As a freshman I was not a Religious Studies major I was a Secondary Education and Biology major. I realized within my first couple of months at Loras that I would not be happy in my current major so I began looking at different possibilities. Since I was coming back to my faith at this point in time, I was very interested in Theology/Religious Studies. So I decided to try a course, Jesus in the Gospels, and ended up loving it. But, I still was not sure if this major was for me so I did not officially declare, but signed up for more Religious Studies classes.
During that summer, the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, I decided to work for a program called Totus Tuus. Working this program really influenced me and made me realize that I want and am meant to do some sort of work in Theology/Religious Studies and work for the Catholic Church. Totus Tuus is a youth summer catechetical program. Totus Tuus is a phrase that is translated from Latin to mean “totally yours” and the program takes its name from Blessed Pope John Paul II’s apostolic motto which signified his devotion to the Virgin Mother Mary (Totus Tuus Maria). The program consisted of a team of four college students (I was one of them), two boys and two girls, who go to a different parish every week. Our team would stay at a member of the parish’s house for the week, the boys at one house and the girls at another. Every day the grades 2-8 would come from 9:00-3:00 where we would teach four different classes on the Catholic faith. The classes covered many different topics such as the Luminous mysteries, prayer, Mary, mass, etc. Mass was also an essential part of the day as well as confession. Then in the evenings we would give talks to high school students and do different activities with them. These talks covered a variety of subjects such as chastity, prayer, Saints, etc. We covered six parishes throughout the summer in the Des Moines diocese.
Working for Totus Tuus was a very great influence for my decision that I wanted to be a Religious Studies major. It made me see how great the need is to evangelize and teach in the Catholic Church, especially to the youth. The experience I got from working Totus Tuus was invaluable. Teaching anywhere from 10 to 24 children at one time really makes you learn to not only think on your feet, but to convey the faith in a an understandable way that is not watered down. Also Totus Tuus helped me to be a much more comfortable public speaker. We not only gave talks to high school students, but we also had to speak in front of whole parishes at mass to publicize our program. Not only was this a good teaching and public speaking experience, but it also helped me to understand a little more how parish dynamics work. To have to coordinate with directors of religious education, youth ministers, priests, and parents was very challenging (in a great way of course) but it was also a great way to learn how parishes work. It also gave me an increased respect for how much work people who work in a parish have to do. Totus Tuus definitely influenced me becoming a Religious Studies major and I can see that it has also prepared me for future work in the Catholic Church.
