From Heroin to Jesus (Part 2)

I only used the bed a couple of days, and I was fine. I have to admit to one temptation. They had some stock of new socks in the room, and I was tempted to take some, as I thought about it, I noticed a statue of Our Lady, it seemed like she was watching me. I couldn’t take the socks.

Before my involvement with this centre, I had no idea who Mary was. I wasn’t brought up as a Christian. They offered me a Miraculous medal, which I accepted, and always carry to this day.

The nice thing was that they didn’t preach with words. I liked what I saw. They helped so many people, many of them homeless or with addictions, suffering with depression or other problems. Nothing was too much trouble for them.

I went to the meetings in Liverpool for many months escorted, encouraged and loved by all these people and I finally entered the Cenacolo Community in Saluzzo, Italy.

I found it really hard to begin with, all the discipline, food, language, prayer. (We all have to learn Italian, as Sr. Elvira an Italian nun who founded the community twenty three years ago, needs to converse with us all, and in the community people enter from all over the world. At this moment there are about fifty Cenacolo communities in Italy, Lourdes, Medjugorje, Ireland, America, Poland, Russia, Belgium and one recently opened where I am staying now in Kendal, England. I really found speaking Italian difficult for the first year, now I am pretty fluent and happy that I can speak a foreign language)

The lads in Community really encouraged me, cared for me, most of them had also been addicts, and knew what I was going through. I had never known love like this. You don’t see this kind of love on the streets. So I persevered, felt all the prayer of the people involved with the groups carrying me through each day.

You learn to live simply in Cenacolo, working hard, living on providence, and prayer of the rosary, also each house has the Blessed Sacrament. Many of the lads would get up at three o clock in the morning for prayer before The Blessed Sacrament. I love to pray before the Blessed Sacrament.

Slowly I have grown to love Mary and Jesus they are so precious to me.

I have been in community for three years, I will leave when I am ready, I am not in a hurry, I want to get it right this time. Entering community is not just about coming away from addictions, it is about learning to live life in a simple way, without all the material possessions, pressures to be the best. It is about being happy with who we are without masks. Simple things like genuinely caring for others, forgiving others and also ourselves, this can be the most difficult part to come to terms with as many addicts are ashamed of their past. All of this change takes time, it can’t happen overnight or in a few months.

My family and friends can visit twice a year, and I had a visit home last year.