Ryan Truss
Age: 28
Family: Parents, Will and Barb; siblings, Phillip, Anna, Claire and Amelia
Home parish: St. Gianna in Wentzville
Education: St. Francis Borgia, Cedarburg, Wisconsin (K-2nd); St. Joseph, Josephville (6th); Mother of Divine Grace Homeschool (3rd-5th and 7th-12th); Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, California; Kenrick School of Theology
The call: Father Truss felt the call to the priesthood when he was young. The desire ebbed and flowed as he grew up. Even in grade and high school, he thought of the priesthood as he served Mass. He enjoyed attending Kenrick-Glennon Days, a camp held at the seminary every summer. After high school, he attended Thomas Aquinas College, where he grew in his love for God through daily discussion of the great books and through the sacraments. At college, he also was surrounded by friends, teachers and chaplains whose faith inspired him to continue discerning a priestly vocation, and entered the seminary soon after college graduation.
The desire for priesthood grew in his heart as he saw more clearly that this is what God is calling him to do. “I desire to be able to be with people throughout their lives and to bring them God,” he said.
In his priesthood, Father Truss is looking forward to being a spiritual father to others. “I know priests in my own life who have made a big impact on me, whether it’s through walking and talking about the faith or the sacrament of confession,” he said. “That fatherly love that a priest is able to show, is something that I’ve always looked up to and desired to be able give to others.”
We are living in a time in which there seems to be so much despair in the world, Father Truss said, and people don’t know where to look for true happiness. “I think the Church, and especially, through the priesthood, is able to give hope, that God became man to redeem us from our sinfulness, from our brokenness and He wants to share His eternal life with us,” he said.
