Striving for holiness

Father Zachary Burns, TOR, parochial vicar of Good Shepherd Parish in Colleyville. (NTC/Kevin Bartram)

HE IS: Father Zachary Burns, TOR, parochial vicar of Good Shepherd Parish in Colleyville.

GROWING UP: The oldest of three children, Fr. Burns was raised in Northeast Pennsylvania.

His great uncle Johnny was a priest for the Archdiocese of New York, and he frequently visited the family and took the children to movies and other activities. 

“Obviously there was something really awesome about what [priests] were doing, but as people, as men, I saw them as normal. I never felt intimidated by priests.”

OF MASS IMPORTANCE: “Our Catholic faith was very important to us, but we weren’t particularly well catechized,” he recalled. However, his parents emphasized the importance of Mass. “We never missed Mass; we’d drive to Mass in the snow. That foundation was very helpful.”

He encourages parents of reluctant teens, “As long as they’re in your house, try to get them to Mass.”

COLLEGE YEARS: Fr. Burns studied education at St. Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, on a cross-country scholarship. “My parents, aunts, uncles — literally everybody in my family is a teacher.”

AN AWAKENING: After graduating, he worked for a year as a kindergarten and special education teacher at his home school district. He loved teaching and felt “well ordered” in his career, but every weekend he partied with friends and felt a “misaligned purpose.” 

Lying in bed on a Sunday night in February 2013, he was prompted by Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation to think about holiness. “I remember having this very strong sense of God’s love for me, apart from all the things that I had based my identity on,” like academic, athletic, and professional achievement. “I felt like a disappointment to myself, but I felt this sense that God did not see me that way and He had something in store for me.”

“I woke up the next morning 100 percent sure I was going to be a Franciscan.”

Within a few days, Fr. Burns reached out to his university cross-country chaplain, a Franciscan friar.

ROAD MADE CLEAR: Fr. Burns followed the friar’s advice to attend Mass more frequently, find a spiritual director, get involved in his parish, and attend a discernment weekend. He was a postulant Franciscan by August. 

“Every way was made straight; every valley made level; every hill brought low. It was a weird experience to have everything like, ‘Here it is. This is the way.’”

PERSONAL CALL: Fr. Burns admitted his vocation experience is very different from those who discern for years. 

“God calls us in different ways. I always say God knows who each of us are; He knows our personalities; He knows everything, so He’s going to call us in a way that makes sense for us.”

HOLY HABITS: “You have to be disciplined in a way that even as an athlete, I’m not quite at the level of discipline that you need. You have to fight for your prayer time as the first thing.”

FATHERHOOD: “Celibacy is so integral to this call because it makes you able to be called father, because you’re really a father to the whole parish.

“My dad was very present growing up, very present. That was overwhelmingly positive. So I want to be a present father — not just the spiritual lives, but the day-to-day lives.”

TEXAS TIME: Fr. Burns arrived at Good Shepherd Parish on June 1, 2020, when he was still a deacon. He was ordained to the priesthood on July 11, 2020.

“I’ve found the people to be so down-to-earth, so receptive, so generous. As much as I try to take care of the people here, they take care of me.”