Owen Toepfer

Year Graduated: 2019
Current City: South Bend, IN
Job: Third Year Law Student at the University of Notre Dame

What are you up to these days?
My wife and I recently celebrated our one-year anniversary, we are expecting our first baby (named Lawrence!), and I am starting my third year of law school at Notre Dame.

What were you involved in at St. Lawrence?
I was at St. Lawrence just about every day, but I spent a lot of time doing things with and for the Institute for Faith and Culture. The people and classes associated with the IFC did more than anything else to help me mature in my faith.

How do you live the theme “be not afraid” in your life?
Not as well as I should, probably—but I do try! I think, for a Catholic, being unafraid is often synonymous with trusting in God’s providence and knowing that God’s will for me is better than anything I could dream up for myself if left to my own devices. Often, being unafraid means doing things that are counter-cultural and that bear witness to the abundant love of God—for example, welcoming a child into the world before finishing school.

How do you recommend others live the theme of “be not afraid”?
American novelist Edith Wharton once wrote: “Life is always a featherbed or a tightrope. Give me the tightrope.” Take the tightrope! It’s hard to think of something as antithetical to the Catholic life as a featherbed. When God calls us out onto our respective tightropes, being unafraid doesn’t necessarily mean casting off all uncertainty. It means knowing that God wouldn’t have called us out if He did not plan to steady our balance and catch us when we fall.