DISABLED AND SPECIAL NEEDS PERSONS ARE BRAVE AND HAVE COURAGE NOT JUST @ CHRISTMAS BUT EVERYDAY,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Spending a few hours with the Handicapables last Sunday was the latest reminder to me forged over more than 50 years of the abilities, interests, and aspirations, of Persons with Disabilities and Special Needs we are capable of attaining if given the opportunity to do so.  I have known  and experienced this from the age of five and a half years old, when as a physically disabled child from birth. I was fitted with a left leg orthopedic brace which became my daily companion for twelve years.  I did not let my youthful challenges with a physical disability conquer me anymore than I will let my adult physical challenges of being a diabetic, kidney transplant recipient, and right foot below the knee amputee, vanquish me or my priestly ministry.  Despite the ambivalence and skepticism of Sacramento Church leadership. I will continue to Push Forward in fulfilling my unconditional commitment to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ and to further educate and form myself  through the Doctor of Ministry  degree program at the Catholic University of America online and in Washington, D.C.  This is the same resolve and effort I encounter in the participants and providers of the Handicapables Ministry.  They are brave and courageous not just once a month, at Christmas, Easter, on their birthdays or anniversaries, but Everyday and they deserve to be afforded every opportunity to be included in the life of the Catholic-Christian Community of Believers.  I eagerly look forward to ministering to and with them each month in the various parishes in Sacramento the Handicapables are invited to visit for Sunday Mass and Lunch.  All our parishes need to reach out to, welcome, and incorporate, Persons with Disabilities and Special Needs.  Not to do, is discriminatory and alienating. Christmas and the dawning of the New Year is a fine time to help evaluate your parish community's commitment to Catholic Disability Ministry.  You might consider inviting the Handicapables to Mass and Lunch some month soon with your parishioners..............Father Troy David