As part of our mission we help our ill children to have a personal encounter with God. Therefore, we prepare them to receive the holy sacraments such as: The Baptism, the Reconciliation, the First Communion, and the Sunday Mass.   This month, Laura, one of our girls, received for her first time the Holy Host. It was a very special moment for her because it was like a dream that became true. During the past months, Laura was fighting not only against Leukemia, but also against a rare bone illness called Osteogenesis.  This disease caused her a lot of pain and sufferings, but the hope of receiving her first communion gave her the strength to continue fighting.  Now Laura feels she is sharing her cross with Jesus: she feels closer to God.

The past 27th of December of 2008, the Chapel TOTUS TUUS was consecrated to Our Lady of Chiquinquirá, the patroness of Colombia. In that special date, we celebrated the enthronement of the image of Our Lady, offering our lives to her and joining together in prayer for the peace of Colombia and of the world.

View more photos of this event in our IMAGE GALLERY

From left to right: Rev. Omar Sánchez O.P., Prior of the Basilica of Chiquinquirá (Colombia); Rev. Alvaro Pinzón J.C.D., Director and Founder of the Cofradia (Guild) of Our Lady of the Rosary of Chiquinquirá in the Archdiocese of Miami, Fl.;  and Rev. Jaime Alberto Mancera Casas, Pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary of La Calera (Colombia).

CONSECRATION TO VIRGIN MARY IN THE BASILICA OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY OF CHIQUINQUIRÁ
ASKING FOR HER ASSISTANCE THE 8TH OF MAY, 2009
(Date in which Saint Dominic de Guzmán received the help of Virgin Mary for his Order of Preachers)

The founder of TOTUS TUUS made the consecration to the Virgin of Chiquinquirá during a solemn Eucharist that was celebrated at 3 p.m. in the Basilica and Sanctuary of Our Lady of Chiquinquirá.  The Holy Mass was presided over by Fray Sair from The Dominican Order.  It was a very special moment for everybody because after the homily, the Priest gave the microphone to the Founder of TOTUS TUUS, who knelt down in the greater altar, in front of the image of Our Lady (image that was renewed miraculously in 1586), and in presence of innumerable people he recited the following prayer of consecration:

Holy Virgin Mary, in this day in which you manifested to Santo Domingo de Guzmán all your love and protection for the work that God had entrusted to him, I want to request your aid, refuge and protection for the work that God has entrusted to me: Totus Tuus.  As its name proclaims, we are all yours Mary.  For that reason, today I consecrate the Association to you, Queen of Colombia, Virgin of Chiquinquirá, so that this work prospers economic and spiritually for the good of the Church. I also request you to take us all through the way of sanctity with the mercy and the grace of God. Santo Domingo de Guzmán, we ask for your special intercession in all our work.
Daniel Francisco.

IN MEMORIAM - His Excellency Monsignor Julio Sánchez G.
September 18th 1924 - January 13th 2009

Monsignor Julio Sánchez, was a very important person for the Community of Totus Tuus because he was one of our first spiritual directors. Monsignor Sánchez was the Prior and founder of the Emilio Valenzuela School in Bogotá, where the director of the Secular Association Totus Tuus studied.

“Well done, my good servant!”

He was ordained as a priest on 9TH October 1949 in Rome. He was the Vicar Co-operator in the Parish of Santa Barbara (1952), Theology Professor at The Major Seminary of the Archdiocese of Bogotá (1952-1961), Chaplain of The Third Order Sisters (1954), Chaplain of the Gimnasio Moderno School (1954-1959), President of The Archdiocesan Secretariat of Defense of Faith (1957), Co-operator Vicar of the Porciúncula Parish (1959) and Chaplain of The Marymount School (1965-1969).  For more than 30 years, Monsignor Sánchez was simultaneously Pastor of Santa Bibiana’s Parish and Head Master of the Emilio Valenzuela School.  On 15th March 2000, The Holy Father John Paul II named him prelate of Honor, which was a special recognition for his sense of communion with the Church, for his testimony as a preacher of catholic values within different educational institutions and for the affection that he always professed to the clergy of the Archdiocese.