Totus Tuus summer program helps students grow in faith

Getting children to sit still for a 20-minute rosary might be challenging, but at Totus Tuus, the rosary comes to life, and not only for a matter of minutes – but for a week.

Totus Tuus, a weeklong summer catechetical program utilized by some parishes in the diocese, is assisting parents and religious education leaders in evangelizing and catechizing their youth by supplementing the work they are currently doing in church and at home.

Children in first through sixth grade meet daily at their parish for a week of catechesis, games, skits and the sacraments. Older children in seventh through 12th grade meet for two hours in the evenings for a week of games, catechesis, witness talks and prayer.

The faith and festivities are brought to the parish courtesy of Totus Tuus missionaries. Teams of four college-aged missionaries – two men and two women – travel for six weeks in the summer from parish to parish, spending a week at each while serving the youth.

A group of four Totus Tuus missionaries in the Diocese of Columbus spent their final week of the summer serving Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles parish (Chillicothe St. Peter, St. Mary and Waverly St. Mary churches) at St. Peter Church. Thirty-four children participated in the program at the parish.

Cecilia Davis, the director of evangelization at Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles, was eager for the program to come to the parish this summer.

“I was really excited to bring Totus Tuus here,” she said, “plus, Father (Chris) Tuttle is a huge lover of Totus Tuus, so he was adamant on it as soon as he got here, which was great because we already wanted it here, so our visions aligned there.”

Davis is a former Totus Tuus participant. As a teenager, she attended the program’s teen nights and served as a youth helper in the day program for younger children.

“I knew it was a good program,” she said. “We had previously been doing Vacation Bible School, but I knew that we could do more than that, and the kids wanted more than that.”

Sacred Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church are the foundation of the program’s catechetical instruction. Totus Tuus divides the four pillars of the Catechism – the Profession of Faith, the Celebration of the Christian Mystery, Life in Christ and Christian Prayer – into a six-year teaching cycle.

Each pillar is complemented by a set of mysteries of the rosary.

This summer, instruction is focused on the Apostles Creed and the five Glorious Mysteries: the Resurrection, Ascension, Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Assumption and Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Ellie Corcoran, 12, a seventh-grade student at Chillicothe Bishop Flaget School, participated in Totus Tuus this summer. As a middle-school student, she was involved in the program’s teen nights.

“I’ve really liked the witness talks … because they can be really relatable to my life, and it can help me grow in Christ and try to follow in their footsteps,” she said of her experience with the Totus Tuus missionaries.

Corcoran also volunteered during the day program with the younger students. Immersion in the younger age group’s catechesis was beneficial for her, too.

“You get to learn what they’re learning,” she said. “Sometimes you learn a lot of new things that you didn’t know before, too; like, there was something in the class that I didn’t know before yesterday. I thought it was really interesting to learn about.”

Each day, students learn one of the five Glorious Mysteries. The rosary comes to life as missionaries debut their acting skills. They perform a “mystery skit” for students each morning, introducing them to the mystery they will focus on that day.

Students are then split into age-appropriate groups – first and second; third and fourth; and fifth and sixth grades – for learning and discussion. 

Students have class time to review the mystery together. When learning about the first Glorious Mystery, the Resurrection, first- and second-grade students acted out a skit of St. Mary Magdalene looking for Jesus at the tomb on Easter morning. They then colored pictures of Christ’s Resurrection.

Older grades prayed the first decade of the Glorious Mysteries together.

In addition to focusing on a mystery of the rosary, students are introduced to a line from the Apostles Creed each day.

“We also do a game every time before we start a class; I think just to get our energy out so that we’re not rambunctious in class,” participant Blaise Davis, 9, said.

Each day is complete with songs, more skits and an hour of recess. Blaise said he enjoyed getting to spend time with his friends.

“We really try to make it a fun environment for the kids, that they can grow in their faith, find friendship, and also, just have fun,” Totus Tuus missionary Ashlyn Bohman, 20, said.

As the director of evangelization, Cecilia Davis is seeing the fruit of the program.

