Sister Barbara Jean Glodowski
“I was born with my feet planted in mid-air,” says Sister Barbara Jean Glodowski in describing her comfort with the many changes she has experienced through her career in education and human services.
But the truth of that statement runs deep: Just after she was born, her mother was rushed into surgery to have her appendix removed. The newborn Barbara Jean was tended for ten days by nurse Sister Ignatious at the Wendell hospital, who also lifted her up each day and prayed that the child would grow to become an avowed religious. The very same Sister would eventually welcome the18-year-old Barbara Jean to St. Gertrude’s, saying, “My little girl has finally arrived.”
Such a beginning might imply that Barbara Jean walked a clear path to her vocation as a Sister of the Benedictine Community of St. Gertrude. But that is not the case. “I wanted to grow up, be a nurse and get married,” she says. “I just dumped all the brochures on religious life. I wasn’t interested.”
But what she did not know is that her own mother had contemplated becoming a nun. Although her mother eventually discerned her own calling to marriage and family, she still prayed that one of her children would have a vocation. When an invitation came to attend a Profession ceremony at St. Gertrude’s, the adolescent Barbara Jean found herself reluctantly in tow.
“Oh I was mad,” she recalls. “I didn’t want to go. But at the ceremony, I was awe-struck. All I could do was cry. ‘What was that about?’ I asked myself.” Still, she resisted. When her priest poignantly asked her if she felt a calling, she affirmed her desire to be a nurse and get married. “Then he asked, ‘Have you ever thought of putting God first?’ That pierced my heart,” she recalls.
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After that, her life took on a movement toward entering the St. Gertrude’s convent that she finally couldn’t deny. “‘Okay, God,’ I said, ‘I will prove to you that I don’t belong. I will just go to show that I don’t belong there.’” At the age of 18 Barbara Jean left her native Jerome and entered St. Gertrude’s. Two years later she made her first Profession. That was over fifty years ago.
Having grown up on a farm, Sister Barbara Jean felt a resonance with rural life in Cottonwood. Then at the age of 19, she was called to be a 2nd grade teacher. “Many of us began teaching that way,” she recalls. “We obtained temporary teaching licenses and took our 8-10 credits each year. We taught all year long and then went to college in the summers.”
“I got on-the-job training – and I had excellent one-on-one mentoring from my older Sisters.” Sister Barbara Jean eventually earned her Master Degree in Education in 1975 and relished having the time to integrate her education with her teaching. “I was never afraid to try new things and see if the cutting edge ideas taught at the university actually worked.”
She shared her innovative style at schools in Cottonwood, Greencreek, Pocatello, Nampa and Rupert. Eventually she became a consulting reading specialist for the Idaho State Department of Education in Boise. She was assigned to five schools a year, helping teachers improve at teaching.
In 1993 she was called home to be Assistant Prioress to Sister Mary Kay Henry. After four years, Sister Barbara Jean began a nationwide ministry leading workshops on second-half-of-life spirituality. During this time, she also continued her work as a reading specialist and consulting teacher.
In 2003, she was called by Community leadership to be the Mission/Pastoral Director at St. Mary’s Hospital and Clearwater Valley Hospital. When Spirit Center opened, she became the retreat center’s first director. Then several years later, she recruited and trained volunteer ombudsmen for the Area Agency on Aging in Lewiston, an organization that sends volunteers into nursing homes to mediate for elders.
As she looks toward her 70th birthday in October, she is now busy as the Mission/Pastoral Director for St. Benedicts Hospital in Jerome, where she visits with patients every day and organizes crisis teams. She also provides care for her 93-year-old mother, who lives with her.
“What keeps me fresh is I know there always has to be a better way. I ground with daily prayer, always working toward deepening balance in my life. I love working with creativity, with what-ifs, what-could-be… ‘Status Quo’ is not in my vocabulary. I am future-oriented. And I am really proud of my Community. I know the faithfulness of my Sisters to prayer. I know I am sustained by them. I want women to hear that there is this other choice: of gathering together with a community of women to be of service.”