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Totus Tuus 2021

Posted on by Alayna Masker

The sound of children singing about the rosary, praying the Angelus and delighting in camp songs could be heard at parishes throughout the Diocese of Burlington this summer. After a hiatus last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Totus Tuus returned.

The catechetical summer camp was hosted in Newport, Bennington, Stowe and parishes in between. Two teams of four missionaries devoted their summer to teaching students about the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary and the Ten Commandments.

Lily Yandow, a St. Albans native and sophomore studying art and education at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, grew up attending Totus Tuus. “I have been going to Totus Tuus since probably fifth grade, and I just finished my freshman year of college and I didn’t want to stop going to Totus Tuus so I became a missionary. I got so much out of it as a kid and as a high schooler, I wanted to be able to help give that back to kids,” she said.

Michael Lyons, of South Burlington returned for a third year of teaching. “This program gives so much to every part of the parish and just to be able to give back to these communities and meet so many wonderful people, priests and parishioners around Vermont is just awesome,” he said. He is pursuing a master’s degree in English from Boston College.

Despite the pandemic, the program remained unchanged. “It was really cool to see the Catholic communities kept strong throughout the pandemic and the outpouring of support for everyone was just beautiful to see. It hasn’t changed over the years that I’ve done Totus Tuus,” Lyons said. First time Totus Tuus teacher Joey Brooks lives in Ashburn, Virginia, but used to live in South Burlington where he attended Rice Memorial High School. There, he made a connection that ultimately led to him teaching Totus Tuus. “I went to Rice and the campus minister there … messaged me and said, ‘Hey you should do this’ and I had service experience at Rice doing Vacation Bible School, so it’s kind of similar. It was that mixed with just reverting back to my faith in college that it only made sense that I go back to Vermont … to minister to the kids,” said the junior at Belmont University in Nashville studying legal studies.

This year’s Totus Tuus teams also included missionaries from Iowa and Connecticut.

During the summer, the teams spent a week at a different parish teaching children in first through eighth grades during the day program and freshman through seniors in the evening for High School Nights.

“I didn’t anticipate how much I would love the kids. It’s just so good to get to know kids from all around the Diocese and to be able to teach them and minister to them,” Yandow said. “It’s so much fun. You learn so much but it’s not like a boring kind of learning. Maybe the best part is you get to be around other Catholic people your age and build that Catholic community that can be really hard to find especially in Vermont.”

As the summer wrapped up, the teams and students left with memories that left an impression.

“Totus Tuus tells kids that they are loved and shows kids that they are loved, and I think in our current society we always need that. The change that you see in the kids as they go throughout the week and realize that the team and the other people attending the camp and the pastors all love them and support them, helps them realize that God loves them and supports them and when they realize that, it’s beautiful,” Lyons said.

The diocesan Totus Tuus program is supported by the Bishop’s Annual Appeal.

—Published in the Aug. 21-28, 2021, edition of The Inland See.

 

Total surrender to Jesus

Posted on by Cori Urban

Before Father Lance Harlow decided to enter the priesthood, he worked a radiologic technologist the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont in Burlington and at the Mount Ascutney Hospital in Windsor, his hometown.

“The decision to enter the seminary proceeded from a tortuous process of discovering the ultimate meaning of my life — beyond just a medical career,” said the rector of St. Joseph Cathedral in Burlington.

After about two years of prayer and spiritual direction with the Vermont priest who baptized him, Father Harlow discerned that God was calling him out of healthcare to be a parish priest. “It was a very painful decision because I liked my colleagues very much and the medical work I was doing. However, it did not fulfill my soul because, as good as it was as a profession, it was not my vocation,” he said.

Burlington Bishop Kenneth Angell ordained him at the former Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Burlington on May 8, 1993. His assignments have mostly been in parish ministry, though from 1998 to 2000 he worked full time as a hospital chaplain at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington.

Throughout, he has been involved in a host of social ministries.

“A man is ordained a priest for three primary tasks: to preach, to teach and to heal. Involvement with the social ministry allows him to do all three,” Father Harlow said. “When a priest is relegated to a desk, stifled by paperwork, he loses his focus on the meaning of his priesthood. While administrative work is part of being a pastor, it can become all-consuming and needs to be balanced with the pastoral art of working with people and living a sacrificial life.”

Throughout the 25 years of his priesthood, Father Harlow has collaborated with a variety of social ministries including food shelves and being a co-founder of the Kingdom Community Shelter in St. Johnsbury. He served lunches to the poor and found “great value in wearing priestly attire in working with the poor because of the immediate identification with religion.”