“Totus Tuus focuses on things that are very applicable to their lives,” she said.

“This year, like, the Creed, it’s been lovely to go line by line through the Creed because that’s very accessible to them, and they hear it often. And so, it’s helping them identify their Catholic faith in a real way, instead of just a generalized Gospel message.”

As part of the Totus Tuus program, the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist are offered to students every day. Children in the day program attend Mass together daily.

“I like the daily Mass a lot because sometimes I don’t get to go to daily Mass, and I just love going to Mass,” said Lucy Thompson, 12, a seventh-grade student at Bishop Flaget.

“The games are just really fun. I get to know people a lot better, and I like going to Mass because I like spending time with Jesus in the tabernacle.”

As a seventh-grade student, Thompson participated in the teen nights. She also volunteered to help with the younger students in the day program.

During the evening program for teenagers, students pray Vespers, or evening prayer, together, which is part of the Catholic Church’s Liturgy of the Hours. The Hours are prayed at certain times daily by clergy, consecrated religious and many laity.

Father Tuttle, pastor of Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles parish, said he hopes participants “encounter our Lord Jesus and maybe even start to hear their vocation call, especially the older kids – that might be more prominent for them, more important for them – that they grow closer to the Lord during the week, and they take it from there and receive whatever message He wants to give them.”

It appears children are encountering or growing closer to the Lord. Totus Tuus missionary Logan Figuerado, 18, witnessed a sense of growth in the students he served.

“It’s been amazing getting to see the kids grow throughout the week, especially the smaller grades starting to piece together some of the important bits, like why Jesus died,” he said.

Figuerado, who is a parishioner at Washington Court House St. Colman of Cloyne Church, also observed transformation in the older students.

“Especially during the teen nights in the evenings, a lot of times seeing the boys grow together in brotherhood and learn to talk about things they wouldn’t really talk about at home, it’s been really nice to see all the growth that’s happened,” he said.

Of the four Totus Tuus missionaries who served at Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles parish, two are local to the diocese and two are from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

“The missionaries seem really good, really focused,” Father Tuttle said. “I’ve only heard good things about them, and my experiences with them have been good.”

Mikey Born, 18, a parishioner at Newark St. Francis de Sales Church, served as a Totus Tuus missionary this summer. He will enter seminary this fall at the Pontifical College Josephinum to study for the priesthood in the Diocese of Columbus.

Born applied to be a Totus Tuus missionary at the recommendation of his pastor. He said the program could be a good experience, especially for his priestly formation.

Andrea McLean, the coordinator of middle and high school faith formation at Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles parish, is a former Totus Tuus missionary. She served in the Archdiocese of Chicago during college and had a positive experience with the program.

McLean credited Totus Tuus for her work in parish ministry today.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh,’” she said. “I just didn’t know the Church needed people who loved Him, like, an ordinary person who could teach others about Him. I just didn’t know the Church needed me in that way, needed lay people in that way.”

McLean said she found that Totus Tuus taught concrete theology to children. The program also went deeper with students in content, recognizing that the “Church is super rich,” while offering “this awesome pairing of fun as well.”

Several of the children McLean served as a missionary went on to be Totus Tuus missionaries themselves. “So, it actually does have a lot of fruit,” she said.

“I remember this little boy – he could only come for recess and the decade of the rosary – and he came back, like, the third day, and he was like, ‘The rosary is my favorite thing in the world, and I made my own out of pipe cleaners and beads, and now I’m teaching my parents how to pray it.’

“It’s just like, ‘Wow,’ it has so much potential.”

Davis said the weeklong summer program is also a great springboard. It offers students a “taste” of what they will learn in the fall.

“I am excited to see these kids use this information going forward in their school and then also in their faith formation classes,” Davis said.

Totus Tuus, Latin for “totally yours,” was the motto of Pope St. John Paul II. The phrase signifies a desire to give oneself entirely to Jesus through Mary. Since its inception in the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, in 1987, Totus Tuus has expanded to numerous parishes throughout the United States.