Editor's note: This is another in an occasional series featuring the vocation stories of Miles Jesu seminarians and priests.
Dan Osborn, a native of Buffalo, New York, received an undergraduate degree in English Literature at the University of Notre Dame before attending the University of Buffalo for his doctorate. He was planning to devote his life to teaching and writing, but God had other plans.
The atheistic climate of academia began to erode his faith. In graduate school, the whole idea that there is objective truth was considered anathema by many of his professors and colleagues. Relativism was the new dogma: you have your truth, I have mine. After five years in this environment, he started missing Sunday Mass, and slid little by little into a cynicism bordering on despair.
On St. Patrick’s Day, 1989, he finally prayed, “Lord, You take over,” and the very next day two of his friends who had just returned from Medjugorje made a spontaneous visit. The look of joy and peace in their eyes, their gift of a rosary and medal, as well as their account of how Our Lady was reportedly appearing in Yugoslavia and converting the hearts of millions of people, reawakened Dan’s faith. The next day at Mass, as the priest was reading the Palm Sunday Gospel, Dan received an unmistakable call, which never left him. He knew he had a vocation. But where?
It took a year and a half for Dan to find his vocation, but when he made a Miles Jesu retreat and saw the members’ devotion to the Eucharist, their love for Our Lady, their unwavering loyalty to the Holy Father and the Magisterium, and their joyful way of life, he understood that this was where God wanted him. One thing which made a deep impact on Dan during the retreat, was a talk on holiness given by a Fr. Paul Vota, a Miles Jesu priest. To make a point Fr. Vota, removing the white clerical collar of his shirt and holding it up for all to see, said, “This does not make me holy! The priesthood is not a cause of holiness but a role of service some are called to for the good of others.”
This down to earth approach to the spiritual life won Dan over. He left his own plan for a doctorate behind and entered Miles Jesu’s Chicago community in 1990 at the age of 27. But God, never outdone in generosity, would abundantly reward him. By 1992 Dan was sent on his first overseas assignment. He went to Ukraine to work with youth and teach English. Shortly after this it was on to Moscow where he would spearhead the production Catholic programs broadcast on Radio Moscow. These programs explained the Catholic faith in terms of its historic positive influence on culture.
By 1996, and throughout 1997 Dan was shuttling between the countries of Austria, Italy and Czech Republic involved in journalism and teaching assignments. He taught adult catechism in Vienna and lectured on poetry at an arts college in the Czech Republic. While writing for the Czech edition of the Catholic World Report Dan was at the same time helping to produce English editions of television programs produced by Telepace in Rome. The aim of this project was to create a series of documentaries on the many Papal visits to foreign countries.
By August of 1998 up until entering the Miles Jesu seminary in 2000 Dan again juggled a new series of assignments. He taught in a Catholic school in London, acted as the director of formation for two Miles Jesu communities in Nigeria, and worked for vocations in India. While fulfilling these assignments Dan had also become a member of the General Government of Miles Jesu.
To obtain more information on Miles Jesu and the Miles Jesu Seminary Program, please write to seminarian Dan Osborn.
