Here, young people facing addiction can find lifesaving help. The New Horizons project seeks to offer hope, care and community for those facing addictions to drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling or more.
Among its members, there are many success stories. Valentina is one of them. Now, she works at one of the centers on the outskirts of Rome.
VALENTINA CASON
Cittadela Cielo Center (New Horizons)
At a certain point, I experienced the death of the soul—that feeling of meaninglessness in life, almost of wanting to throw life away. Because if life has no meaning, you feel breathless, you feel that you find no meaning in your life. Instead, what I really discovered in New Horizons, I discovered it by trying to live the Gospel every day, which is what we try to do together as a community, as a family, so I came back to life. My heart, a heart of stone, became a heart of flesh.
The centers have an atmosphere of prayer. The members there work to express the values of the Gospel and develop what the Pope calls a “culture of encounter.”
VALENTINA CASON
Cittadela Cielo Center (New Horizons)
We open our day with listening to the Word of God and meditating on the Word. So what we do is listen to the Gospel reading of the day and ask ourselves deeply, with the help of the Holy Spirit, “What does Jesus want to say to me today?” Here, the beauty is that God speaks to my heart everyday and speaks to the heart of each of us. I can witness and contemplate every day how this changes the heart. It has changed my heart and the heart of all the kids who are in New Horizons.
The members of the New Horizons project say their mission is to “go down into the hells” of their brothers and sisters. They meet people who have lost hope and help them to move forward through prayer, psychological care and community life.
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