Before coming to St. John’s Seminary, Father Thoma served his religious community, the Congregation of the Resurrection, in a variety of ways. In his thirteen years of active ministry, Fr. Thoma has served in two parishes and has been chaplain/teacher at Gordon Technical High School in Chicago, Illinois. His most recent assignment has been as Director of Formation for the Congregation while working on his doctoral degree. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Kenrick Seminary and Aquinas Institute of Theology, both in St. Louis, Missouri. Throughout his career in ministry, Fr. Thoma has always placed preaching God’s Word at the core. Besides his work in homiletics, Fr. Thoma taught adult education classes in St. Louis, and has preached and taught “wherever called upon to do so."