ACTA SANCTORUM
INSTITUTE
Serving the church and society since 2009
EDUCATION
D.Min., Boston University
M.A., University of Chicago
Th.M., Harvard University
M.Div., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
B.B., Zion Bible Institute
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Lubomir Martin Ondrasek was born and raised in then-Czechoslovakia during the era of the Iron Curtain. After the fall of communism, he experienced a conversion from atheism to Christianity. At the time, he ranked at the bottom of his high school class and was not permitted to graduate. This newfound faith spurred him to repeat his senior year and pursue further education to adequately prepare for faithful and impactful Christian service. In 1995, Dr. Ondrasek relocated to the United States to attend Zion Bible Institute, where he graduated with high honors in 1999. He continued his academic pursuits at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, earning a Master of Divinity degree summa cum laude in 2003, under the mentorship of Professor Eldin Villafañe. He then advanced his studies at Harvard University, obtaining a Master of Theology in Christianity and Culture in 2005, guided by his academic advisor, Harvey Cox. From 2005 to 2013, Dr. Ondrasek pursued doctoral studies in religion and ethics at the University of Chicago, with Jean Bethke Elshtain (1941–2013) serving as his doctoral advisor. As part of this work, he earned a Master of Arts in Religious Studies in 2014. Fueled by a passion for transformational ministry, he completed a Doctor of Ministry in Transformational Leadership at Boston University in 2020, focusing his doctoral thesis on spiritual autobiography under the supervision of Claire E. Wolfteich. Throughout his academic journey, Dr. Ondrasek has been recognized with a number of awards. In 1999, he received the John and Sally R. (Brunetto) Albanese Memorial Scholarship, which acknowledged his “outstanding Christian character and commitment to ministerial pursuit.” In 2003, he was honored with the Robert J. Lamont Award for Excellence “granted to the graduating senior, who, having achieved academic excellence, is in the opinion of the faculty likely to apply his or her beliefs effectively to personal and social problems in the work of the pastorate.” In 2010, the Rumsfeld Graduate Fellowship recognized him for his “outstanding intellectual ability, integrity, moral character, and leadership potential.” Additionally, Dr. Ondrasek distinguished himself by earning perfect GPAs for three of his degrees. From 1999 to 2005, Dr. Ondrasek served as an associate pastor in New England, first as a licensed and then ordained minister with the Assemblies of God. He also taught courses in the area of Christian Social Ethics and the Public Ministry of the Church as adjunct faculty at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. In 2008, he was a recipient of the University of Chicago’s Human Rights Internship, an opportunity that allowed him to address the issue of religious freedom in Slovakia. Subsequently, he collaborated with the Institute for State-Church Relations and the Institute for Legal Aspects of Religious Freedom in Slovakia and provided expert advice to the Department of Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic. He was recognized for his contributions by the Minister of Culture in 2011. As a public theologian, Dr. Ondrasek contributed to prominent Slovak newspapers between 2013 and 2020. His articles were compiled into three books: Christianity, Ethics, and Public Life (2017), Public Theology in Slovakia (2019), and Reflections of a Public Theologian on Faith, Society, and Politics (2021). His extensive literary work also includes books Neocharismatic Movement in Slovakia (2011) and The Tunnel at the End of the Light (2021), along with co-edited volumes Church and Society: Towards Responsible Engagement (2015) and Pentecostalism in Contemporary Religious and Social Context (2013). Dr. Ondrasek’s publication record also includes chapters, articles, interviews, and reviews in Slovak and English. In 2011, Dr. Ondrasek learned that he had been secretly baptized as an infant by Fr. Félix Záhorec, S.J., a priest persecuted under the Communist regime, prompting him to explore the Catholic faith more deeply. After over a decade of deepening his understanding of Catholic theology and spirituality through readings, discussions, and attending Mass, he felt led to return to the Church of his Baptism. On January 23, 2023, marking the 50th anniversary of his Baptism, he was received into full communion with the Catholic Church by Bishop Milan Lach, S.J. On January 6, 2025, he began serving as Pastoral Associate at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church of Piscataway in Clinton, Maryland. A cancer survivor, Dr. Ondrasek lived on the South Side of Chicago with his wife and ministry partner, Dr. Noema Bradnanska Ondrasek, until their relocation to the Washington, DC area in 2022. Rooted in the Jesuit tradition, “For the greater glory of God” (Ad majorem Dei gloriam) serves as the guiding vision for Dr. Ondrasek’s life and ministry and which he hopes will one day serve as his epitaph.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Matej Bel University, Slovakia
PaedDr., Matej Bel University, Slovakia
Mgr., Matej Bel University, Slovakia
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Noema Bradnanska Ondrasek is a Christian educator and pastoral theologian whose life vocation has been devoted to the holistic development of children, with particular attention to their spiritual formation. Her work places special emphasis on the vital role of the family and Christian educators in accompanying children with love and competence as they grow toward maturity. Across her career, she has integrated academic scholarship, church-based ministry, and professional caregiving into a single, coherent vocation shaped by deep theological reflection and decades of lived practice. During the Communist period in Czechoslovakia, Dr. Ondrasek was not permitted to pursue a pedagogical high school education and instead attended a nursing high school. After the fall of Communism, she enrolled at the newly established Department of Evangelical Theology and Mission at Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, where she earned her Master’s degree summa cum laude, graduating at the top of her class. Her Master’s thesis, “Pastoral Approach toward the Death of the Human Being with Emphasis on the Dying of Children and Adolescents,” received a departmental award and was later published. At the same institution, she completed both a professional doctorate in pedagogy and a Ph.D., with her doctoral dissertation focusing on children’s image of God. She was a visiting scholar at Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond and received a certificate from the Wheaton College Summer Tutorial Program. Following a year of teaching at an elementary school and a school for children with special needs, Dr. Ondrasek returned to her alma mater, where she served on the faculty for nearly a decade—first as a lecturer and later as an assistant professor. She taught courses in Christian education, catechetics, interpersonal communication, and pastoral theology. Dr. Ondrasek has published extensively, primarily in Slovak, and presented her research at numerous national and international conferences. Alongside her academic career, she has served in church-based educational and pastoral leadership, including as Chairperson of the Department of Education of the Slovak Baptist Union. After relocating to the United States, Dr. Ondrasek’s vocation to children and families took a new and concrete form through her work as a professional nanny and family caregiver for accomplished dual-career families in law, medicine, and executive leadership in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and the Washington, DC area. Drawing on her academic expertise and pastoral formation, she has provided high-level, developmentally informed care marked by discretion, reliability, and long-term commitment. In recent years, this work has become her primary professional focus and constitutes a lived, everyday ministry to children and parents—supporting family life, nurturing emotional and spiritual development, and enabling households to flourish amid demanding professional and personal responsibilities. At the same time, she has remained engaged with her native Slovakia through external university teaching, publishing, speaking, and supporting and sharing in the ministry of Dr. Lubomir Martin Ondrasek. Since 2023, Dr. Ondrasek has been attending St. Mary’s Catholic Church of Piscataway in Clinton, Maryland, and was received into full communion with the Catholic Church in September 2024. Together with her husband and ministry partner, Dr. Lubomir Martin Ondrasek, she embodies a shared vocation of service to the Church and to society.