Christian - Germany
Hi, my name is Christian, I am twenty-seven years old, and I come from Germany. At a very young age I was troubled over the divorce of my parents and I struggled even more as I got older due to this situation.
I was brought up by my mother, along with my two older brothers.  At fourteen years of age I searched for the love, attention and happiness that was missing from my father and I found solace in drugs. In the beginning I used light drugs and as what usually happens with people on this road, the drugs I chose became stronger and ultimately at the age of twenty one I was hooked on heroin. I went hopelessly on like this until I decided to search for help and this help and hope was found in the Community of the Cenacolo.
I was in Community two years and I realised not only had I changed my life for the better but my mother, brothers, and the rest of my family’s lives had also changed profoundly. Around this time
I visited my home and in a God given moment I crossed paths with my father. I spent time with him and I was really touched, because prior to this I had always judged him and blamed him for leaving me as a child. As I exchanged dialogue with my father I felt a great weight lifting off my shoulders. I was liberated and free from all of the resentment and rage I felt against him. My brother who also hadn't seen our dad for a few years was with me and it was a pleasure to share this moment with him and our father and a blessing to see in them how they were receiving peace from this encounter.
I am now still in the Community whom I thank for giving me my life back.

   
Nicola – Italy
My name is Nicola, I am twenty seven years old. I come from Italy and from a family who have always supported me and tried to teach me the best way to live. But when I was younger I was very insecure, I lacked confidence and I was of a shy nature, this caused me to distance myself from others and even though I had a few good friends, inside I was very lonely. I began to grow my own idea of how life should be lived. This included being rebellious as I thought this would bring me popularity and happiness. But this lifestyle didn't bring me happiness it brought only emptiness. I was attracted to the wrong crowd of friends with similar personalities. This is how my problems grew and before long I was using light drugs and in time this led to stronger drugs which ended up with me being a  heroin addiction.

At this point in my life I couldn't cope because I lost my self respect, my friends, my job, my girlfriend and the trust of my family.  Fortunately for me my mum had heard of Community a few years earlier when she went to Medjugorje and I decided to give it a try. As soon as I entered I realised that there was something special in this place. Everybody was happy and seemed to be full of life. This gave me hope and trust in Mother Elvira and in all the lads around me because they had been through the same problems as me.

In this Community there is a spiritual presence that can be felt through the prayer and also through the lads as this is the core of the Community and we learn to trust in God and turn our lives around with him. Throughout my time here I have seen so many addicts change into new people without any doctors, psychiatrists and that helped to increase my faith.
Looking back I can see that I have changed so much and I want to thank God and the Community for giving me my life back.

Martin – Scotland
My problems really began when I left school at sixteen. I was a heavy cannabis smoker and within a short time I began feeling more and more insecure with myself. I believed I was doing the right thing when I began taking prescribed drugs from my doctor when, in fact they only made things worse.
My relationship with my family and friends were based on lies and as the years passed I progressed to a harder drug. At the age of twenty-one I had lost touch with reality and couldn't live a day without drugs. I had no choice but to enter the Community Cenacolo.
The Community has given me and my family a new lease of life.  I am no longer a slave to drugs and have the will and the confidence to face all of life’s challenges. 

Billy - England
Hi I'm Billy, I am 40 years old and would like to say that before Community, as a person I was destroyed by drugs, I lost all my self-respect and the trust of my family.  This became for me a vicious circle that I couldn't escape from, which led to homelessness and depression. Now I feel, after being in Community for a total of four years I have found my self-esteem and the strength to face up to life without drugs. I can say that the Community gave me help where no other place did.
I am now settled in a job as a support worker helping others with addictions and homelessness. Two years ago I became a Catholic, I am now engaged to a really lovely girl. My life has changed beyond all my wildest dreams I am also hopeful of going to Brazil to visit the missions with a friend of mine who is a priest and my girlfriend.
For all of this I say a big thank you to Mother Elvira, and to those who helped me during my recovery within the community and to all who helped me enter into the Community.

Martin - Germany
My name is Martin, I am from Munich in Germany, I am 19 years old.   I started with lighter drugs and from there my problems began, it started with trouble in school, also with the police and, finally, I was put into care. However, things got worse, it was there that I tried heroin for the first time. After a while I returned to my family, our relationship was different I didn't have their trust anymore. I carried on there another two years, stealing, lying, then realising that things couldn't go on I entered the Community and now for the first time I look forward to my future with whatever life may bring me.
  
Martin is now in the missions in Peru helping the street kids and is happy to be there.

