Christ’s command to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19) is at work in the diocese this summer.
Teams of Totus Tuus missionaries are serving parishes in the farthest corners of the diocese, including Wellston Saints Peter and Paul Church, located in southeastern Ohio. From central Ohio, the diocesan church might seem like another nation – about an 80-mile drive from Columbus – but missionaries are making disciples there, too.
Totus Tuus is a summer Catholic youth program dedicated to sharing the Gospel and promoting the Catholic faith through evangelization, catechesis, Christian witness and Eucharistic worship.
Father Thomas Herge, pastor at Divine Mercy parish (Saints Peter and Paul, Jackson Holy Trinity and Zaleski St. Sylvester churches) had an option to cancel the Totus Tuus program at the parish four years ago, which was set to take place the summer he arrived.
The parish priest said he is glad he did not. He has continued offering Totus Tuus to youth at the church every summer since.
“I’ve been very happy with what they’re able to offer our kids, and it makes it easier on our own volunteers and not having to run an entire program themselves, especially after a whole catechetical year of working, volunteering all that time and having to think it all through,” he said. “They can kind of take it a little bit easier during the summer.”
Seminarians and college students serve as missionaries, spending a week at participating diocesan parishes. Teams of four provide catechesis, prayer, witness talks, skits and games. Participating youth witness young adults on fire for the Catholic faith while, in turn, inspiring them to strive for holiness.
Catechetical instruction is based on a rotating schedule that includes a set of mysteries of the rosary and an element of Sacred Scripture or the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This year is focused on the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary and the sacraments.
A grade school program is offered Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Each day, students attend Mass, and the sacrament of reconciliation is available to them daily.
A teenage program for students entering grades seven through 12 is offered during evening hours. Students hear missionaries’ witness talks and pray Night Prayer together, part of the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours offered daily by clergy.
“It’s also really good, I think, for the missionaries to come to all sorts of far-flung parts of the diocese and find out what life is like around here,” Father Herge added.
The Wellston area is mainly non-Catholic and unchurched. Many in the region might identify with a religion but do not belong to or attend church services.
“Living the faith is hard enough. It’s especially hard in a place like this, where almost no one around is Catholic. One thing I know that the kids see in these missionaries, too, is that they see something fun and vibrant and Catholic, and realize that Catholicism is a larger world than just what’s here,” Father Herge noted.
“We feel like the odd man out, and when you realize that you’re not alone in all of that, that can really bolster your sense of, ‘Yeah, I can live this.’”
The program is bearing fruit.
Grace Plummer, a former Totus Tuus teenage participant at Saints Peter and Paul and now a college student, became a Totus Tuus missionary. Plummer was one of the first missionaries to serve in the diocese’s program.
This year’s cohort of missionaries serving the Wellston church included diocesan seminarians Colin Lee of Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church and Chad Walton of Lancaster St. Bernadette Church. Both men are studying at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus.
Totus Tuus missionaries take after the program’s name, a Latin phrase meaning “totally yours,” by offering a complete gift of self. The phrase signifies a desire to give oneself entirely to Jesus Christ through devotion to His mother.
Pope St. John Paul II chose the motto “Totus Tuus, Maria” (Totally Yours, Mary) for his pontificate.
“Totus Tuus isn’t just like a motto, but it’s actually like an identity. That’s what I realized,” Lee said. “Our Lord Jesus was all yours for us. I was like, and I want to be all Yours, too.
“It’s not typically what I would choose to do. It’s like, it’s going to push me,” he said of the program. “That’s what I was really drawn to: the idea of just completely giving yourself to something, something you’re uncomfortable with maybe, you’re not used to.”
“It’s a beautiful thing,” Walton added. “Our goal is to be totally yours to the kids from the parishes, is to be totally yours to the priests and is to be totally just God(‘s), like our entire summers to be everyone else’s but ourselves.’”
This year in the classroom, students spent each day learning about one of the five Joyful Mysteries (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation of the Lord and Finding in the Temple). They also daily discussed one of the seven sacraments (baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and matrimony).
Catechetical instruction varies by grade level. The fifth- and sixth-grade class can delve deeper than the younger grades. Games, recess and skits performed by missionaries are intermixed.
Missionaries have an added challenge of managing a classroom and learning “on the fly,” Walton explained. Adaption is a key part of serving. Lee said the program teaches missionaries how to adapt to various situations.
While it might be difficult, sacrifices are accompanied by joyfully witnessing children’s love for God.
Seminarians can also develop a greater understanding of ministry. The experience largely confirmed Lee’s vocational call.
“Coming here, I realized that the priesthood – these are your sons and your daughters, those who you’re called to minister to. And, yeah, I would say it’s confirming,” he said. “It’s made me appreciate marriage more for sure, appreciate the sacrifice they go through and the struggles they have, but for the priesthood, too, it’s not that much different.”
Ethan Williams, a sophomore at Hillsdale College in Michigan and parishioner at Columbus St. Patrick Church, is also serving as a Totus Tuus missionary.
He first served as a missionary in 2023, helped train missionaries last summer, and is now serving as a missionary for a second time.
“To serve our Lord in that way, to offer my summer to Him and to work like that just has been really good for me,” Williams said.
“I wanted to get into the parishes around the diocese. That’s something I love about it, something that brought me back. You get to know all the people in the parishes and you get to know the kids and get to know the parents when we go to our host dinners, and you just sort of get to know different parts of the diocese.”
Missionaries lodge with a parish host family and stick to a daily prayer schedule.
How they spend time outside of the parish largely influences the program. Some of the most profound graces come behind the scenes and leave a lasting impact on the children.
“The best teams stick to their prayer schedule,” Williams said. “We’ve seen that teams that fall behind in their prayer also don’t do as well, so, you know, that prayer life as a team is super important.
“Our job is to make disciples, not theologians. We’re teaching the faith, but we’re really teaching them how to embrace the faith and how to live it.”
