Ben Richards recently gave a talk about the importance of the Eucharist in his life.
The senior at Holy Family Catholic High School in Victoria was asked by someone at his parish, St. Joseph in Waconia, to speak to adults in the parish at a retreat. He was nervous. What could he say that the adults would find meaningful?
As it turns out, plenty. The principal of Holy Family, Kathie Brown, wasn’t worried. One act spoke volumes — he asked her if he could spend his study hall in the chapel to prepare his remarks.
This practice is nothing new for a young man who has come to appreciate the value of a Catholic education after spending his younger years in public school.
“Sometimes, I’ll use this study hall period to go and just pray in the chapel and see if God can give me any words of wisdom in that time period,” he said.
In his talk on the Eucharist, he said he “focused on … trying to express the truth that Christ is present in the Eucharist, and how he can be represented, and how you can know that he is present in the Eucharist by bringing up Gospel stories that explain Christ being present in the Eucharist.”
He recounted for his audience the story of a eucharistic miracle in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1996, in which a priest placed a consecrated host into a glass of water, and later found that it had become a piece of bloodied flesh. It was examined by then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis). Later, scientists in New York studied the host and concluded that it contained a fragment of heart muscle.
“There’s so many things that point you towards having Christ present in the Eucharist,” he said. “And, I wanted to be able to spread that to all those adults that may or may not have been struggling to find Christ’s true presence.”
Richards’ conviction of this truth has led him to become an extraordinary minister of holy Communion. He also serves in the school’s music ministry.
He plans to attend St. John’s University in Collegeville to study computer science and global business.
He feels called to raise a family “and try and spread God’s love through different methods,” he said. “If I can become a businessman, and I can become a different type of businessman with high ethics and morals that is able to spread God’s love through that, I think I could make a huge impact.”
Attending Holy Family has provided an opportunity “to receive a good education while being able to stay closely connected to Christ,” he said. “And, I think this school is very good at giving you these opportunities to develop into who you’re supposed to be in the eyes of God.”
