As a child, Deacon Zachary Ochsenbauer imagined becoming a pilot. A natural idea, considering his father, Tom, has been flying commercial planes for Delta Air Lines since before the 26-year-old seminarian was born.
“I thought of applying to the Air Force Academy,” Deacon Ochsenbauer said. “My oldest uncle, Dave, taught my dad how to fly. And then he (Tom) went on to the airlines. When I was growing up, I thought that’s what I would do. … I wanted to fly F-16s.”
But God had other plans for the young man who grew up attending St. Peter in Forest Lake with his parents and two younger siblings. Strong faith experiences and conversations with priests at his parish steered him toward a priestly vocation.
“I really started coming alive, probably in sixth grade, when I went to Extreme Faith Camp,” he said. “I started a regular prayer life, probably around eighth grade.”
A key part of his faith journey was praying the rosary, starting with one decade a day in eighth grade, then eventually praying the entire rosary starting in ninth or 10th grade. Connecting with Mary, his spiritual mother, helped him through the pain of losing his biological mother, Marcia, unexpectedly in 2005. “That was a tragic time for us,” he said of the days following his mother’s death.
Yet, the stirrings of a priestly vocation had begun and grew stronger, especially during his high school years. It culminated in a period during ninth grade in which the call toward the priesthood intensified.
“I was praying daily,” he said. “The thought of being a priest would keep coming up — kind of arise in my mind. It was something that wasn’t very strong, but it was persistent. So, for about a whole month, the thought of priesthood would keep coming to my mind.”
He listened, but there was a problem. “I was afraid,” he admitted.
Fortunately, the fear did not win out. Rather, “I knew it was from the Lord,” he said of the call to priesthood. Then, he chose to act on it by telling his father one night while the two were watching TV together.
“He was very supportive,” Deacon Ochsenbauer said of his father’s response. Even though he wrestled with the idea of becoming a priest through high school, he acted on the sense he received in prayer in ninth grade. He visited St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul and talked with Father Paul Shovelain, ordained in 2014 and serving at St. Peter in Forest Lake at the time. In addition, he interacted with a NET Ministries team that served at his parish.
Still, during his junior year at Forest Lake High School, he contemplated his choices after high school.
“I looked at the application for the Air Force Academy and I looked at the application for the seminary,” he said. “I really wanted to follow what I thought was God’s call.”
The result? “I entered seminary, and honestly it was the best decision I ever made,” he said.
Although he entered the path to the priesthood, he did find a way to realize his dream of flying. With his father’s help, he took flying lessons and eventually earned his pilot’s license at age 17. He anticipates having opportunities to fly even after he is ordained. One blessing was being on a plane with his father as the pilot in January 2024, when a group of seminarians traveled to Rome. Tom Ochsenbauer flew the plane from the Twin Cities to Paris. “I went up to the cockpit for a little bit,” Deacon Ochsenbauer noted.
As he begins priestly ministry in the coming days, he will enter a spiritual cockpit — the confessional. It is an aspect of the priesthood he especially looks forward to.
“The thing I’m most nervous about but also really excited for is confession,” he said. “First of all, I’ve seen the grace and the impact that the sacrament of confession has had on my own life.”
He said he has “the strong desire to share God’s mercy that I’ve experienced with others. I know it’s a really powerful, profound, intimate moment of communion between God and the penitent. It’ll be really beautiful to be a part of that, and also to be able to impart God’s pardon and peace to others.”
“It’s such an important sacrament,” he said. “One of the texts that I always go back to in the Gospel is the resurrection account of Jesus meeting his disciples. I think it’s John 20 (verses 22-23). He breathes on them and says, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’ … And so that same spirit that Christ breathed upon the Apostles will be in my heart as well. I’ll be able to impart that same gift of pardon and peace to those around me. So going back to that fundamental text, which I love, gives me that hope and joy to be able to speak God’s words to the penitents.”
