Photo Caption: Team member Jack Gebert leads young “Totus Tuus” participants in prayer at the end of a session on the sacraments at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Mahomet.

By: By Tom Dermody

MAHOMET — If young Catholics are saying “Amen!” and singing with more gusto at parish Masses, or if your children are asking you to pray the rosary with them at home, those are two classic symptoms of a very contagious enthusiasm for the Catholic faith caused by “Totus Tuus.”

“I love seeing kids get excited about Jesus,” says Stacey Peters, a spring graduate from Illinois State University who was active at the John Paul II Catholic Newman Center. Peters is a member of one of three Totus Tuus teams bringing the weeklong youth evangelization program bearing that unusual name to parishes throughout the Diocese of Peoria.

Totus Tuus is Latin for “totally yours” and was the apostolic motto of Blessed Pope John Paul II. It expressed his consecration to Mary.

Guiding young Catholics to Jesus through the school of Mary is a foundation for the summer program. This year’s sessions are focusing on the Glorious Mysteries of the rosary as well as the sacraments.

Incredible energy is also a program hallmark, as are large doses of sillyness — including very creative skits, songs, and games such as “Saints and Heretics,” a variation of “Duck, Duck, Goose.”

FUN AND FAITH
“Fun and faith are not exclusive,” said Blake Brooks, a seminarian from the Diocese of Peoria who served as team leader for the group serving Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Mahomet the week of June 17-21. “Having fun and the humor opens them up to listening and learning about the faith.”

The team also included Peters as well as Bradley University students Karley Bates and Jack Gebert.

They and members of the other two teams in the diocese spent 10 days in Rockford in late May learning the skits and curriculum of Totus Tuus. The program originated in the Diocese of Wichita, Kan., and is rapidly spreading around the country — and the Diocese of Peoria.

“We have a waiting list,” said Amy Chovan, coordinator of the diocesan Office of Priestly Vocations, which oversees the program locally. Last year one team brought the program to six parish sites. This year, three teams were needed for the 15 sites hosting Totus Tuus, and the interest is growing.

“It’s win-win,” said Roger Phelps, director of religious education at Our Lady of the Lake. Totus Tuus, he said, fits the parish’s needs of something spiritual that would involve the youth and their families in parish life. Sessions during the day are for elementary school-age youth, while evening sessions are geared toward high schoolers.

Other parishes already hosting Totus Tuus this summer included Corpus Christi, Galesburg; St. Patrick, Urbana; St. Michael the Archangel, Streator; Holy Cross, Mendota; St. Vincent de Paul, Peoria; Immaculate Conception, Monmouth; the Danville Vicariate; and St. Mark, Peoria.

Totus Tuus comes to the following parishes July 13 to 19: St. Mary, Kickapoo; St. Mary of the Woods, Princeville; and Ransom-Seneca-Marseilles. From July 20-26 it will be at St. Mary, Metamora; St. Hyacinth, LaSalle; and St. Louis, Princeton.

The two other teams in the diocese this summer are: Anna Marie Hahn (team leader), Stacy Hague, Thomas Bernhardt, and Drew Isbell; and Lindsey Weishar (team leader) Maddie Mangieri, Lee Brokaw (seminarian), and Jarrett Lindsey.

The education works both ways, said Karley Bates, a member of Corpus Christi Parish in Galesburg.

“We have to have faith like a child,” she told The Catholic Post during a break in Mahomet. “They teach us so much about joy and love.”

The team members also learn from experiencing life with host families who welcome them into their homes, added Peters.

She said while culture offers young people many paths to happiness, faith in Jesus is “a genuine state of joy that lasts.”

For more information about Totus Tuus, including bringing it to your parish in 2014, contact Amy Chovan at (309) 671-1550.