Testimony from Margaret mother of John - England

My name is Margaret and I am from the parish of Our Lady and St John, Heswall, in the diocese of Shrewsbury. I have been associated with the Cenacolo Community since 1996 Cenacolo ( pronounced chen-ah-colo) is the Italian word for Cenacle - the upper room where Jesus instituted the Holy Eucharist, washed the feet of his disciples and told us to love one another. In 1983 an Italian nun, Sr Elvira Petrozzi, deeply troubled by the sight of young men lying in doorways or in the street, overcome with drugs or alcohol, begged her Mother Superier for permission to help them in some way. After 10 years of pleading and praying, she was given this permission.

The Mayor of a little town called Saluzzo in the foothills of the Italian Alps, leased her a large house on the hill above the town for the equivalent of 50p a year. The house was derelict having been empty for 15 years - no roof or windows, and trees growing inside the house. It was here on July  16th 1983, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, that Sr Elvira, another sister and a retired school teacher began their vision of hope and recovery for drug addicts and alcoholics.

Today there are over 60 houses throughout the world and about 2000 young people in these communities. The houses are in Italy, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina (Medjugorje), USA (Florida), France (Lourdes and Lille), Austria, Poland, Russia, England, Ireland (Knock), Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Argentina.

There are separate house for men and women, with some mixed family houses for those with young children. There are no counsellors, doctors or psychologists: no newspapers, television or radios. Each house is run by ex-addicts- they say they are the only ones who can understand other addicts. It is recommended that these addicts stay in community for at least 2 years. Sr Elvira says that anyone who has suffered with addiction for years is not going to recover in weeks or even months. Young people enter the Community voluntarily, usually when they have reached rock-bottom and have nowhere else to turn. They are free to leave at any time, the Cenacolo Community is not a prison. Sr Elvira calls it a  School of Life.

Life in the Community is based on work, prayer and spritual healing. It is a disciplined life (addicts lives are completely chaotic and time is meaningless). Discipline strengthens then and enables them to think and become responsible people. Each house is as self-sufficient as possible, growing it's own vegetables, keeping hens, pigs etc. and relying on God's providence.
A new entrant to the Community is assigned a "Guardian Angel", a recovered addict, who remains with the new person 24 hours a day, for as long as neccessary. Everyone learns Italian beginning with 5 words a day. Sr Elvira says, "I can't learn 16 languages- you will all have to learn mine!", Italian is the common language in each house.

I have a personal interest in the Cenacolo Community. I have 5 children, four of whom have done very well in the eyes of the world. one is a teacher, one a doctor, another a solicitor, and one managing an expanding veterinary practice. My second son John became a drug addict at the age of 15, starting with cannabis and progressing quite quickly to heroin, crack cocaine, diazepam and tamazapam and alcohol. I cannot begin to tell you what it is like living with a drug-addict in the family, the police at the door in the middle of the night: sitting at a hospital bedside wondering if my son would recover from over-dosing: phone calls at all hours from drug dealers: the misery for the younger members of the family. Despite State rehabilitation units and prison, John always returned to drugs.
In 1996 i took my son to Medjugorje as I had heard of the Community there for drug addicts. John was impressed with the Cenacolo but felt it was not for him.
A fellow parishioner, Mary Godwin and I, with the permission of our parish priest, started a fund called "Our Lady's Mantle" to help drug addicts to go to Medjugorje. Within months we discovered a group in London doing the same thing, and shortly afterwards a group in Birmingham. We all met and eventually "Friends for a UK Cenacolo" was formed.
We visited our Northern Bishops, and Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue of Lancaster visited the house in Knock, Ireland, and was so impressed that he wrote to Sr Elvira offering her a property belonging to his diocese. On March 19th, 2005, not far from Kendal the Cenacolo Community "Our Lady Queen Of Martys" opened to house 10 young men ( four English, three Italian, one French, one German and one Austrian).
The Carmelite Monastery in Birkenhead has been our 'Prayer base' from the beginning and directed us to Bosco House, a Salesian hostel for homeless young men- the majority of them addicts - and from where we helped the first addicts to enter the Community. The Carmelites keep a book at the feet of St. Jopseph within the enclosure, and the names of all addicts who come to our meetings are written in this book and prayed for.
In Liverpool we meet every Tuesday evening from 7pm - 9pm at the Blessed Sacrament Shrine. We spend the first half hour before the Blessed Sacrament and then we meet in a hall, the addicts in one part and the parents separately.

In August 2003, seven years after our visit to Medjugorje, my son John desperate with his lifestyle which had hit rock bottom, decided to enter the Cenacolo Community. He went to the Mother house in Saluzzo, Italy. Four months later he told me he had peace in his heart for the first time in years. Two and a half years later he was one of the 'Responsibles' in the Kendal house, fluent in Italian and helping other young addicts. I have no words to thank God for the life of my son. Every morning I wake up with thanksgiving in my heart. Of my five children only John, my once drug addict son, is practising his faith. He gets up at 2am every Saturday morning for an hour of Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament and prays for addicts still on the streets of our towns and cities.