Six parishes in the Diocese of Portland are partnering with the diocese’s Office of Vocations to offer Totus Tuus (”Totally Yours”) for the first time in Maine.

Totus Tuus is a dynamic summer program for first grade through seniors led by a team of four college students and a diocesan seminarian. The team travels from parish to parish leading a weeklong program of learning and praying that demonstrates the joyful living of the Catholic faith. Through age-appropriate, dynamic, and faithful content, young people are motivated and equipped to live the call of the Gospel in today’s world, according to a news release from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

The dates and venues for the program in 2018:

• June 24-29: St. Thérèse of Lisieux Parish, Sanford;

• July 8-13: Parish of the Precious Blood, Caribou;

• July 15-20: Prince of Peace Parish, Lewiston;

• July 29-Aug. 3: St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish, Scarborough;

• Aug. 5-10: Corpus Christi Parish, Waterville; and

• Aug. 12-17: St. Paul the Apostle Parish, Bangor.

“This program allows participants to encounter individuals who are joyful, living witnesses of the Catholic faith,” said Liam Gallagher, a seminarian of the Diocese of Portland who participated in the Totus Tuus sessions in Vermont last summer, according to the release. “Students develop a deeper sense of faith and strengthen their relationship with Jesus Christ. They take the lessons and spiritual gifts of this program with them for the rest of their lives.”

“Totus Tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt” (”I am totally yours, and all that I have is yours”) began the episcopal motto of Pope Saint John Paul II. These words continue to inspire men and women from all over the world to entrust their lives completely to Jesus Christ through the Virgin Mary. Mary’s total devotion to the will of the Father is the model for Totus Tuus, as it seeks to respond to Pope Saint John Paul II’s urgent call for a “New Evangelization.” The program aims to instill these virtues in young people.

To read about the Totus Tuus team, register online, or for an overview of the program and its five pillars, visit www.portlanddiocese.org/vocations/totustuus. For more information, contact the diocese at 773-6471.