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PAROQUIA – Nssa Senhora do ROSÁRIO

Residência Nssa. Sra. de Fátima                  6 February, 2023                    LIII:1

Trav. Carlos Pontes, 171                             

62.900-000 Russas, Ceará                           http://www.egfbenya.com    

BRASIL                                                                     e-mail: [email protected]

Dear Collaborators, Family, Colleagues, Friends and Benefactors,

Shortcuts are most attractive. In many circumstances they are a legitimate alternative to a prolonged, drudging, tiring venture where time, patience and assets might well be spent in more efficient ways. However, under some circumstances shortcuts are a temptation to avoid application of necessary assets to a project that demands minute attention. Both circumstances merit careful consideration. Wasting time has no merit, neither does wasting resources.

The temptation to apply wasteful shortcuts has been with us since time in memoriam. Consciously or subconsciously we tend to crave things simple, immediate, clear and short; quite laudable in itself. Yet when that craving interferes with sacramental discernment and virtuous procedure, it becomes a temptation and can be most vicious.

A temptation to shortcut the divine hierarchy within creation led our ancestral “first” parents to commit the “original sin”. It took the presence and action of Almighty God Himself as Savior in human-and-divine natures to rectify the effects of that original sin, and that rectification was nowhere near as simple as was the original fall.

Salvation required promise, message, preparation, delivery, discipline, execution and Love in a dynamic that to this day continues its vigor. It met resistance; human and demonic at every step. The realization of Salvation was anything but guaranteed. A false step, presented and executed as a shortcut, anywhere could have sabotaged the entire venture, and there were plenty of temptations to “shortcuts”.

The Savior Himself encountered temptation to shortcut the Passion of Redemption in the garden of Gethsemane. In His dialogue with The Father Jesus asked that if possible “this cup might pass without my partaking of it”. Suffering for the sake of suffering has no merit. Yet that suffering was necessary. He accepted! He won! We won! We are saved.

Resistance to Salvation continues to this day. As a species we are ENTIRE at conception, yet INCOMPLETE in our form. We are continually challenged to transcend (go beyond) ourselves, arriving at COMPLETION in Eternity. That challenge is mysterious and at times frightening. The process is unique for each of us because the sanctity of each of us is unique. The temptation to a shortcut (to “quit”) is ever-present. Yet we are not alone. We hold Communion with the Savior and with each other.

We celebrate that Communion each year at the Lenten-Easter Season. Join us in spirit iff you wish for this celebration as we thank God in universal communion of Praise and Glory. Grateful to you and for your presence, I wish all of you:

 “A Happy and Holy Lenten, Pascal-Easter Season!”

Gratefully in the Love of the Risen Jesus Christ,

            Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.

PAROQUIA – Nssa Senhora do ROSÁRIO

Residência Nssa. Sra. de Fátima                        10 November, 2022                        LII:3

Trav. Carlos Pontes, 171                          fone:              (55 088) 2145 0990

62.900-000 Russas, Ceará                                  http://www.egfbenya.com 

BRASIL                                                                    e-mail: [email protected]        

Dear Family, Benefactors, Friends, Collaborators and Colleagues,

Messages abound! We encounter them in our families, our jobs, our ministries, our works. Messages of calling, of introduction, of advice, of warning, of confirmation, messages of one form or another are continuous in life; messages of matter, messages of spirit, benevolent or vicious. Voice, published or public messages present definite dimensions and are difficult to ignore. Spiritual messages, mostly unnoticed, we seem to perceive subconsciously, respond, forget and continue navigating life.

We are a species that is ENTIRE when conceived, but born INCOMPLETE. We are called for the rest of our worldly lives to develop and thus arrive COMPLETE (The Saintly Dynamic) at Eternity. This is a complicated process. Besides the benevolent messages we receive, many false messages (temptations) are plentiful. These are ideas that can confuse, confound and disorient us. Almighty God cares for us and keeps us close to Himself. Messages (and messengers) are crucial for that care.

The subtlety of messages varies with their gravity of importance. A gentle hint can be enough to inform the wise of a timely error. A startling shock may be necessary to quickly move an individual from the immediate threat of catastrophe to safety. In His benevolence, God keeps us informed of our sacramental progress through gently hints, although at times our density of spirit demands a SHOCK.

The Savior Himself, Jesus Christ, had messengers. The promise of a Redeemer was true and would be realized with time. The prophets announced Christ’s future arrival and the time of that arrival. These were numerous, continuous and coherent in their presentation.

Delivery of that message was specific, exact, but always perilous. People of this world were impatient and not necessarily interested in a Redeemer whose specific being is defined by Almighty God and NOT by the false gods of humanity.

To this day, the world refuses to fully accept the arrival of the Redeemer. However that arrival is confirmed, verified and documented in His continued presence among us. We celebrate His arrival in the Hanukkah-Yuletide-Christmas season. All of you, as most integral parts of my life and vocation, I invite, along with your families and communities to join us in spirit for these celebrations as I wish you a:

Most joyous Hanukkah-Yuletide-Christmas season and Blessed New Year of 2023!

In the Love of Jesus Christ,

            Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.

PAROQUIA – Nssa Senhora do ROSÁRIO

Residência Nssa. Sra. de Fátima                     29 July, 2022              LII:2

Trav. Carlos Pontes, 171                      fone:          (55 088) 2145 0990

62.900-000 Russas, Ceará                   http://www.egfbenya.com  

BRASIL                                                    e-mail: [email protected]      

Dear Colleagues, Family Collaborators, Benefactors and Friends,

Time marks its presence and passage, usually in a slow, profound, pacifying manner, but at times in a brutal, threatening and destructive presence. The benevolence of time is chronicled in the quality of certain foods; cheeses and wines see their quality improving with age of maturity or vintage. Many fermented products in fact gain quality with age as the fermentation process runs its course. Impeding that course of time can, in fact, impede the envisioned quality of the product, desired and planned in and through the fermentation process.

Time can have a brutality of effect. Mariners, miners, navigators, soldiers, police, firefighters, explores and investigators can attest to the harshness of days, hours, moments and even seconds as the intensity of a crisis unfolds. Vengeance and intensity seem to mount as a crisis unfolds “…the waves turn the minutes to hours…”, as Lightfoot put it in his classic dirge on a shipwreck.

In those who are wounded, bruised and injured time can be a healer, a remedy in itself promoting and driving recovery whose possibility at one time seemed impossible.

The effects of time are present in our lives, sometimes recognized but at time not apparent. The beneficial effects are Divine, the malicious are not. Initial effect can be quite misleading. What one initially perceives as injury, over time may actually be virtuous. What at first seems as blessing may in fact be malicious. Time and the Emergence of Truth play their part; PEACE arrives.

Marking and celebrating these 48 years in Religious Life and 38 years in Holy Orders, I have had the experience of time as violence and as virtue. They are distinct although initially they may have been quite confusing. Maturity of vocation has been marked by time.

Your presence in my life, vocation, ministries, works and apostolate has been a support that is distinct to me for each of you. Different times, epochs and eras associate each of you with me, some already in Eternity, others still navigating this life with me.

I continually thank God for YOU, your families and your presence in my life and vocation. That presence is a distinct aspect of the Communion of Saints. I remain most gratefully as I remain

In the Love of Jesus Christ,

            Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.