As a seminarian, Father Marcial Thomas, 27, saw how God wanted to encounter and love His people and how priests can bring people closer to God every day.

“This is what God has chosen me for,” he said. “In my own weakness, my own misery, God has given me a light.”

Born in Brooklyn, Father Thomas was raised in Our Lady of Perpetual Help, South Ozone Park. He graduated from P.S. 207 and John Adams High School. He was studying at Queens College when he discovered his vocation through the intercession of the Virgin Mary.

He had been going to daily Mass at his home parish after he was going through a tough time.

“I was trying to figure out what is real, what is the reason to live,” he said.

One day, while praying after Mass, he felt called to go to a room dedicated to Our Lady. Once he went into the room, he experienced “an overwhelming peace that he had never felt before.”

“I wanted to cry. And I felt like Our Lady was telling me to my heart ‘I’m your mother, I’m here to listen to you,’” he said.

From then on, he would pray a rosary and talk to his Mother after Mass. One day, while in prayer, he asked if God wanted him to continue pursuing psychiatry as a career. “You should look at the priesthood,” was the thought that entered his heart.

“I said no at first because I wanted to be married and have kids,” Father Thomas recalled.

But the thought of the priesthood started to pop up everywhere. After he and his girlfriend broke up, he talked about his possible calling with the pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

He then participated in a Project Andrew, an afternoon of prayer, dinner and conversation with priests and seminarians. There he met Father Kevin Sweeney, then-diocesan vocations director.

Afterward, Father Thomas lived in the Pope St. John Paul II House of Discernment in Cypress Hills for a year and then went onto the seminary in Douglaston. The struggles to accept his vocation faded when at a retreat he heard the director say, “If you want to go to heaven, you have to do what God wants you to do.”

After studying at St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, he earned a bachelor of sacred theology degree and a master’s in divinity. He will soon complete his master’s in theology.

His pastoral preparation included an assignment at St. Gerard Majella, Hollis, where he found working with Father Josephjude Gannon to be a great learning experience. It showed him “how merciful God is and how much he sustains us and how much we need to devote ourselves to prayer.”

His next summer assignment was at St. Mary Star of the Sea and St. Gertrude in Far Rockaway.

“There was a lot going on and Father Fulgencio Gutierrez (administrator) taught me about the importance of pouring out everything first for Christ so that you can pour it out for the people of God,” he said.

“He showed me how priests should have at least a hour a day in front of the Lord in the tabernacle and how necessary that is. He showed me the selflessness of a priest.”

Father Thomas spent his diaconate year at St. Michael parish in Sunset Park, where he was grateful to be reunited with Father Sweeney. The experience taught him how busy priests are but that everything is done with love and devotion.

Other role models have included the priest faculty at the seminary, Father Frank Black, Father John Tino, Father Adnel Burgos and Msgr. Thomas Healy.

As a deacon, he loved the opportunity to preach in Spanish and English, to baptize children and to officiate at exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

“Bringing Christ to the people so they can adore Him has been beautiful,” he said. “Working with all the people in the parish also has been amazing.”

In his priesthood, Father Thomas looks forward to celebrating the sacraments, especially offering Mass and hearing confessions.

His parents and siblings will be with him at his ordination. Fathers Burgos and Black will vest him.

Father Thomas will offer his first Mass of thanksgiving at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, South Ozone Park, on Sunday, June 5, at noon.