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When the Khoi Doan Nguyen was diagnosed with an increasingly deteriorating eye condition, his reactions were understandably feelings of shock, confusion and disturbance. A young man, actively involved in priestly and congregational ministry, with a passion for communication, a gift for writing, a serious interest in all areas of theology and mission, his eyesight problem initially caused him distress and despair.
Alive with Disability acknowledges those early reactions, the times of depression and deep anxiety, but reveals how gradually – with professional and spiritual help – he recognised that the condition was also an invitation to dare stretching the heart to a new state of acceptance, respond to it with a new vision and gradually welcome it as a reality in his life that would determine how he would live fruitfully as person, priest, teacher, writer, religious, within his family and community.
The book is intensely honest. Importantly, it is written for all of us because all of us live with some kind of disability, since disability, limitation and imperfection are universal features of all human life. Then Khoi gradually realised that his disability was not only his condition but his companion; and in these twenty-one reflections, he teaches us how disability itself forces all of us to approach prayer, spirituality, our understanding of the mystery of God and life in new, deeper ways.
Alive with Disability is an expression of his faith journey with a profound longing to rediscover who he is through the relationship with his disability companion and share those insights and experiences with his fellow travellers – all of us, with our own disabilities. It is also an invitation to journey with one another in our shared human condition as God’s image and likeness.