For many years he has been involved with the Kurn Hattin Homes for Children in Westminster, which cares for children whose families who cannot take care of their children for a variety of socio-economic and personal reasons. In 2017, he received from the school the Reverend Charles Albert Dickinson award for “outstanding contributions to the field of child welfare and commitment to transforming the lives of children and their families.”

At the cathedral, Father Harlow serves as the executive director of Joseph’s House, an apostolate to the poor in downtown Burlington and surrounding towns. The parish also has begun a new relationship with Spectrum Youth and Family Services, cooperating in the running of a temporary shelter for homeless youth at the St. Joseph Cathedral parish hall between November and April.

“Evangelization has also been a fundamental theme throughout my priesthood,” Father Harlow said. He has spoken at several conferences, made a CD for Lighthouse Communications and written books on Marian devotion. He appeared on Living the Abundant Life on EWTN and produced two public access TV evangelization programs — one in Bethel and one in Bellows Falls. He is currently doing videos for Facebook to promote the St. Nicholas Project, which connects Catholics with the charitable works of Kurn Hattin; and he is considering a YouTube channel for the same purpose.

Another of his social ministries has been the public healing services, which are conducted monthly at St. Joseph Cathedral and at other locations including LaSalette Shrine in Enfield, New Hampshire.

“The only way for a priest to be successful in working with the poor is to spend a lot of time before the Blessed Sacrament in silent prayer,” Father Harlow said. “There he will gain courage, wisdom and a sensitive heart to step out of his comfort zone. But there also, the Lord will speak to his heart and open up opportunities for him to encounter the poor.”

Working with the poor is challenging, he acknowledged, saying: “One’s idealism becomes quickly tempered by actual experience. Those experiences will force the priest to recognize that his service to the poor is actually service to the suffering Jesus. That is why adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is essential. It helps purify the spiritual eyes of the soul to see Jesus in the distressed men and women. And, when they cause us pain by their words and actions, we must return to the Blessed Sacrament to have Jesus heal our emotional wounds and frustration.”

Offering his general thought on the priesthood, Father Harlow emphasized that a priestly vocation is one of total surrender to Jesus. “If a man is considering a vocation to the priesthood because he sees in it the fulfillment of his life’s meaning and purpose, then he will be very happy. To see the priesthood as something less than a total sacrifice, will cause a man to be disillusioned over time.”

And, he concluded, “God does not call a man to the priesthood because he is a saint. God calls a man to the priesthood to become a saint.”

—Originally published in the Winter 2018 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

Tortolano to perform his 56th annual organ recital at St. Michael’s College

Posted on by Cori Urban

Dr. William Tortolano will give his 56th annual organ recital at the St. Michael’s College chapel in Colchester on Oct. 25 at 12:15 p.m.

“I want to keep active, and I like to serve the Church,” said the author of six books who has published more than 60 choral compositions and music for organ, brass and strings.

The college’s 2-manual, 17-rank, 14-stop Casavant pipe organ was designed and dedicated in 1966 to Tortolano, a 50-year faculty member at the college where he was founder of the Fine Arts Department and its first chairperson. The pipe organ is “like part of my family,” he said.

He enjoys continuing to play the organ. “Why should I stop? You have to keep your mind going,” said Tortolano, 92. “That’s important.”

At the concert Tortolano will play a diversity of styles and tonal colors that reflect the many aspects of the classic organ. Works include those of Froberger, Buxtehude, Bach, Kosakoff and Shearing.

To prepare for the annual recitals, he keeps practicing and learning new music. “I keep busy. It’s a lot of fun,” he said.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Tortolano to lead church music, choral reading session

Posted on by Submitted Article

A church music, choral reading session will take place at rehearsal room 134, McCarthy Arts Center at St. Michael’s College in Colchester on Sept. 25 at 3 p.m. The program is free and open to the public.

Dr. William Tortolano, professor emeritus at St. Michael’s, will direct the music of ecumenical diversity. A free packet of 20 compositions is published by GIA and WL Publications of Chicago. Music will include a Mass setting and a wide range of Roman Catholic and Protestant styles.

After a hiatus due to the pandemic, this will be an opportunity to energize choirs and to reemerge them to their worship leadership.

Tortolano’s career has included 50 years teaching at St. Michael’s; six published books; more than 75 editions of music; concerts in the United States, Canada, Italy, Scotland, England, The Netherlands and France. He received the papal honor, Pro Ecclesia Et Pontifice, for his worldwide leadership in Gregorian Chant.

For more information, contact Tortolano by phone at 802-899-3564 or email, wtortolano@smcvt.edu. (Please include your phone number.)

