April 2025 Newsletter – Bear His Image

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Throughout the PreLenten and Lenten season we have been focused on God’s imagery. We have considered the many ways in which God’s Holy Word in Scripture, and in particular in the Person of Jesus, draws for us mental images of what He wants us to see and be. When we see God’s images we quickly perceive who and what He wants us to be, to become, and what He does not want us to be. He draws us a picture so we might clearly perceive His intent for us. We’ve all heard the old saying: ‘Can you draw me a picture?’ Well, God does.

Among our reflections we saw that we must resist evil and persevere as Jesus did in His desert fast. In the Transfiguration we saw that we are to be people of light entering into the fray and the chaos. In the parable of the fig tree owner we saw that we are to be fruitful and that we must avoid barrenness. We will continue to see images that speak to us, images of judgment and of what the Lord has done for us in His passion and death. At the end of our Lenten journey as will occur at the end of our lives we reach the image of the resurrected Christ.

St. Paul reminds the faithful of Corinth that they have been changed by their faith in Christ. Our former image as dust, of the earthly, has been transformed into the image of Jesus, of the heavenly. That is the wonderful promise of Easter to we who are Easter people. St. Paul goes on to tell them and us that our image has been changed. We are no longer just flesh and blood nor are we perishable. Because of that we will inherit the kingdom of God and will be imperishable. Because of Jesus, and by our acceptance of His salvation in our baptism (which we will specifically recall and celebrate on Holy Saturday morning) and lived faith in the image He wishes us to bear, we will be transformed to be like Jesus and live in glory forever. Let Easter joy fill our hearts and strengthen us to bear His image.

Welcome to our April 2025 Newsletter. It is chock full of information for Holy Week, Easter, and the Fifty Days of Easter. Please join us as we walk with Jesus through His passion and death so to arrive together at His resurrection and our own.

Our 21st Basket Social is just around the corner, on Sunday, March 27th starting at Noon at the South Schenectady Fire Hall (6 Old Mariaville Road, Schenectady). Join us for this amazingly fun event and get some of that great Polish Food that will be served.

We provide information about the great events coming in the months ahead (our Mission and Evangelism Conference, Men’s Spiritual Retreat, the Kurs Youth Encampment, Music Convention and Workshop, Golf Tournament, and Bowling Outing). Also, check out the amazing things God is doing to provide workers for His vineyard.

All this and more in our April 2025 Newsletter.

Bible Study for the 4th Week of Lent 2025

This week’s memory verse: For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. — Matthew 7:8

  • 3/30 – Proverbs 8:17
  • 3/31 – Matthew 6:33
  • 4/1 – Matthew 7:7-8
  • 4/2 – Hebrews 11:1
  • 4/3 – Psalm 139:23-24
  • 4/4 – Isaiah 48:17
  • 4/5 – Acts 2:25-26

Pray the Week: Lord Jesus, grant that as I go forth, I may continually seek You. Help me with the humility necessary to turn back to You and to accept Your compassionate and extravagant forgiveness and love. Amen.

Reflection for the 4th Sunday in Lent 2025

While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.

God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us and help us to arrive at Easter as light.

This week God’s set of images call us to reliance on His mercy. I, for one, can barely get through the proclamation of this gospel without breaking down because I see the image of God’s infinite mercy as He welcomes me back over and over, embraces me again and again despite my failures.

The richness of God’s imagery in this parable of the Prodigal makes it a sort of movie. We can see what is happening, how each person acts and reacts. Despite the things that are pretty evident, God as the perfect artist has inserted some less obvious images.

In movies and games this is often referred to as an Easter Egg. The term was first coined around 1979 by Steve Wright at Atari Computers to describe a hidden message in a video game. Since then, creators, like our Creator, have inserted things we must search for in their creations.

Let’s look at some Easter Eggs in the Parable of the Prodigal.

The younger son is unwilling to wait for his inheritance. He exhibits selfishness. Once he has wasted everything the Parable tells us he went to care for the swine. The slightly hidden thing is that the swine owner was probably a Gentile. If he were a Jew, he would have let his servants take a portion of the feed for themselves (a commandment in the Law), but here he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. The son’s selfishness is confronted by the owner’s.

