Hannah Houser Hamilton Native Pursues Religious Vocation and Ministers to the Deaf Community B Y K A RY ELLE N BE R GER
Hannah Houser feels called to live out the Franciscan charism: to live the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. While she is still in discernment on her path to be with the Sisters of St. Francis, Oldenburg, she’s not letting any obstacles hinder her progress. Hannah lives with apraxia, a motor speech disorder that makes it difficult to speak and, because of this, she learned sign language at a young age. While not deaf, she attended St. Rita School for the Deaf from Kindergarten through second grade. “St. Rita School changed my life by teaching me how to communicate with our world,” Houser said.
I share with young people how a disability doesn’t need to stop a person’s call to enter religious life.
She credits her teacher, Ellen Brigger, as one of the people who inspired her to consider religious life. “Ellen started a program [at St. Rita’s] called “Apraxia” to help children with speech impairment to learn how to communicate with our world in ASL (American Sign Language) and how to speak,” Houser said. “I would volunteer [at the program] as a 1 4 | T H E C ATHOLIC TE LEGR A P H
teacher’s aid in junior high and high school. Ellen taught and encouraged me to share God’s grace, the spirit of kindness, compassion, love and beauty with others through serving the Lord. She introduced me to the passion of caring and advocating for disabled people.” Prior to high school, Houser became more involved in her church, St. Aloysius in Shandon. She began signing at Mass, and after confirmation, became a Eucharistic Minister.
After graduating from Hamilton High School in 2013, Houser attended Muskingum University, where she studied sociology with a focus on animal and environmental issues. Following graduation from Muskingum in 2017, Houser continued serving, now at St. Julie Billiart parish in Hamilton. There, she is a member of the choir and signs at Mass. “Sharing God’s word through signing is a talent that allows me to bring God’s grace to children, and I was teaching signing to children until March 2020,” Houser said. “I’ve