Tortolano concert

Posted on by Submitted Article

Dr. William Tortolano, professor emeritus of fine arts and chapel organist emeritus will present a concert in the St. Michael’s College chapel in Colchester on May 25 at 12:15 p.m.

A 50-year faculty member and founder of the Fine Arts Department, 91-year-old Tortolano will play a variety of musical styles that reflect his personal favorites.

The 1966, two manual organ is dedicated to him.

The live concert is free and open to the public; it will reflect the many tonal colors of the organ. The program includes two compositions from the Baroque era: the Toccata in D Minor by Froberger and the Jig Fugue by Buxtehude.

Three Jewish organ pieces by Reuven Kosakoff explore the emotional moods of praise and prayer with modes/scales. The harmonies of the great blind jazz pianist George Shearing are warmly expressed in two American folk hymns.

Respected as a worldwide authority in Gregorian Chant, Tortolano will play the Mariales Suite by Lebanese composer, Naji Hakim. These combine the chant with Near Eastern sounds.

The concert is his 54th annual presentation.

The audience is requested to observe Covid-19 protocols.

Dr. William Tortolano

Tools to follow the faith in real life and in video games

Posted on by Cori Urban

Michael Davis-Ickes, a parishioner of Corpus Christi Parish in Lyndonville, is a gamer.

He likes to play video games, finding the activity a diversion — a way to step away from what’s on his mind.

But he knows some video games contain content that is contrary to the teachings of the Church.

He looked for Catholic-based reviews of video games but was not satisfied with what he found, so he is now writing and producing his own reviews online.

The author, YouTuber, blogger and public speaker uses YouTube and his website, mdavisickes.wordpress.com to share his reviews of video games like Dishonored.

In that review — accompanied by video game footage — he provides release/production information, a synopsis, faith analysis, “actions impact the world” and a level of warning.

“Situations of temptation I ran into were essentially killing vs. non-lethal and the use of the Outsiders’ ‘gifts’ or not,” he wrote. “There was one level that took place in a brothel-like setting, ‘The Golden Cat.’ Thankfully they controlled their creation of the situation so as to have no nudity or sex involved therein.”

In a recent interview at the Corpus Christi rectory in St. Johnsbury, Davis-Ickes, 32, said video games have various concerns for gamers who take their faith seriously. “Some [games] are incredibly dangerous right off the bat,” he said.

He urges gamers (and parents) to be mindful of game ratings, avoiding, for example those with sexual content and those with intense violence or blood and gore.

Davis-Ickes also “steers clear” of online games that many gamers are playing “because they all don’t share our faith, and that can be evident.”

A native of Boston who was raised in Andover, Massachusetts, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in computer science from Framingham (Massachusetts) State University, where he met his future wife, Leanne, a devout Catholic. He joined the Catholic Church in his mid-twenties.

With a logical mind, he said he concluded that God is real and “there is only one church fully connected to God” — the Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ.

Davis-Ickes, author of “Purity and Chastity: A Catholic Toolbox Approach,” is concerned that there has been a “slow degradation over time” of all media, not just video games. “Just like movies and books, you can find games with Christian values but also an increasing number doing the opposite,” he said.

He began writing video game reviews in 2019 and then posting to YouTube. He steers his audience away from games with “sinful content” like those that promote killing, drugs, sex or “activities or lifestyle choices that are contradictory to the Catholic faith.”

Yet there can be “beautiful moments” found in video-game play. For example, his 2-year-old son, Jacob, was playing an older “Mario” game, but it turned into his observance of butterflies in the game. “It was adorable and great” to see his son so enthralled with the butterflies, he said.

Yet many games — like life, he said — “seem to be speeding up,” Davis-Ickes said. That’s part of the reason he and his family moved to Northern Vermont from Massachusetts — for a slower pace of life. “There are games and movies out there that slow us down.”

Asked for his recommendations for three video games or video game series, he offered:

+ Pokemon, games that encourage strategic thinking and, in many cases, basic math skills. Pokémon puts a strong emphasis on good sportsmanship and respect for other players. “It doesn’t endorse things that are against the Church” and has no offensive language.

+ Ratchet and Clank, which takes place in a science-fiction setting and follow the adventures of Ratchet (a feline humanoid) and Clank (a diminutive robot) as they travel through the universe, saving it from evil forces that consistently threaten it. “A call-back to movies like ‘Toy Story,’ but it does have some innuendo” and double entendre.

+ The Witness, a game that involves the exploration of an open world island filled with natural and man-made structures. “A puzzle game that is incredibly well done … and environmentally driven.”

For more information, go to mdavisickes.wordpress.comor YouTube.com/michaeldavisickes.

—Originally published in the Spring 2022 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.