Leaving behind professional comfort to answer God’s call: a bold decision of faith. This is the path chosen by Clotaire and Roaman, a CANA couple from Chad, when they committed themselves to the training cycle of the Chemin Neuf Community at the Chartreuse d’Aula Dei, near Zaragoza. They left everything behind—positions of responsibility at the UN and in education—to embark, with their daughter Fierté, on an adventure of radical transformation.
Here is their testimony:
By responding YES to the Lord’s call for Training Cycles A and C in Zaragoza, we made a radical decision of faith. Clotaire and Roaman, a CANA couple from Nazareth, abandoned everything to commit ourselves to this training. We resigned from our respective positions: Senior ICT at IOM/UN (International Organization for Migration / United Nations) and Administrator/Secretary at EFAS/R (School for the Training of Health Social Workers). We came with our daughter, Fierté, who is now attending secondary school in Spanish.
The location, this secluded Charterhouse (Chartreuse), amazes us with its spiritual simplicity. We are housed here and the magnificent Church in the middle of this place constantly inspires us to pray.
We are experiencing much more than just training here. The Office, the Eucharist, Adoration, personal prayer times, desert times, the prayer group, and the family office – we are undergoing a complete physical and spiritual transformation. This rhythm, supported by the fraternities and the services, immerses us in the charism of Jesus in all its dimensions.
Our couple is being reborn: we are rediscovering each other with exceptional beauty, realizing the truth of Genesis: “God saw that it was good.” By healing our inner wounds, we are shedding our chains. What is growing within us is true Love (1 Corinthians 13), lived in the conjugal spirituality of the Theology of the Body of Saint John Paul II. We strongly feel the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit who inspires and guides us. Indeed, He permeates every place in this Charterhouse.
Bringing together several families and single people, who have come from various countries and nearly seven Christian denominations, we experience the beauty of the first Christian community every day.”
Love for one’s neighbor (Matthew 22:37-38) is lived out concretely through service and mutual support. Our worries (the only family from Africa—Chad) fall away and our family finds itself carried by this great family of God. Fraternal life shines among us and the symphony of ecumenical experience resonates in our hearts. In fact, our path to God narrows and we all become united for a single purpose: God.
We thank the Chemin Neuf community, a true work of God. Its light is illuminating the whole world, and we are proud to be its “envoys of God.”
Clotaire & Roaman, Zaragoza