As the son returns, he has no need to search for his father. The father is shown waiting. Imagine that, from the moment the son left the father stood in the road waiting for his return. Prodigal means extravagant – and the father’s love was indeed extravagant.

Finally, the older son is upset. It is not just the father’s extravagance. It is the fact that all that remains of the estate is his, yet he feels unable to enjoy it.

We are called to confront those areas where we are selfish, to seek the less than obvious ways God shows us where we fall short thus taking the lesson to heart. When we turn around and return, let us recognize God’s extravagant love and accept His embrace. Finally, let us enjoy God’s Kingdom here on earth and spend time rejoicing with all who find their way home. In all things let us seek Him so never giving up we may find Him.

2025 Scholars Conference Program

The History and Archives Commission of the Polish National Catholic Church announces the program for the 2025 Scholar’s Conference.

The Conference will be held on Saturday, April 26th both in-person and via Zoom. To register please call the Rev. Dr. Jim Ploskonka at 570.466.4069 or contact him by E-mail.

Program Session For 2025

  • Christ and the Coal Mine: Francis Hodur and the Labor Movement, 1897-1905 by Gavin Moulton, Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Notre Dame. He is a cultural historian with research and teaching interests in religion, migration, and architecture, especially Slavic diasporas in the industrial United States. Gavin holds an M.A in History from the University of Notre Dame and a B.A. in History of Art and Architecture and Near Eastern Languages with a secondary field in Italian from Harvard University.
  • History of a Canadian Parish by Father Ted Zawistowski. Father Theodore L. Zawistowski, born in Philadelphia, is a respected theologian, social psychologist, and educator with a distinguished career in religious and academic circles. He earned degrees from Savonarola Theological Seminary, Southeastern Massachusetts University (B.A.), the University of Connecticut (M.A.), and Marywood College (M.A.). He served as pastor of Blessed Virgin Church in Fall River, MA, and later as editor of Straz. He also taught at Savonarola Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania State University, and Marywood College. Recognized for his contributions, he has received multiple grants, scholarships, and awards from religious, academic, and cultural institutions, including the Bishop F. Hodur Order and the Kosciusko Foundation’s Medal of Recognition.
  • “Struggles and Service: The Polish National Catholic Church in Poland and the Ministry of Bishop Józef Padewski (1930–1951)” by Father Damian Heratym, graduate of the Christian Theological Academy in Warsaw, Master of Theology, Ph. D. candidate of ChAT.
  • The 1700th Anniversary Of The First Ecumenical Council Of Nicaea: Reflections From The 2025 Union of Scranton Theological Conference, Mainz, Germany by Most Reverend Mikovsky Ph.D. and Very Reverend Robert M. Nemkovich Jr. The The Most Rev. Anthony Mikovsky, Ph.D., is the Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church. He previously served as Bishop Ordinary of the Central Diocese. Ordained to the priesthood after theological formation, he has held various pastoral and episcopal roles. Bishop Mikovsky holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania, bringing academic depth to his leadership. He represents the PNCC in national and international ecumenical and theological engagements. Very Reverend Robert M. Nemkovich Jr. is the Ecumenical Officer of the Polish National Catholic Church. He serves in various capacities within the church and is pastor of Blessed Trinity Parish in Fall River, MA and Holy Cross Parish in Central Falls, RI. He is deeply involved in outreach and ministry work in his communities.
  • A Retrospective View Of The Innovations In Organization, Liturgy, Theology, And Culture Of The Polish National Catholic Church 125 Years, A Round Table Discussion, Moderator Rev. Jim Ploskonka, Ph.D. Reverend Jim Ploskonka received his Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation from the University of Kentucky. He previously completed academic studies at Boston University, Mansfield University, Harvard University, and the New England Conservatory. He currently serves as a visiting priest at All Saints Parish in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Reverend Ploskonka brings a diverse background in higher education, music, theology, and pastoral ministry to his work, reflecting a deep commitment to both academic excellence and spiritual leadership.

