Only a small fraction of military veterans become priests, and fewer still find their calling in an independent Catholic tradition like the Celtic Christian Church. In this inspiring episode of Your Radical Truth, host Margaret Mary O’Connor welcomes Father Thomas Marble, a combat medic turned priest, healer, and author.

 

 

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A Life of Constant Motion, Anchored Only by God

By the time he entered ninth grade, Thomas had already attended 11 schools and lived in 13 different homes. This nomadic upbringing left him detached from place and possessions, but deeply rooted in one constant: the presence of God.

Raised by adoptive parents in small-town Catholic parishes, Thomas grew up as the perpetual outsider. “I was forever the new kid,” he says, “and the only thing that stayed with me, through every move and every change, was God.” His childhood solitude shaped him into a mystic-in-the-making, preparing him for a lifetime of spiritual depth and service.

Healing on the Frontlines and Beyond

After joining the Army, Thomas served 22 years, including deployments as a combat medic and psychiatric nursing specialist. His military path eventually led him to Bosnia, where he served as first sergeant of a combat support medical company. For Thomas, putting on the uniform wasn’t just duty, it was a form of vesting. “To me, it was prayerful,” he reflects. “It felt like a calling.”

That calling didn’t end when the uniform came off. After the military, Thomas became a high school teacher for at-risk youth and later followed a call to seminary, where he trained as a hospital chaplain and earned his clinical pastoral education. Despite his experience in psychiatric nursing, CPE challenged him, and ultimately became a profound validation of his vocation.

Finding Home in the Celtic Christian Church

Disillusioned with the Roman Catholic Church’s spiritual emptiness and clerical scandals, Thomas cried out to God for a new spiritual home, one that embraced apostolic succession, valid sacraments, married clergy, and women priests. The answer came through divine serendipity while researching ancient Celtic history for a fantasy novel he was writing. That research led him to the Celtic Christian Church.

“God had always hung around,” Thomas says. “And when I found the Celtic Church’s website, I felt Him tapping me on the shoulder.” What began as a writing project became a spiritual awakening. He joined the Church, trained for priesthood, and now ministers with an unwavering commitment to radical hospitality, a core Celtic virtue that informs every part of his service.

The Mission: Merging Fantasy, Faith, and Celtic Wisdom

While transitioning from military to civilian life, Thomas authored The Mission, a rich fantasy novel rooted in the values of Celtic community, mysticism, and lore. He began writing to find the story he’d always wanted to read, and discovered in the process that he was channeling ancient truths.

His characters, based loosely on Celtic social structures and spiritual archetypes, live in hill forts, trade grudgingly with other races, and rely on “keepers” of knowledge, a term he later discovered shared etymological roots with the word “druid.” As Thomas dug deeper into Celtic tradition, he realized his imagination had led him straight into historical and spiritual truth.

Hospitality as a Spiritual Compass

For Father Thomas, the hallmark of Celtic Christianity is not doctrine or dogma, it’s hospitality. Not simply inviting someone into your home, but welcoming them into your time, your spirit, and your heart.

“Hospitality leads to restorative justice, open communion, and the inclusion of women priests,” he explains. “It’s about making room for everyone.”

In contrast to punitive models of faith, the Celtic Christian Church emphasizes reconciliation, healing, and inclusion. These values now guide his pastoral work and ministry, whether he’s providing online spiritual care or preparing for a future healing ministry rooted in herbalism.

A New Chapter in Healing: The Herbal Path

True to his lifelong service as a healer, Thomas is now pursuing a professional certificate in herbalism at Pierce College. The program, a rigorous three-semester curriculum, bridges traditional, Chinese, and modern herbal medicine with an understanding of human anatomy. It’s a natural extension of his work as a priest and commissioned healer within the Celtic Christian Church.

“I don’t want to start a business,” he notes. “I want to be prepared to support others on a deeper healing journey.”

On Women Priests and the Future of the Church

A longtime advocate for women’s inclusion in priesthood, Father Thomas sees women’s wisdom as essential to a complete spiritual expression. “To say half of humanity is not eligible for ordination is not just wrong, it’s harmful,” he says. “Women were clearly leaders in the early Church. They must be again.”

He points to biblical figures like Junia, Mary Magdalene, and unnamed deaconesses as evidence that early Christianity embraced female leadership. “We should all be ‘we,’” he insists. “Not us and them.”

Where to Find Father Thomas Marble

Father Thomas is active online through his Facebook page where he shares spiritual reflections, ministry updates, and pastoral support. He can also be reached directly at fatherthomasm@gmail.com.

His novel The Mission, published under the pen name Father Thomas, is available on Kindle. Search “Father Thomas The Mission” to locate the book.

About Father Thomas

Father Thomas Marble was born in the summer of 1955 in Detroit, Michigan. Adopted at the age of two and a half, he was raised as the only child in a loving home. By the time he entered ninth grade, he had attended 11 different schools and lived in 13 houses—an upbringing that shaped his early detachment from material possessions and permanent places.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army and went on to serve for 22 years. His military service began as a combat medic and continued with specialized training as a psychiatric nursing specialist, equivalent to a licensed practical nurse (LPN). His career culminated with a deployment to Bosnia, where he served as the first sergeant of a combat support medical company.

After retiring from the military, Father Marble transitioned into civilian life by returning to school and becoming a high school teacher. He primarily worked with at-risk students, teaching a variety of subjects, though environmental science was his favorite.

Following nine years in education, he entered seminary and began his path to the priesthood. During his theological training, he completed three units of clinical pastoral education and served as a hospital chaplain, offering spiritual support to patients across four hospitals. It was during this time that he also completed and published his first novel on Kindle.

Now serving as a priest, Father Thomas Marble draws on his deep well of life experience—from combat zones to classrooms to chaplaincy—to guide others with wisdom, compassion, and faith.

About Margaret Mary O’Connor

Margaret Mary O’Connor, as a member of the Catholic Laity, thought she knew everything about the Catholic Church, at least until she came upon a centuries-old Scandal of lies and cover-up by the Hierarchy of that Church. Frankly, she was fed up being lied to by her own Church, about its own past Church’s History on Women priests. With that realization, she truly felt in that moment, the monumental feeling of betrayal by her own Church.

Follow Margaret, as she travels down this Highway of Radical Truth where lies and outright coverup will be disclosed. Millions of Catholics are unaware of that past presence of Women Bishop’s, Women Deacons, as well as Women Priests, all there hiding in plain sight, in Early Church History.

As the complicity of this centuries-old Scandal continues, Margaret wants her fellow Catholics to learn the actual truth of this matter for themselves. She strongly believes, at minimal, any Catholic deserves the actual truth of this matter. To say that change is needed is hardly an understatement. She doesn’t let the Church’s betrayal stop her from uncovering some very fascinating Church Skeleton’s – one which very well might help solve our current priest shortage issue today.

Margaret Mary O’Connor has been called, “The Modern Day David” on many occasions. On a mission to reveal carefully guarded secrets of the Catholic Church, she unveils the truth through her well-researched writings.

Author of Scandal in the Shadows and Journey of a Celiac’s Soul, Margaret Mary is a force to be reckoned with.