Growing up in Anoka and attending St. William in Fridley, Deacon Benjamin Eichten had an appreciation for the priesthood as being a great witness to Christ. At a young age, he wanted to grow up to be a priest. But his journey to his May 31 ordination was a “whirlwind” in which the Lord brought him to many different places.
He came in and out of discernment. But Deacon Eichten, soon to be Father Eichten, especially credits his mother, Tracy, for her support and always giving him the “thumbs-up” to become a priest.
“Now I remember, especially when I was first thinking of the idea, it was always my mom,” Deacon Eichten said on the May 16 “Practicing Catholic” radio show on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Family, Deacon Eichten said, has been with him every step of the way with prayer, support and generosity.
“As time went on, I was still wrestling, especially once I entered high school, with where the Lord might be inviting me to go,” Deacon Eichten said. “It wasn’t until about my junior year in high school, by an invitation of a priest, I was able to visit the local minor seminary (St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul) and really experience a deep, profound love of God.”
On the way to that visit, Tracy was driving Deacon Eichten and his brother, Nate, who didn’t know where they were going. Tracy broke the news to Nate, saying, “Ben’s gonna go check out the seminary because he might be a priest one day.”
Nate responded, “Ben, don’t do that.”
“Thankfully, he’s kind of changed his mind on the idea,” Deacon Eichten said. “The Lord has honestly blessed me abundantly through my family members and their own support.”
He said that some of his biggest supporters are his Protestant family members. Ironically, he said, all his Protestant aunts and uncles gifted him a traveling Mass kit to celebrate his ordination.
“It’s very, very generous,” Deacon Eichten said.
During the visit to St. John Vianney, Deacon Eichten experienced other men living lives directed toward God. This led him to wonder, “God, what do you want from me?”
While discerning the priesthood in the minor seminary for four years, he stepped away and worked in health insurance and medical software. He remained involved in his parish, St. Mark in St. Paul, and Catholic Advance Movement, the lay movement of Pro Ecclesia Sancta, an ecclesial family of consecrated life. During this time, Deacon Eichten said he grew in understanding of his relationship with the Lord and how to speak to him.
“It was really a blessed time of growing in my own personal holiness and just allowing me to give that yes to major seminary later on,” Deacon Eichten said.
After three years, Deacon Eichten entered The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul in 2020.
Deacon Eichten’s best advice for anyone thinking about priesthood is to give time to the Lord and be honest with him.
“Seminary is just a place where you don’t have to have everything figured out right away,” Deacon Eichten said. “You’re given that space to just say, ‘Lord, what do you want me to do?’ … As long as you’re being honest with the Lord, he’s going to reveal where you’re called to be.”
Before his ordination, Deacon Eichten served as the prefect of the Propaedeutic House, a recent addition to the road to the priesthood as stipulated by the Program of Priestly Formation. It is a one-year program of “pre-seminary” formation in which the men live together in community and focus on spiritual and human growth.
“It’s really just a blessing to see the guys transformed and be open and free in a way they weren’t before,” Deacon Eichten said. He also encouraged those interested in the seminary: “If there’s some hesitancies or fears that might be in your hearts wherever you’re called to be, I would say just reach out. Check it out. … (Don’t) be worried if you enter into it and you don’t necessarily make it through.”
Deacon Eichten is most excited for the pastoral charity of being a diocesan priest serving the people of God. He said he is excited to see the Eucharist transform others. He will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving June 1 at St. Mark.
“Even in little ways, there’s this opportunity for profound intimacy with the Lord,” Deacon Eichten said.
Through the sacrament of reconciliation, Deacon Eichten is looking forward to showing the Lord’s mercy to individuals struggling with sin and guilt where “the Lord needs to enter their lives and provide them healing.”
Deacon Eichten will be ordained to the priesthood with four other men at a 10 a.m. Mass May 31 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
