Feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius

Today the Church celebrates these two ninth century brothers who left their homeland to preach the gospel to the Slavic nations. They were committed to the concept that the liturgy should be in the vernacular so they had to create what became known as the Cyrillic alphabet, which was the root of the Russian alphabet.
It is once again instructive to realize that they first didn't first translate the bible into the new language. They translated the liturgy, meaning the Mass. Why didn't they just start with Scripture? The likely answer is that the best way in the 9th century as in every century is to present the gospel in the context of the Church. In all likelihood, the literacy rate in the 9th century Slavic nations was very low, and the best way to preach the gospel was in the liturgy which is literally filled with scripture. In the end of his life, one of the brothers indeed did translate the entire bible as well as many writings of the Church Fathers.