TOTUS: Following the call and making the choice

By Genevieve Lee, 19 May 2023
Director for Priestly Vocations, Fr Christopher del Rosario (left), and young men at the recent TOTUS evening at St Patrick's Cathedral Hall, Parramatta. Image: Catholic Youth Parramatta

 

Young men from across the Diocese gathered on Wednesday 3 May to listen to Fr Matthew Dimian share on discernment and purpose for this month’s instalment of TOTUS.

Within the cozy walls of the St Patrick’s Cathedral Cloister Café, a group of young men from across the Diocese gathered for TOTUS – an evening of community and formation on Wednesday 3 May.

A joint initiative facilitated by the Diocesan Vocations Team and Catholic Youth Parramatta, TOTUS aims to bring men aged 18 to 35 into community to assist them in discerning how they can give their total self to God and serve their community through the journey towards their vocation. TOTUS takes its inspiration from Pope St John Paul II’s famous motto “Totus Tuus” – meaning ‘all yours’ in Latin.

The evening’s speaker was newly-ordained Fr Matthew Dimian, Assistant Priest at St Bernadette’s Parish, Castle Hill, who spoke on “God’s Call. My Choice”.

Fr Matthew detailed his own journey to priesthood and the intense discernment experienced as he followed God’s call. Despite hearing and feeling the call to the priesthood from a young age, Fr Matthew explained that through discernment, he was able to freely choose this path rather than falling into the vocation.

He reminded the young men that prayer and relationship with the Lord is essential to discernment and that “though God’s call may be confronting at first, once one grows in relationship and love for Our Lord, following the call comes naturally as a way of serving God and neighbour.”

A 24-year-old man from the Western Deanery shared that he was intrigued as to what wisdom the night could provide him with as he finished his last years of study and was preparing to figure out where God might be calling him to next.

Another participant from the Central Deanery said that he desired to find community and felt TOTUS could be a space to expand his social circle with other like-minded men.

Director for Priestly Vocations, Fr Christopher del Rosario, who lead the evening, hopes that TOTUS will “become a space for men to grow in faith, for their love for the Lord to increase, to find their vocation and to exercise that vocation in the Diocese and beyond.”

If you would like to learn more about TOTUS or attend the next gathering on Wednesday 7 June, please go to Totus – Diocese of Parramatta or contact either Fr Christopher del Rosario at Christopher.Del-Rosario@parracatholic.org or Genevieve Lee at genevieve.lee@parracatholic.org.

 

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