Candidate Pam Hageman

 I could simply say, I followed our Blessed Mothers example and just said YES. In part, that would be true, but it was not just one yes, nor was it a conversion as dramatic as with St. Paul’s. 

My journey to the Glenmary Sisters has been an amazing journey of providence. I have always been happy doing what I was doing but carried a nagging feeling of “I wasn’t quite there” wherever there was. Something was missing.

I worked for over 15 years as a land surveyor, over 10 with the Forest Service out west. A great job, I loved it. But there was something missing, so I prayed. I went back to school to learn some occupation with which to work with the elderly and those at the end of life. Each level of education and each job it would potentially prepare me for was great. But something was missing. I enrolled in a PhD program in North Carolina studying elderly populations at the macro level. But something was missing and I prayed. From that program, I went to work for a non-profit as a community development specialist and helped rural communities secure safe drinking water and sanitation in Indiana. I lived in a small town, was active in a wonderful parish, and loved my job. But something was missing. 

The scripture passage highlighted in Matthew and others passages began to tug at my heart. About 4 years ago, my devotion to Mary increased after reading St. Louis De Montfort and my willingness to say yes. My first big yes was to the possibility of religious life at a come and see weekend with the Sisters of Providence. A friend in Indiana had long known of the Glenmary Sisters and suggested that I might look into their mission. Immediately, I could see many overlapping areas of interest, even Father Bishop’s mapping of the home mission area which spoke to my land surveying and later demographic work. My first phone call to the Glenmary Center and Sr. Sharon’s question asking “what can we do to find out if God is calling you to the Glenmary Sisters” touched my heart. I came for a visit. The week before I came, I received word that the grant I wrote for my position was funded for 3 years. Sr. Sharon and I talked and I didn’t anticipate or see how I could do anything for at least three years. But, in my heart I said yes to the Glenmary Sisters if that was where God was leading me. A year and a half into the grant I just said yes. I asked my organization to begin looking for my replacement because I wanted to pursue religious life. Then I began formal application to the Glenmary Sisters. That was last January.

As a later vocation, there have been many times when I have called upon the blessings of our dear Mother to say yes, sometimes I hesitate. I have no doubt that yes is the right answer and I have been blessed with many consolations to confirm that ‘yes’. Geographically as well as spiritually, it seems the path my life has followed was always leading me here. I continue to grow in my surrendering my life to God, as we all do. I consider myself blessed with the opportunity to completely give my life. I have not been tested as some saints in that my family and my friends have supported my decision even with the inherent changes to those relationships. Those relationships have been the riches that have mattered most to me and God has blessed me.