Merrill teacher

By Sallie Bachar
Catholic Herald correspondent

Teacher fulfills lifelong dream to become nun

MERRILL -- As far back as she can remember, Pam Hodgson has always wanted to be a nun, it just took her awhile to make the decision. "It has been something in the back of my mind all my life," she said.

Growing up in Merrill, she attended St. Francis School and wanted to enter the convent right after graduating from the eighth grade. Her pastor, however, advised her parents that she should wait a few years. Hodgson, who is now 50, did just that. Thirty-six years later she is fulfilling her lifelong dream and joining the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross.

She attended high school at Our Lady of the Holy Cross in Merrill which was run by the same order and then went on to college, receiving a bachelor's degree in K-3 education from the UW-Stevens Point.

Her first teaching assignment was second grade at St. Francis in 1973, a position which she continues to hold today. "I reasoned that since I was teaching in a Catholic school, that was almost like being a nun," she said.

However, the nagging feeling never left her, and when Hodgson became involved in the Development Program for the Holy Cross Sisters, she started thinking more seriously about joining the order. After responding favorably to the same questionnaire that prospective candidates were given, she realized that becoming a Sister was what she was looking for.

Hodgson, who is in her first year of formation, will spend this time living in community, learning about the history of the order, joining in community activities and receiving instruction in religious studies.

Before making her profession of vows, she will spend another one to two years in intensive prayer, reflection, study and discernment. It will be like a sabbatical, she said, with no other commitments. During that phase of the formation she will have the opportunity to visit other Sisters in her community and be exposed to different forms of ministry. Although teaching has been her life for 27 years, she said she is open to whatever the Lord wants of her.

Her family and friends have been very supportive. Most of them were not even surprised at her decision. "They just wanted to know what took me so long."

The students at St. Francis were very excited for her when she first announced her intention. The older girls wanted to know what her new name would be and if she would wear a habit. "They all want to call me Sister Pam," she laughed, "but I tell them, not yet."

This school term will be Hodgson's last year of teaching at St. Francis, at least for now. "I was happy with what I was doing," she commented, "but I wanted something more, a deeper commitment, a deeper prayer life and a sense of community."

Hodgson is not the only new candidate to the order. Elizabeth MacDonald from New Orleans joined four months after Hodgson.

Born in Guatemala City, Central America, MacDonald came to the United States as a teen-ager, attending high school and Loyola University in New Orleans. Her work experience has been mostly in the areas of office management, accounting and sales, but her desire is to minister to the elderly.

"The Sisters are ecstatic," remarked Hodgson. "It has been several years since there was a new profession and now there are two of us preparing."