Youth Teams of Our Lady (YTOL, Equipes de Notre Dame Jeunes) is an international youth movement built on the principle of youth serving youth. Young people take on all responsibilities in the movement. YTOL is an official lay movement in the Roman Catholic Church and is founded on the spirituality of passage of young people towards vocations of adult Life. The movement encourages youth to grow from a shallow understanding of their faith to a meaningful relationship with Jesus, through community, prayer and action. The movement is devoted to Mary, choosing her as a model of openness to the Holy Spirit.

YTOL History in Canada & International Youth Teams - Learn More >

What We Do

The basic unit of the movement is a team consisting of young people, an accompanying married couple and a priest or religious. A young person, called a team animator, leads the team. During monthly meetings, team members pray, share and study the Catholic faith. Over time, the team grows together, sharing friendship based on Christ. Individual team members, as well as the team as a whole, choose projects through which they serve in their community.

YTOL gives young people an opportunity to consider their vocation seriously. They have a chance to discover the opportunities that God offers to live out their lives. This is achieved through close contact with other youth with similar questions, a married couple living the sacrament and a priest or religious living the consecrated life in the Church.

Team Strucure - Learn More >

Meeting Strucure - Learn More >

Retreats
In Canada, YTOL organizes annual week-long evangelizing retreats for youth. A retreat for high school students takes place during the March Break. The retreat for young adults is organized during the Christmas Break. A two-week retreat takes place during the summer vacation.

YTOL retreats are based on youth evangelizing youth. Young people plan, organize and run retreats with the help of clergy and other adults. Prayer is the central part of a retreat allowing participants to look at their lives from a different perspective. Eventually, the participants of one retreat become the animators of the next.

Other Activities
In the summer of 2000, YTOL in Canada organized a pilgrimage to Italy for the Jubilee World Youth Day in Rome. During World Youth Day 2002, YTOL was working with Franciscan orders at the Franciscan Fest site. YTOL coordinated one of four parts of the site, leading youth from around the world in prayer, singing and discussions.

International Meetings
Every two years, the movement organizes an international meeting for all its members. Each one takes place in a different country and fosters friendship and a sharing of faith and culture. Young people, married couples and clergy and religious all take part in the meetings. The experience ties in spiritual elements as well as tourism 2007 International Meeting - Learn More >

A lay movement is an organization of lay people who want to serve the Church together. While working with the Church structures, a movement also needs its own structure to coordinate activities with its members.