Sister Rachel Lawler, ASC, celebrated 75 years as a vowed member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ in Wichita, KS on May 12, 2024, and at Benedictine Living Community on Monday, July 1. She marked her anniversary with the Eucharist, followed by receptions. She made her first profession on July 1, 1949, and her final vows on July 1, 1954.
Sister Rachel was one of eight children born in Ponds/Ridgeway, IL, to Joseph and Teresa Lawler. Her family attended St. Patrick Church in Ponds/Ridgeway. She received her Certificate in Social Work at St. Louis University in 1956, and an additional Certificate in Social Work from the University of Louisville’s School of Social Work in Louisville, KY in 1966. She was also certified in Residential Child Care through the program at Washington University in St. Louis in 1971.
Sister Rachel’s ministry was one of caring. For 25 years she was a Housemother at the Catholic Children’s Home in Alton, IL. She then became a missionary to Liberia in West Africa for 11 years. In Gardnersville she was a homemaker and Kindergarten Teacher Aide. In Grand Cess she served as sewing teacher and homemaker, where she learned to cook meals on a charcoal pot and on a mud stove. The latter came in handy for boiling drinking water. She was even able to bake bread, cakes, and pies in this manner.
Her training in Social Services served her well as Administrator of Hope House in Springfield, MO, a residence for women and children. Her culinary skills were appreciated at Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis, a home for retired persons, where she was a Food Service Aide.
For more than 20 years, Sr. Rachel served as coordinator of transportation at the Ruma Center. In 2022 she moved to Benedictine Living Community where she is Living Mission in Later Life. She continues her hobbies of reading good books, knitting, crocheting, and sewing. She crochets hats and baby blankets for the poor. One of her favorite projects, however, is sewing dresses for little girls in Liberia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the local St. Vincent de Paul Society.