Bible Study for the 3rd Week of Lent 2025

This week’s memory verse: I am the True Vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. — John 15:1-2

  • 3/23 – John 15:8
  • 3/24 – John 15:16
  • 3/25 – 2 Peter 1:5-9
  • 3/26 – Matthew 3:8
  • 3/27 – Matthew 12:33
  • 3/28 – Psalm 1:3
  • 3/29 – Galatians 6:7-8

Pray the Week: Lord Jesus, grant that as I go forth, I may procedure fruit acceptable to You. Preserve me, by Your grace from any barrenness. May my Lenten journey produce the good fruits needed to do Your work. Amen.

Reflection for the 3rd Sunday in Lent 2025

‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’

As we have discussed, God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. We will continue this study of God’s imagery throughout the Great Lent. 

May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us and help us to arrive at Easter no longer ash, but light.

In last week’s reflection we concluded by praying that our Lenten disciplines strengthen us for the work we must do in the chaos, bringing light to overcome darkness.

This week God’s set of images call us to the charge of overcoming barrenness.

Jesus begins by issuing a set of very stark warnings, and the warning slightly hidden in the parable of the fig tree.

These kinds of warnings concerning consequences are the subject of vast theological and philosophical dances. We might regularly hear pastors saying – Well, Jesus didn’t really mean that, He was actually saying…

People tend to shy away from the idea of consequences, from the idea that they have to lie in the bed they made, that we can set aside God’s justice and take His mercy for granted. It is the very reason the word sin and the concept of hell are rarely if ever brought up – especially in churches.

In Jesus’ parable, the owner of the fig grove is God. He arrives expecting results and when He finds the tree that produces nothing, He orders it cut down – literally cut off from life.

The picture of barrenness is a stark one. Today’s image of the barren fig tree is not the only occasion for Jesus addressing a tree’s failure to produce. In Mark, Chapter 11 we see Jesus cursing a fig tree for failing to bear fruit even though it was out-of-season.

God expects us to bear fruit and to do so both in and out of season, to always be at the top of our game, in the action.

The other message we receive today is the assurance of help in the process. The owner, God, has waited for fruit for three years. He agrees to wait yet another year. The gardener, Jesus, will provide the tree with His grace by tending it, cultivating it, and fertilizing it. But there too we must take care not to take that grace and time for granted. Jesus’ tending, cultivation, and fertilization must be taken into ourselves so we may reach the result He wants.

The image of barrenness and death is juxtaposed with God’s image of life and fruitfulness. Which image we reflect is up to us.

March 2025 Newsletter – Lenten Leadership

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Leadership requires action and example. A good leader (and remember, we are all leaders) sets a vision and then engages with others to meet the vision. Consider what bad leaders do. They say: ‘Do this and do that’ but merely sit back and watch. They are not alongside in working to accomplish the vision. They take a lais·sez-faire approach. Even worse, they sit back and criticize when they think you’re not doing it right. We can rightly say: How can we do it right without leadership?

Jesus is the good and perfect leader. He placed His entire self on the line for the vision His Father had set, the establishment of the Kingdom. He led and taught others the how and why. He set out clear goals and worked to get there – He alongside His disciples. He corrected His disciples when they went astray, but did so in a fair and evenhanded manner.

On the First Sunday in Lent our Epistle is taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Church at Rome. Paul is doing two things. He is contrasting the Law of Moses with its legalistic claim against the free gift of salvific grace offered through Jesus. St. Paul tells the Church that they have the Word of God and that if they confess Jesus as Lord and believe fully in Him they have salvation. They need not offer animal and grain sacrifices or carry out other precepts of the Law to obtain forgiveness or salvation. It is already theirs in Jesus’ sacrifice.

So too for us.

From there, Paul calls on us to lead by our proclamation. This was a call to bold leadership because to confess Jesus as Lord was quite hazardous then. For a Jew it could mean being cast out of family and community including great economic sacrifice. For a Gentile the penalties could include not only separation from family and community, but also arrest and prosecution, later even martyrdom. That’s not too far from reality today. Yet, lead we must without fear. Let us engage and through our Lenten action and example draw many to Christ trusting the assurance that no one who believes in Jesus will be put to shame.

