We are all gathered for Marilyn’s installation ceremony as a member of Leadership Team and the Director for the St. Louis Province of the Congregation of Sisters of St. Joseph – Carondelet.  The CSJs are an order of Roman Catholic nuns that originated in LePuy France in 1648 and came to the St. Louis, Missouri area in 1836 to set up a school for the deaf.  The St. Louis Province is one of four that makes up the current Federation of CSJ’s in the U. S. The St. Louis Province has sisters in 18 states, South America and Africa.

The ceremony was today at 2 PM CDT at the Motherhouse in south St. Louis.  It was both a celebration of the service rendered by the current leadership team over the last six years and a call to leadership of the new team.  It was not a mass but it was certainly a religious ceremony, planned and executed by the Sisters in accordance with the principles and traditions of their order.  I have posted pictures from the event in a separate Gallery post with today’s date.

There was a reception following the ceremony after which Marilyn gave us a tour of some “public” parts of the building, including her new office.  By then it was time to head to the TreeHouse where we had a 5:00 PM dinner reservation for 10 people.  Mike had to work today and was not able to attend the celebration or dinner, so we ended up with nine: Marilyn, Linda H., Ron and Mary, Clayton, Judy and her daughter Mary, and finally Linda and me.  Judy is Marilyn, Ron, and Linda’s cousin.  Marilyn had selected this restaurant for several reasons.  For one, she and Linda were familiar with it as it is only a few miles from the two hospital complexes where they worked (Linda still does).  It was also convenient to the CSJ – Carondelet Motherhouse.  But mostly they selected it because it was a very good vegetarian restaurant with lots of vegan dishes and options.

We ordered the last four of the special salad of the day and shared them.  The ingredients were very fresh and very tasty.  Linda had the “beef bourguignon” stew and I had the “jambalaya” as did several other people.  Both were made with seitan (a wheat gluten product) and both were excellent.  The TreeHouse makes their own seitan and vegan cheeses.  Since I was driving I had a Ginger Beer (non-alcoholic).  It came out of a can, but it was also very good.  For dessert Linda had a vegan cheesecake and I had a vegan ginger/pear crisp.  Both of them were disappointing; definitely not on par with the salads and entrees.  Those who had the chocolate desserts said they were excellent, although not quite as good as Linda’s chilled double-chocolate torte that she made Thursday evening and served after dinner on Friday.

After dinner we exchanged contact information with Judy, Mary, and Clayton, said our farewells, and drove back to Linda and Marilyn’s house.  We relaxed and chatted until the effect of the long wonderful day finally settled in.  We said our good nights and farewells with Ron, Mary, and Linda before they drifted off to bed as we would likely be gone in the morning before they arose.