Father Pedro Francisco Angucho López, 31, said it was the grace of God and his mother’s prayers that finally got him to realize the importance of his vocation. Also, people, even total strangers, kept telling him that he was meant to be a priest.

Father Michael Francis Falce, who will turn 27 on the day he will offer his first Mass of thanksgiving, has had a pretty good idea about what he wanted to do with his life from an early age.

Obiaeri grew up in Nigeria in a region that is 70 percent Catholic. His whole family is Catholic. He extended that family to his parish where he spent most of his free time. He didn’t play that much soccer with the other kids; he was helping in the church and was part of various groups.

Father Edwin Alexander Ortiz, 35, has spent most of his life in service. He served at his parish and a cemetery in Queens, as a U.S. Marines medic in Japan and in the U.S. Navy in Washington, D.C.