In Called to Bear Fruit, Letters to Fr Sam on Leadership, Discipleship and the Church’s Mission, Lubomir Martin Ondrasek presents the reader with a series of letters written to his Parish Priest and Pastor between April 2024 and July 2025. As he prepares to take up a new appointment as Parish Pastoral Associate Ondrasek offers his observations, experiences, hopes and dreams for their faith community through a reflective and honest blend of integrating theological reflections, interwoven with personal testimony, and pastoral experience, with both intellectual depth creativity.
A former evangelical pastor whose childhood and early learning were shaped by the communist regime in his native Slovakia, Ondrasek comes to Catholic church shaped by the teaching of the early Church Fathers (in particular St Augustine), a profoundly Jesuit spirituality and the influence of contemporary figures such as Fr Tomáš Halík. As a result, the position that he takes could be described as both dialogical and forward looking, underpinned by a strong sense of tradition and what it is that the Church brings to this dialogue.
Odrasek opens his correspondence with Fr Sam with a sound reflection on the nature of synodality and its relationship with authority in the Church. Pointing out the false dichotomy between legitimate authority and the sense of faithful, he puts forward a clear vision for the growth of the community whilst remaining open to its critique of his ideas, on condition that neither becomes a fixed position in opposition to one another. In this way synodality becomes a guiding principle in Ondrasek’s approach to decision making characterised by shared responsibility between the ordained and all of the baptised.
It is this commitment to dialogue that Ondrasek properly identifies as being central to the development of a vision shared by the whole parish community. Only then will it be able to foster a participatory culture focused on growth, both in terms of expanding its mission and deepening faith.
Perhaps one of the key takeaways from the model of pastoral leadership that Odrasek develops is that appropriate authority to lead, derived from listening with an open heart and mind to the community it seeks to serve, cannot stand without a supporting culture of transparency and accountability. Both, he argues, are essential if the relational trust that has been damaged by clericalism, and the scandals of abuses committed and the Church’s inadequate response to them, is to be rebuilt.
Whilst some readers may be unfamiliar with the theological arguments that Ondrasek presents as the basis of his vision, his use of concrete metaphors to unpack them and personal anecdotes make this a much more accessible text.
Ultimately, though Ondrasek does not offer a fully developed framework or plan of action for building a more co-responsible parish community, the principles he develops as his correspondence with Fr Sam matures are valuable for both clergy and lay leaders that are similarly beginning their own journey towards forming a more collaborative model of pastoral leadership. To paraphrase the words of St Ambrose to St Augustine that the author quotes both in the first and the second last of his letters, you may not find THE way in this book, but, as you reflect on its lessons and your own particular context, the truth may find you.
You can purchase Called to Bear Fruit: Letters to Fr. Sam on Leadership, Discipleship, and the Church’s Mission (The Called Series) by Lubomir Martin Ondrasek on Amazon Australia.
Michael Reid the Head of the Mission Enhancement Team in the Diocese of Parramatta.
