Here is a story to give hope and uplift to anyone who has ever faced problems in life that seemed insurmountable: testimony by people from all walks of life who are living with physical challenges.

One of those people: a deacon who was ordained after he was left a quadrapalegic.

The story, from Long Island Catholic:

As he sat in his wheelchair reflecting on the accident that left him a quadriplegic, Deacon Frank Bice expressed no regrets.

“If I could change things, I don’t know if I would,” Deacon Bice said, as he explained how a broken neck sustained during a Siena College football game left him paralyzed 28 years ago. Though his life is far different than he imagined, “everything I ever prayed for has come true.

“First of all I ended up marrying Liz, the girl I had fallen in love with the first day of school at St. Mary’s in Manhasset in the fourth grade,” he said. They went to different high schools and didn’t see each other until after the accident. They married years later.

“I became ordained as a deacon, and I love my ministry. I also have a great job as a financial adviser for Merrill Lynch. I got to go back to my high school in Connecticut and coach football,” Deacon Bice said. “I also always wanted to go to an Ivy League college, and now I have a master’s degree in religion from Yale.”

The key for him, he explained as a panelist at a program on the spirituality of physical challenges at St. Ignatius Retreat House here March 30, is his faith and his gratitude. “I made a lot of mistakes before,” he notes, and describes himself as “not the best Catholic.”

After the accident, long periods of inactivity gave him time for reflection. “So one night, I made a promise to Jesus that I would live life with a positive attitude and I would say yes to whatever he asked me to do.” Jesus would give him the strength to do so.

Later, at a rehabilitation center, a priest from his home parish visited him and repeatedly whispered the prayer, “Thank you Jesus,” in his ear. “I started praying it myself. ‘Thank you Jesus,’ and I began to feel gratitude for all that I had.”

Deacon Bice was part of a panel that included New York City Police Officer Steven McDonald, Msgr. Thomas Hartman, and journalist and television producer Richard M. Cohen. Cohen signed copies of his book, “Strong at the Broken Places.”

About 50 people came for the panel, including several people in wheelchairs and walkers and one blind woman led by a guide dog. Some of the audience members shared their stories and chatted with the speakers during break. A Mass followed in the chapel.

Steven McDonald is a police detective and Malverne resident who was shot on duty in Central Park on July 12, 1986. Since that day, he said, he has seen “that the world is more than I ever would have expected.

“I have traveled around the world, witnessing to my faith. I’ve gone to Israel. I’ve gone to Northern Ireland. I’ve gone all over the United States,” McDonald said. “I’ve witnessed to Jesus at religious and public schools.”

He recalls going to the hospital after the shooting. A priest, a fire chaplain, was the first to greet him and prayed over him. “I didn’t want to die.”

Before he was shot, “I could have led a better life. I could have gone to church more.”

His mother and his wife, Patti Ann, he said “were there praying for me, crying for me.” He also recalled the visits of Cardinal John O’Connor, archbishop of New York, and Mayor Ed Koch, who, though not a Catholic, joined in the prayers.

The most striking fruit of the prayers, he said, was that “I was able to forgive the boy who did the shooting. I never thought I would.”

Continue reading at the link. It’s inspiring.

Photo: by Peter Accardi, Long Island Catholic