Totus Tuus, the weeklong parish-based Catholic summer mission program for youth in grades 1-12, recently wrapped up its seventh year in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.

Totus Tuus is Latin for "Totally Yours" and was the motto of St. Pope John Paul II. The program is dedicated to sharing the Gospel and promoting the Catholic faith through catechetical instruction, Christian witness, vocational discernment, Marian devotion, and eucharistic worship. The theme for this year's Totus Tuus was "Virtues and Beatitudes" and young people focused on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary.

This year's program was once again successful, says Kyle Holtgrave, associate director of Youth and Young Adult Ministry. It ran for six weeks with the one-week sessions running in about 20 places, mostly in the Springfield diocese but also in a few places in Indiana.

Just prior to going out to the parishes, 16 Totus Tuus staff members, who are college students and seminarians, spent days in intense theological study as well as in structured prayer time in preparation to teach. They met several times during the summer and went on retreats that helped them to pray and to process the Totus Tuus experience.

In addition to Holtgrave, several young priests were involved with Totus Tuus leadership and training. The staff members also spent some time with Bishop Thomas John Paprocki.

The Totus Tuus team members are chosen based upon their desire to teach the faith, their love of children, their energy and enthusiasm, and for their individual leadership abilities. The teachers adhere to a well-defined schedule that has a structured prayer life as its foundation.

Totus Tuus teachers help young people experience the Catholic faith as a way of life and love and not simply a set of rules and regulations, Holtgrave explains. The methodology, structure and content of Totus Tuus is concerned not only with teaching the faith, but also with setting a fire in the hearts and lives of the teachers, he adds.

Totus Tuus has some specific goals, Holtgrave says. Those goals include developing a true longing for holiness through a relationship with Jesus Christ; to be open to daily conversion through solid catechetical instruction; to foster an openness to exploring one's vocation; and to have fun. This year's leaders and the students that they taught all benefitted from and met those goals, he concludes.