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Bishop Bernard’s Pastoral Letter on Discipleship

Parish Life, PNCC /

January, 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of you in our Central Diocesan family, and welcome to the Year of Discipleship in our holy Church!

In the words of our national PNCC Future Direction Sub-Committee recently given to us..…..As our Lord said to His disciples “Follow Me” for His public ministry, He continues to call us to follow Him and wants our relationship with Him to grow and strengthen as the days, months and years goes by. Our PNCC is calling us to renew our Discipleship in our Lord this year and as we begin 2019….

Soooo – let’s get a handle on this idea of discipleship, shall we?

Not too long ago I was watching a Netflix presentation about the Masons, with a focus on their place of origin, Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street, London. As I became drawn into the narrative of this society’s founding and growth, I was struck by how clearly they laid out the expectations of a mason. By contrast, I was struck by how often our Church is hesitant to name the expectations of discipleship for its members.

Our Future Directions Sub-Committee has begun laying out these expectations and will continue that effort throughout the year. I’d say, it all boils down to five basic opportunities to “grow and strengthen our relationship with Jesus.”

Worship – We worship God together, through his Son Jesus. Worshipping regularly is a part of who we are as Catholic Christians. The people of God join together in the house of God to worship and honor God (Psalm 150). Worship is about community: the Christian community gathers to worship, to pray together, and to continue its growth in the faith.

Grow – We become affiliated with a parish society, Bible study, the School of Christian Living to grow in faith and our walk with Jesus. Jesus went to the synagogue “as was His custom” (Luke 4:16). Synagogue for Jesus was a place of discernment, learning scripture, and growing in the knowledge and love of God and neighbor. We join with other PNCC-ers here in order to grow together.

Mission – We are called to love our neighbors. We are encouraged to be involved in some mission emphasis. Jesus had a special place in His heart for the poor, marginalized, outcast, and lost. We are called to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus Christ in our world. We seek to love and serve others and believe this is vital in our Christian walk.

Talents and Abilities – All of us have talents and abilities that can be used for the glory of God. Some have the gift of teaching or leading. Others have the gift of administration, or may be gifted in finance and can help the church to be faithful stewards of the gifts offered for ministry and mission. Some have the gift of compassion, or love to send cards to those who are sick. Some feel called to reach out to the unchurched, while others have the gift of hospitality. Yes, all of us have some God-given gift, talent, or ability that we can use for the glory of God.

Proportional Giving – Stewardship is a spiritual discipline and an act of worship. Our offering is a recognition that everything we have and are is a gift to us from God. We are all blessed. We are all called by God to offer our first-fruits and our [portion] to God for the work of His kingdom (Leviticus 27:30-33; Deuteronomy 14:22-29). Our offering at a regular percentage of giving is an act of gratitude, an act of obedience, and an act of our covenantal agreement with God. Our offering is used, then, in ministry and mission on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So let’s take time to reflect on these five expectations as we undertake a life of Catholic Christian discipleship. After all, God proved he loves us so much by giving His only begotten Son to live among us, to teach us of God’s love and kingdom, to die that we might be forgiven, and to rise that we may have eternal life. God has promised to be with us always. Discipleship, then, is our faithful response to this God who “so loves the world” (John 3:16)

Peace and grace to all.

Bishop Bernard

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Bishop Bernard’s Pastoral Letter on Vocations

Announcements, PNCC /

To the Very Reverend, Reverend Fathers and the Reverend Messrs., and my dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus our Lord:

¡Viva el mes de junio! That’s Spanish for “Long live June,” “Hurray for June.” Hurray, indeed! And welcome to the month of vocations in the Polish National Catholic Church: June is Sacred Vocations month for us. June is the month we focus on our great need for priests, and on the need for significant donations throughout the PNCC to be made to the Clergy Pension Plan.

Our need of priests is dire and critical, but I am nonetheless hopeful and optimistic. Even though no Polish National Catholic families have sacrificed even one of their men, young or old, to our altars in the past twelve years, (and it doesn’t look like any family will in the near future), I remain optimistic. Even though our seminary has been empty for that period of time, except for the occasional priest from another Church orienting himself there to work as a priest in the PNCC, I have good reason to hope because I have experienced God’s providence. Our parish in Denver was declining but was pulled back from the brink of closure by an Hispanic priest from Mexico and 90 people of Mexican heritage who now comprise the great majority of that parish. St Francis, Denver, is growing, and is enthusiastically PNCC, and is flying 18 young people and 6 adults to Convo 2018 here next month.

