Jay Richards grew up in a faithful Christian household, and didn’t really consider the Catholic faith until he started to meet well-formed, intelligent Catholics who by their witness inspired him to investigate the Church’s teaching about the Eucharist. He became intellectually convinced about the doctrine of the Real Presence, but it took a challenge by an abbot on a monastic retreat to get him to look within himself and see if he believed in his heart what he was convinced about in his mind – that Jesus Christ was truly present in the Eucharist.