And then there were nuns...

We were invited by our dear friend Dominique Mintz to a holiday celebration at the Motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose. It was a most enjoyable afternoon, the first time I ever met more than a single nun in one sitting. We drove around Fremont, looking for a modest sort of building, and finally realized that the Motherhouse was like the Mother Ship, the largest and oldest building on the grounds. Later, as I sat to write this, I learned that Motherhouse is one word.

We were greeted by several Sisters and eventually introduced to the Prioress General, Sister Rose Marie Hennessy, the only person I have ever met with such a cool title. Sister Rose Marie gave a nice talk about the Circles of Caring capital campaign, which is being used to retrofit and upgrade the chapel and elder care center for the Sisters. We got a tour of the still-being-renovated facility, which was dusty, but clearly a great work in progress.

The Sisters tend several hundred olive trees on their property, which they also harvest to make olive oil. We tasted some of the extremely low acid oil and found it quite fruity and nice. We were happy to be able to take some home with us after making a small donation to the cause. I feel like we've got a little holy water stashed away in the pantry.

On the way there, Alex asked another of his penetrating questions:

"Why aren't nuns allowed to have children? You know it's not something they can control because God decides if you're going to have children."

None of the nuns offered any better explanation...