A LIFE GIVING CAREER AS A SISTER OF MERCY: Joy Clough

Joy Clough has been a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Catholic Church since 1961. She is the former Director of the Office for Mission and Heritage at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. She has also served as the Communications Director for the Archdiocese of Chicago, and she is the past President of the Sisters of Mercy Regional Community of Chicago. Sister Joy is a writer and communicator who is inspired by nature and fascinated with local history.

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT MY CONVERSATION WITH SISTER JOY CLOUGH by Cindy Kamp:

“Move into a career that is life giving for you. If there are delights in it for you, you will be better at it and you will make bigger contributions for others.”  – Sister Joy Clough

The interface between values and career is critical according to Sister Joy, who has had many different jobs as a member of the Sisters of Mercy. The desire to become a nun was planted early by grade school teachers, some of whom were nuns, and who embodied a passion for service to others and to God. Sister Joy was also influenced by her experiences as a Girl Scout, where she learned how to build fires and use knives, skills which seemed exciting dangerous to her at the time. Her career as a Sister of Mercy has allowed her to do many different kinds of work, much of it involving teaching and writing.

Sister Joy has written several books, including one about Mercy Hospital, Chicago’s oldest general hospital, and a history of Saint Xavier University, called First in Chicago:  A History of Saint Xavier University. She has also edited two books of prayers.

It is a book of prose poems which she authored, however, that was her most personal project. Titled The Characters Within:  Befriending Your Deepest Emotions, Sister Joy said, “It took me a year and all my life to write this book.” Included within the book are pages for journaling so that the reader can record personal responses to their own feelings as they read the poems.

Sister Joy also discusses the hardships of joining her Order. She was still a teenager when she decided to become a Sister of Mercy and a requirement was leaving her parents’ home.  As she recalled what this felt like, Sister Joy used the word ‘divorce’ to describe the near total separation that she experienced. She said that is it still difficult to remember how hard this was for her father, who did not grow up in the Catholic Church and struggled to understand why a girl had to leave her family if she wanted to serve the church as a nun.

A great love of nature has also been a constant throughout her life. She surprised herself by turning to gardening as an adult, and said that she found that she could “lose herself’ outdoors. During a sabbatical from work some years ago she chose to spend her time visiting national parks in the American West. More recently she visited Yellowstone in the winter, and noted that there is a great bonus in braving the frigid temperatures. Without the leaves it is possible to see more wildlife — including tracks in the snow — than during the summer months. For her this is another way of reflecting on the great beauty of the natural world and God’s goodness.

DATE RECORDED:  9/19/14

MUSIC: Thingamajig by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/

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