MCFARLAND — “St. Benedict realized that the most important thing was to be friends with God, to be rich in the love of God.”
Fr. Bill Van Wanger celebrated Mass with students in grades one to six attending the week-long Totus Tuus program at Christ the King Parish in McFarland.
He talked to them about the life of St. Benedict, whose feast day was July 11.
For more than 20 years, Totus Tuus has been teaching kids across the country how to be rich in the love of God.
Team from Madison
Totus Tuus, Latin for “totally yours,” a phrase often said by St. John Paul II as a call to give ourselves to Christ through Mary, is a catechetical summer program that has been running in the Diocese of Madison for 10 years.
This summer the Totus Tuus team traveled to Christ the King Parish and 13 other locations, including helping with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee Totus Tuus programs in Whitefish Bay, Cedarburg, and Menomonee Falls.
The kids at Christ the King spent the week attending Mass, learning about the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, learning about the Catholic faith, and of course, playing games.
This is the second year Christ the King has hosted the program and the kids were super excited.
For many of them, this was their first year of Totus Tuus, and although it was only their second day of the week, they loved it.
Linden, Sebastian, and Natalia were enjoying their lunch and were excited about the games and putting beads on the giant paper Rosary the kids made throughout the week.
By the end of the week, Kaiden Neumaier, one of the Totus Tuus missionaries, said that the Rosary would make an image of a rose.
Natalia was also very excited about the chips she brought with her for lunch.
The kids enjoyed plenty of recess time throughout the week filled with baseball, bean bag toss, and soccer.
Unfortunately, Fr. Chad Droessler was tagged out before he reached the first base.
Help from seminarians
Casey Cooney, a seminarian for the Diocese of Madison, was helping for the week at Christ the King.
Cooney, along with seminarian Todd Ashburn who was on the Totus Tuus team this summer, explained to the kids why they couldn’t call either of them “Father” yet.
Cooney proceeded to tell them that in three years he would be ordained, God willing, and then they could call him Father.
One of the kids responded, “Yeah, at least three more years.” Cooney received the comment humbly with a laugh along with the rest of the room.
Totus Tuus is well known for skits that they put on throughout the week for the kids.
Since the younger kids have a lot of energy, it’s helpful for them to run and laugh before they go into class where they learn more about the faith.
On this day, the kids had a visit from “a crazy guy”, dressed in a vest and wild hair, who helped them to run around and do some arm wrestling.
The kids and the Totus Tuus team had a fun week filled with laughter and learning.
It was a week which showed the kids that, in Father Van Wagner’s words “a life that puts God first in all things is the best life.”
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