After 1970, when Archbishop Anthony had asked the fathers to go to San Francisco for the Feast, the Brotherhood spent every Pascha at the hermitage. Surrounded by God’s nature, the monks could experience the joy of the Feast without distraction. The bushes and flowers usually began to bloom at Pascha time as an image of the Resurrection; and the fathers decorated their church with myriads of the bright blossoms.
The fathers were to remember fondly the first Pascha they spent alone in their skete, in the year 1971. Since no priest or bishop would be coming to them to serve Liturgy on Pascha, the fathers went to Sacramento to receive Holy Communion a few days before the Feast.
Whenever he was in Sacramento, Fr. Seraphim was eager to visit a former choir boy and acolyte of St. John of Kronstadt, the elderly Subdeacon Alexey Makushinsky. He would ask him detailed questions about what St. John of Kronstadt was like, how he served in the altar, etc., absorbing every word of this eyewitness testimony of such a great Saint. For him it was almost like getting to know St. John personally.
-Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, Ch. 69 “An Orthodox Corner of America”