Because Father Alfonso Castillo needs pastoral help there, I enthusiastically agreed to review applications from priest friends of his in Mexico to provide assistance to him, and subsequently serve our American parishes desperate for priests. In our Diocese, two priests, in fine parishes, are retiring next year. I have no one to fill them. A priest in our Diocese is on three parishes in Jersey. Three priests are on two parishes each. And there are ailing and aging priests all over the place! And yet I am hopeful. So I say, ¡Viva México!

With the increase in aging clergy comes the need for our Clergy Pension Plan to support them all. We collect for this vital entitlement throughout the year and especially in the month of June. We need more capital to invest, the interest from which the pension payments are made. From age 70, a PNCC priest can look forward to a monthly check in the amount of $600; and his widow, a check in the amount of $300. Please be generous in this drive. And so I say, in my optimism, ¡Viva el Plan de Pensión del Clero! (Hurray for our Clergy Pension plan!)

I believe God is showing us a potential direction for the future of our Church; and that pathway seems to be presenting itself from south of the border. For the Methodist Church, that pathway is from South Korea, and for the Roman Catholic Church, from India among other sources. In light of all of this, Bishop Hodur has indeed blessed us with a most optimistic motto for our Church when he penned: A través de la Verdad, el Trabajo y las Dificultades ¡Venceremos!

Yours in Christ,

Bishop Bernard

To read the original version as a PDF file.

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Polish Festival

Announcements, Parish Life /

Please come and join us for the Polish Festival this Saturday, September 21st from 11-5 at the church! Feel free to spread the word to all of your family and friends so we can make this event a great success! Also, please keep in mind that we need everyone’s help for this event, so please volunteer if you can Hope to see everyone on Saturday!

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Parish Dinner and Food Sale

1 Comment / Announcements, Parish Life /

All Saints will be holding a fund raiser to raise money for a new heating system for the Parish on Sunday, November 7th from 12 noon to 3pm, or until sold out.

A choice of Chicken Riggies or Pork Chops will be served with tomato basil soup, and salad. Appropriate side dishes will be served. Homemade desserts will be included.

Orders for Thanksgiving pierogi and galumbki will also be taken.

Cost for the dinner is is $10.00 per person. For more information, please call 315-337-2382 or send an E-mail. Thank you.

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On All the Saints by St. Gregory Thaumaturgus

Fathers, PNCC /

Since, then, this solemnity is a glorious one among our festivals, and the spectators form a crowded gathering, and our assembly is one of elevated fervour in the faith, I shall face the task of commencing an address with confidence. And this I may attempt all the more boldly, since the Father requests me, and the Church is with me, and the sainted martyrs with this object strengthen what is weak in me. For these have inspired aged men to accomplish with much love a long course, and constrained them to support their failing steps by the staff of the word; and they have stimulated women to finish their course like the young men, and have brought to this, too, those of tender years, yea, even creeping children. In this wise have the martyrs shown their power, leaping with joy in the presence of death, laughing at the sword, making sport of the wrath of princes, grasping at death as the producer of deathlessness, making victory their own by their fall, through the body taking their leap to heaven, suffering their members to be scattered abroad in order that they might hold their souls, and, bursting the bars of life, that they might open the. gates of heaven. And if any one believes not that death is abolished, that Hades is trodden under foot, that the chains thereof are broken, that the tyrant is bound, let him look on the martyrs disporting themselves in the presence of death, and taking up the jubilant strain of the victory of Christ. O the marvel! Since the hour when Christ despoiled Hades, men have danced in triumph over death. “O death, where is your sting! O grave, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55) Hades and the devil have been despoiled, and stripped of their ancient armor, and cast out of their peculiar power…For since the second Adam has brought up the first Adam out of the deeps of Hades, as Jonah was delivered out of the whale, and has set forth him who was deceived as a citizen of heaven to the shame of the deceiver, the gates of Hades have been shut, and the gates of heaven have been opened, so as to offer an unimpeded entrance to those who rise there in faith.

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