The rock of my faith: one student campus minister’s journey to the Eucharist

By Zach Boroff

Bishop Kelly High School

Class of 2026

(Adapted from a testimony Zach gave to his classmates at the All Schools Mass, March 2026, when he was a student campus minister.)

Zach Boroff (Courtesy photo)

I am a cradle Catholic. I attended Catholic schools my entire life and received my sacraments in the second grade. But it wasn’t until my Confirmation classes that I began to grow in my faith and to understand who Christ really was in my life.

My faith in high school has been marked by ups and downs. There were highs, when I felt close to God and my prayers seemed to be answered, and lows, when He felt distant and not really present to me.

Running is a big part of who I am. I love it as a sport, I love my teammates and I just simply love it in general. Before the track season of my sophomore year, I suffered a season-ending injury. It was hard, and it was an especially difficult time for my faith, but I remember telling God, “I trust in You and I trust in Your plan for me.” So I kept going.

Then, in the first week of track my junior year, I suffered another season-ending injury. It was the lowest point of my faith and of my life. I was devastated, not only because I had lost the thing I loved to do most, but because I felt abandoned by God, as though He was so distant from me.

The rock of my faith

However, what brought me back to my faith and what truly changed my relationship with God during this time was a newfound love of the Eucharist. I had received Communion nearly every week since my First Communion, but it wasn’t until this period of my life that I began to really appreciate what the Eucharist meant to me. I had always been taught that when the priest extends his hands over the gifts on the altar, that they really become Jesus. Only recently have I begun to grasp what that means for me personally, that I have a God who loves me so much He is willing to lower Himself in this most intimate and beautiful way in order to be close to me, giving me His whole Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

Today, the Eucharist is the rock of my faith, the source and summit of it. I don’t experience those low points anymore, because I know that every week, even every day, I can go to Mass and receive Him in such a profound and deep way.

What also helped bring about this change in me was hearing the testimony of my fellow campus minister, Noah Horn, who said, “Receiving the Eucharist is the most important thing you will do today. It’s the most important thing that will happen to you this week, this month, this year. It’s the most important thing you will experience in your entire life.”

Truly, nothing is greater than the Eucharist … the real presence of Jesus Christ.

Faith in spite of confusion

Scripture records two moments when Jesus’ followers left Him. One of those times was His Passion, when many of those who celebrated Him on Palm Sunday abandoned Him on Good Friday. The other time comes after the Bread of Life discourse in the Gospel of John, when people, confused and troubled by His words, turned away from Him.

However, we are reminded that God does not always need us to understand why or even how He gives Himself to us in this way. But He does give Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist, because He loves us deeply and wants to be so close to us.

Finally, in closing, I invite everyone to enter into the Holy Mass with deep reverence and an awareness of what is about to happen. Our Lord, Who is present in every single Mass, wants to meet you where you are, and He wants to give you all that He is.

Allow Him to transform your life.