Sister Wendy Olin
Novice Wendy Olin became Sister Wendy Olin on July 24, 2010 when she celebrated her First Monastic Profession in the presence of her family and the community of the Monastery of St. Gertrude.
“The highlight for me was the Suscipe,” said Sister Wendy, referring to the prayer sung on her knees at the altar. “It’s that total giving: ‘here I am.’ I sang it and the community sang it back. It summarized me giving myself to God and to my community for life – and my community receiving me.”
In addition to her community, Sister Wendy was supported by her parents Beverly and Justin Olin of Reno, NV, as well as an array of other friends and family from Emmett and the Boise, ID area.
As a student at the University of Nevada, Reno, Wendy had plans for her future – none of which included becoming a Catholic nun. But then circumstances led her to her first encounter with a Catholic church.
Her sorority little sister, Denise, asked for a ride to the hospital to visit her grandmother who was in critical health. On the way home, she asked Wendy to drop her off at the cathedral so she could attend Mass. When they got there, her friend asked her to come in with her. Never having set foot in a Catholic church, Wendy was reluctant. She agreed, however, feeling it would help comfort her friend.
Inside the cathedral, Wendy remembers feeling the overwhelming presence of something bigger than her. She returned to attend Mass every week afterward and joined the Catholic Church in 1975.
Two years later, Wendy took her first elementary teaching job in Grandview, Idaho. While attending a teacher’s workshop in Sun Valley, she met Sister Mary Anne Glodowski, a Benedictine nun from St. Gertrude’s. They became friends and Sister Mary Anne invited her to visit the Monastery of St. Gertrude in 1986.
“From the moment I walked into the chapel, I felt I belonged here,” recalled Wendy. “I felt I’d prayed those prayers and sung those songs before.” She then began to visit more frequently, hearing an ever-growing call to the monastic life.
She says that life after her First Monastic Profession is both the same and completely different. “I laid myself on the altar as Christ did…..My life is no longer my own.”
With her four years of Formation over, she is now free for full-time ministry. She has accepted the position of Curator of the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude and is excited about reigniting the museum’s educational programs. While schools may not have the funds to send students to the museum, she believes the museum can visit the schools.
She is also renewing her teaching certificate so that she may more readily “meet the needs of the time,” reflecting a Benedictine ministerial orientation that values a heightened responsiveness to the realities of the world.