Welcome to our March 2025 Newsletter. We enter Lent on March 5th with Ash Wednesday. Lent provides us with apply opportunity to practice the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and sacrifice. Join in our Directed Giving program to provide food resources in our local community. Looking forward, we are preparing for our Seniorate Lenten Retreat on April 5th and our Basket Social on April 27th. Looking back we announce the winners of our Valentines Raffle. Congratulations to all who participated. You support the faith development of our youth. Read up about CarePortal’s Love Day 2025. What we do really matters. We announce upcoming Ordinations for three of our brothers, Tonsure, and Minor Orders for another five. God bless them! All that and a reflection on the Orthodox Hymn “Open To Me The Doors Of Repentance.”

Read up on all this and more in our March 2025 Newsletter.

Bible Study for the 2nd Week of Lent 2025

This week’s memory verse: Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. — Isaiah 41:10

  • 3/16 – John 14:27
  • 3/17 – Isaiah 32:17-18
  • 3/18 – Isaiah 26:3
  • 3/19 – 2 Timothy 1:7
  • 3/20 – Galatians 5:22
  • 3/21 – Psalm 29:11
  • 3/22 – James 1:2-4

Pray the Week: Lord Jesus, grant that as I go forth, filled with Your grace to strengthen me, I may face the chaos and amidst it bring Your light and peace. May my Lenten journey produce the good fruits needed to do Your work. Amen.

Reflection for the 2nd Sunday in Lent 2025

Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up the mountain to pray. While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.

As we have discussed, God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. We will continue this study of God’s imagery throughout the Great Lent. 

May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us and help us to arrive at Easter no longer ash, but light.

Last week we encountered the tremendous set of images where we saw with the eyes of our heart the fasting Jesus, tired and hungry in the dessert. There He was put to the test by Satan. We saw the rocks – would they be turned to bread, the mountain top with a supernatural view of all the kingdoms of the world, and the parapet of the Temple high above Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

Today, the eyes of our heart are taken to another mountaintop, Mount Tabor, where Jesus is Transfigured, appearing in all His glory, and standing between Moses and Elijah. The Patriarchs and Prophets give testimony to God’s Son come among us.

The three Apostles overwhelmed seek to react. We might have the same thoughts they did – what can we do and how will we do it.

Wait, let’s build three dwellings right here, then we can stay here with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Indeed, it is good that we are here. I will leave everything else behind just to remain.

The linchpin in the Gospel is the statement: they spoke of his exodus. Jesus’ path is made very clear. He is going to Jerusalem where He will be arrested, tortured, and killed, and on the third day rise.

The apostles wanted none of that bad stuff. How much better to stay on this mountain then to descend into the coming chaos.

Brothers and sisters, in this place, in this church, we ascend the mountain, and we commune with Christ Jesus. We experience His glory and are safe from the chaos out there. How lovely it would be, and I often picture this, to remain here, to rest here, to be in the Lord’s presence continually. Lovely yes, but not God’s will for us.

St. Paul, as he always does, makes it real for us. We must go out into the chaos filled with the grace we have received here and be those who thus conduct themselves according to the model [we] have in Jesus and His Apostles.

Through our Lenten disciplines let us strengthen ourselves for the work we must do in the chaos, bringing light to overcome darkness.

Bible Study for the 1st Week of Lent 2025

This week’s memory verse: I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. — Revelation 3:11

  • 3/9 – 1 John 1:9
  • 3/10 – Luke 13:3
  • 3/11 – 2 Peter 3:9
  • 3/12 – Acts 2:38
  • 3/13 – Matthew 3:2
  • 3/14 – Acts 17:30
  • 3/15 – Matthew 3:8

Pray the Week: Lord Jesus, grant that I may turn, that I may see in every giving in to sin how deeply I break my relationship with You and my brothers and sisters. Grant that I may resist!