Former Monroe School Principal Discovers 'Joy' In Latest Book

MONROE, CT — A new book by a veteran Monroe author and former local elementary school principal takes a long look at a fundamental emotion in scarcer and scarcer supply: joy

Sr. Barbara Sudol, CFSN, was principal at the former St. Jude's elementary School in Monroe, which shuttered in 2018.

Her sixth book, "To Joy," has just been released by Yorkshire Publishing.

After publishing books on the mystical elements of T.S. Eliot's poetry, her thoughts on religious life, a children's book, a novel, and a collection of short stories, she called the new compilation of poems "the only thing left to write."

(Not quite. The Roman Catholic nun says she has already begun work on her next book, a mystery.)

In fact, Sr. Barbara is a bit of an expert on joy.

"God wants us to be happy," she said. "Start with the idea that joy is meant for us — that we should be joyful, that we should be happy. And then find ways to be happy, sometimes in people, and of course always in God."

Sr. Barbara said she finds God easily enough, in nature, and in other people in her community of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

Joy is a bit more elusive.

"I think joy is cultivated, I don't think it just comes," she said. "First, it's nurtured in the family, and then it occurs in society. But I think it's an individual task. Society can't give us joy. We have to find that ourselves. "

It's a little easier when an international religious order has got your back. After getting her doctorate and teaching English for 11 years in two high schools and 23 years in five colleges, Sr. Barbara now gives instruction in the language to other sisters in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Italy over Skype. She also does editorial work for a sister in Ghana.

Holy Family Province, the U.S. Province of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, has some 200 sisters living and serving in Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Texas. Its Provincialate is located in Des Plaines, IL, a Chicago suburb.

"To Joy" is a compilation of Sr. Barbara's poetry from the 1970s to the present. The poems, suffused as they are in both her religious belief and deep love of nature, have been well-received, she said.

The best poems are a glimpse into a different plane that is normally just out of view.

"You can't look into great poems without seeing the Divine," Sr. Barbara said, "and everyone is looking for it. Everyone is waiting to be opened to it."

But there will always be hold-outs, she explained.

"Some people don't believe in God because they have never been grounded in religion and in religious beliefs. And that's the paucity in our society: We don't believe in God, and we don't believe in nature."

How do you fix it? You don't.

"You can only give the message," the nun said. "The message has to be refused or accepted."

We have a little more latitude with joy, Sr. Barbara told Patch.

"If we can't find joy in the situations, we have to make it our business to bring joy."