Biography

Father Anthony Ostini, SJ, is celebrating 50 years as a Jesuit priest.  

A native of Mobile, Ala., Fr. Ostini has spent most of his Jesuit life in the state of Louisiana. He is currently serving at the Jesuit Spirituality Center at St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, La., and directed the Center from 2007 to 2021. 

From 1994-2006, he served in retreat ministry at Manresa House of Retreats in Convent, La.  

In his early years, he taught at Jesuit High School in New Orleans and served the former New Orleans as assistant director of novices. 

Father Ostini taught theology and served as the spiritual director at Notre Dame Seminary, the seminary for the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1991-94. 

For the last 28 years, Fr. Ostini has focused exclusively on retreat direction.  

Father Ostini’s Reflection on 50 Years as a Priest:

The ink on my high school diploma was barely dry when I arrived in Grand Coteau, La., on July 30, 1960 to begin my life as a Jesuit. Sixty-two years have flown by since that arrival in Grand Coteau, and fifty years since my ordination in Saint Joseph Chapel at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Ala. These years as a Jesuit and priest describe who I “am,” my deepest identity. 

The Society of Jesus has given me so much, for which I am so grateful. Above all, it has given me a vibrant, meaningful spirituality, a way of seeking and finding God. It has been my great privilege and joy for most of my ministry as a Jesuit priest to share that Ignatian Spirituality with many other seekers through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in retreat and spiritual direction ministry.  

Gratitude is an essential element in Ignatian Spirituality, and so I want to express deeply and wholeheartedly my gratitude to my parents and family and to my brother Jesuits for these years of a gratifying and fulfilling vocation. I have received so much more than what I have given. My thanks and gratitude to so many of you for helping me to live my deepest identity.