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Dan Mauro is the son of Frank and Christy Mauro and the third of four children. The family belongs to Holy Spirit parish, where Dan attended grade school. He finished high school at St. James Academy, the environment to which he credits the development of his faith life. “It wasn’t really until going to St. James that the faith became real for me,” he said. “Before that, it was just something I took for granted.”
He related that, in the early years of high school, through the invitation of his sister, he read the theology of St. Louis de Montfort and decided to consecrate his life to the Blessed Virgin Mary. “This was a real “game-changer” and the beginning of my coming to know God’s will,” Mauro observed. He noted another “big development”: falling in love with the Eucharist through the habit of going to daily Mass.
The oldest of the Mauro children is Dan’s only sister, Sr. Mary of Jesus, a contemplative religious sister with the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin Matará (the “Servidoras”) and lives in Brooklyn, NY at the Monastery of St. Edith Stein. Dan has one older brother, Jonathan, who lives and works in KC and one younger brother, Sam, who is a freshman at Benedictine College. The family patriarch, Frank Mauro, works in medical sales; Dan’s mother, Christy Mauro, is a nurse now working part of the week as a volunteer at Catholic Charities.
Dan wrestled with the question of discernment in high school, but it wasn’t until college that things began to come together. “In my freshman year at Benedictine College, I started taking time to pray each day. I would ask God what His plan was for my life and take time in silence to listen,” Dan reflected.
In January of that year (2017), Mauro was at a FOCUS conference for Catholic college students called SEEK. During this conference, a priest was talking about how many young people are leaving the Catholic Church and losing their faith. “I think the number was somewhere near 90%,” he recalled. “I had heard similar numbers before, but this time, something different happened. My heart was pierced with sorrow for all those people. I thought about how much God had taken care of me, and how fulfilling a life lived with Him is, and how sad it is that so many were being led away from all those blessings which I had experienced.”
In this moment of sorrow for God’s lost sheep, Dan heard God speak. “I heard him inviting me to be a priest.” Dan had thought about being a priest before, “but I was pretty sure I was going to get married.” God had another plan, and, in that prayerful exchange, it became clear to him: “God was inviting me to be a shepherd of His people and to lead them back to Him. I was filled with joy and excitement.”
Since that 2017 FOCUS experience, Mauro has been going through studies to prepare for his ultimate response to God’s call. He finished his undergraduate degree in Philosophy in 2020 and is now working on a master’s degree in Theology. He is currently a Theology I student at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, MO. “I have 3 more years of school, so God willing, I will be ordained a priest in 2025,” he said.
