The Catholic Writers Guild

I spent six wonderful years at the University of Illinois as an undergrad and graduate student. Aside from classes, I occupied myself for much of that time at the Newman Center at St. John’s Catholic Chapel. The community of Catholic believers accepted all fellow worshipers and created an atmosphere to advancing discipleship among college aged students.

When you belong to a large community you get to see a wide variety of people. You get accustomed to differences in personalities, cultures, attitudes, and even physical strengths and limitations. One of the students I had the pleasure of getting to know was a young man who, though physically limited to a wheelchair by cerebral palsy, had limitless determination and force of will.

For a long time, I thought of Chris Lenart as the kid in the chair. I knew he couldn’t speak vocally. At the time, he would use a wand attached to his head to tap on a laminated board containing the alphabet and common words to communicate. I though I had done something amazing in mustering the courage to talk to Chris, when I found out from both him and his closer friends what true courage was. While the rest of us took for granted our daily activities before and after class, like eating, showering, getting changed, Chris needed help with the most basic of tasks. Then he would go about the arduous process of getting to class and doing homework. Chris successfully obtained a technical degree from a prestigious college and got a job working with computers where he worked for over a decade.

After losing his job during the recession, he has struggled to get another company to employ his ample technical skills due to his physical limitations. Undeterred, Chris has started a website called Disability Awareness where he educates people about disability topics and encourages people to have faith in their struggles. He also co-authored a book called They Said We Couldn’t , with his friend Lisa Cesal, available on Amazon. Everyone would benefit from reading the stories of these two courageous people, but a parent of a child with a disability or a person struggling with any difficulty would find Chris and Lisa’s lives uplifting.

Chris has a faith that God has given him a cross to bear so that others may benefit from his life. He has challenged me to trust more in the Lord’s mercy and guidance and I hope many of you will also gain something from his perspective and wisdom. He is an amazing Catholic author and man of God.