destined to linger a long time outside the door.