Totus Tuus Summer Program

1. The Eucharist

The Eucharist has pride of place in the Totus Tuus schedule, for both teachers and youth. Other prayers – the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary, the Angelus, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – provide a great deal of nourishment, but the celebration of the Mass is the “source and summit” of our faith.

2. Marian Devotion
The Teaching Team works to lead the youth to Jesus for a week, but Mary will lead them to Jesus for a lifetime. The team brings them to Mary by helping them dialogue with her as they meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary. Praying with her and through her, we hear her say to us, “Do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5).

3. Catechetical Instruction
An authentic catechesis, rooted in an orderly and systematic explanation of God’s self-revelation through the person of Jesus Christ, provides the foundation of the program’s teaching. We instruct the participants in the truths of the Catholic faith in accord with the Tradition of the Church to cultivate both a firm intellectual grounding and a solid relationship with Jesus. All of our teachings are directed toward helping the youth deepen their understanding of God, strengthen their faith in Him and, most importantly, cultivate a more intimate union with Him.

4. Vocational Discernment
Totus Tuus strives to foster Christian vocations by encouraging the youth to begin discerning God’s call to the married life, priesthood, or consecrated life. Because the teachers are striving to live an authentic Christian life and are actively discerning their own vocations, they can better help the youth to do the same.

5. Fun
Totus Tuus demonstrates that one can be a faithful Catholic and have a lot of fun doing so!  Morning pump up, skits, songs, recess, a water fight and sundae-ing the teachers make the program come alive! (Just don’t tell the kids about the last two – they’re surprises!)

 

 

Totus Tuus started in 1987 when Father Bernard X. Gorges taught a catechetical summer program to elementary grade students as a seminarian with the Diocese of Wichita. Because of the remarkable success of the program, Fr. Gorges received many requests to bring what was then known as the “Summer Catechetical Program” to neighboring parishes, which he did in the coming years with the help of college students hired for the summer.  By the summer of 1993 the program had expanded to four teams of 4 college students and spread into the neighboring diocese of Dodge City, Kansas.  In that same year, the program took the name of “Totus Tuus” from the motto of Pope St. John Paul II.  By 1998, 10 teams of 4 college students were serving 52 parish sites over the summer in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Georgia.  By 2017, Totus Tuus had spread across the country to over 25 dioceses and reached over 60,000 children.   

The Catholic Parishes of Sandusky is excited to offer Totus Tuus for a second year in a row!