Years before the American Bishops’ statement, “To Teach as Jesus Did,” with its emphasis on mission, community and service, came into being, I witnessed its fulfillment in many practical ways by the molders of my youth, namely, my family and my teachers, both Newburgh Dominicans and public school lay persons.

When, at the age of eighteen, I entered into the larger family, that of the Newburgh Dominicans, I was fortunate to have had as novice mistress, Sister Mary Xavier LeStrange, a very down-to-earth woman endowed by God with a grate deal of common sense. Sister’s deep appreciation of her own Dominican vocation was contagious as she instilled, day by day, in her postulants and novices a sincere love for Saint Dominic and everything his order holds dear.

Dominic’s combination of the active and contemplative life allowed him to be where the action was, and that is where, in the course of the forty-three years I’ve spent in religion, I feel that I have been.

The part of my life which stands out in my memory as being very important is the service I gave to the Church in the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina at a time when the number of Catholics was less than one percent of the total population of the state. Here, on so many occasions, and in so many ways, it was possible to carry out the terms of our present mission statement.

As I review my life in religion, I find that four of the six places to which I had been assigned have been closed. The feelings of sorrow and frustration have gradually disappeared giving way to the possibility of accepting new challenges and new places and making our mission statement come alive in me.

I firmly believe that I proclaim the Word not by preaching per se but by my example.

I am responsibly present when I accept an assignment and do the very best that I can in that particular place and at that time.

I recognize and build an ever-changing world when I realize that the needs of today may not necessarily be the same as they were when I entered, but if they are, they must be met by different means than they were forty years ago.

My life shows its rootedness in Dominic through my love for the liturgy, the choral office, life in common, and my availability for service to others.

I believe that I witness to Gospel values by endeavoring to live, to the best of my ability, the mission statement, the Rule of Saint Augustine, and the norms and directives of the Constitutions of the Newburgh Dominicans of the Congregation of the Most Holy Rosary.

S. Mary Charlanne Travis, OP
July 7, 1979

Today, as a Dominican Sister of Hope, Sister Mary Charlanne leaves us with this witness of Gospel values that she shared with us for seventy years. Thank you, Sister, and may you rest now in God’s peace.

Anne Gilson, OP