UNISINOS – RESIDÊNCIA CONCEIÇÃO

R. Aloysio Sehnem, 186                               18 November, 2010       XL:3

UNISINOS

Cx. P. 101

93.001-970 São Leopoldo, RS

BRASIL                                                           e-mail:  [email protected]

Dear Family, Colleagues, Friends and Benefactors:

“Good-by!” (God be with you!), Vai com Deus! [Great way to start a message!]

Dating from antiquity, this declaration of exit has served as a gesture of departure in diverse cultures, regions and languages throughout the world. Short, profound and complete, it captures the essence of the spiritual ties that bond individuals in their migrations even as physical ties are stretched or even broken.

It also captures something of the essential flexibility to which man (humanity) is called in this life as we navigate a world that is both home and alien to us. Natural and attractive in its beauty and grandeur, this world presents perils to a species called to steward it through a self-discipline that is divine in origin. Frequently we fail in that stewardship not because of personal evil or design, but by confusion, ineptitude and lack of self-discipline.

Confusion can arise as we forget that Almighty God creates and places us here, not in retirement but in responsibility to recognize, understand, harness and direct the resources of the world through a personal dominance and application of our own unique talents and gifts. Those talents and gifts themselves must be discerned and developed through the self-discipline which in itself is in constant flux. The entire venture can be confusing and exhausting to the point where we are tempted to desist, QUIT.

Frequently we do so, merely seeking not only legitimate rest but complete escape, quitting on ourselves, on others and on God. Since the time of our first parents confusion, fall and escape have plagued humanity, always together, in tandem, never separate. Every sprit of evil in every temptation knows that these three perils must be combined, because notwithstanding our ignorance and frailty, we innately seek The Good and try to avoid evil.

Yet God never quits on us. He realizes our propensity for confusion, tendency to fall and proclivity to quit, desisting from the continuous navigation that should mark our progress in this world, meeting each other in HIM, forming personal communion with each other in HIM, yet departing physically from each other (taking leave of each other) as HE calls. HE forgives our sins and raises us. HE renews and reinvigorates us. HE journeys with us.

Even as we fell completely as a species, HE remained with us entering into our perplexity, bestowing salvation and the sacramental instruments to renew our spirit. We celebrate that Arrival and Presence in this Hanukkah-Advent-Christmas Season; God with us. Grateful for that presence through HIM and in all of you, I wish you

A Holy Christmas and a Blessed Year of 2011!

Yours sincerely in Jesus Christ

Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.

UNISINOS -RESIDÊNCIA CONCEIÇÃO

R. Aloysio Sehnem, 186                                       16 August, 2010           XL:2

UNISINOS

Cx. P. 101

93.001-970 São Leopoldo, RS

BRASIL                                                           e-mail:  [email protected]

Dear Friends, Colleagues, Benefactors and Family:

Messengers take risks. As carriers of information they tend to be perceived as the origin of that information. Many times news within a message is disquieting or perturbing and the messenger can be the first to suffer persecution. At times news can be most agreeable, calming and even a relief especially if one has been following a delicate situation with interest, focus and attention. Messages of the birth of a child, resolution of a dispute, solution of a problem, are generally agreeable. A message of congratulations, recognition or simple comradery is usually most welcome. Yet the adage that “no news is good news” implies that any news of a situation or entity will be disquieting to the one who receives that news. Many people do not like surprises. Thus arises the original aversion toward messages. Humans tend to prefer a quiet, predictable flow to and of events.

Still, messages are essential to communication among us, between us, through us and for us. This last essential (“for us”) can be most perturbing especially if Almighty God is the Author of a message. His messengers have to be complete in their preparation and dedication so that the message be exact in its delivery. Holy angels serve this task perfectly. Spiritual messengers, the term “angel” means “messenger”. When not discharging the messenger function, these spirits are something else. At times one hears the lamentation that if we were angels our problems would be minimal and our personal interactions optimal. Such thinking tends to ignore or forget that angels can be holy or evil, and the evil angels are demonic.

Yet at times God calls an individual to a benevolent angelic function. This we call prophesy and true prophesy always originates from Almighty God. It is a necessary function to the time-space situation in which we plod. God then discharges that function through anyone He wants. Prophetic messages tend to call for change, a shift in our predictable flow or action. Safe, secure and tranquil as the prophetic function may seem, it is stocked with hazards for the basic reason of our general dislike of surprises. The bible is replete with holy prophets, messengers who paid with their lives. We like to think that we are “good”, when, as Jesus Christ declared that there is only One Eternal Good.

I make these jottings in gratitude to God for messages received especially over the past 26 years of presbyteral ordination, some messages directly from Almighty God, but many through people like yourselves who read these lines; messages of question, doubt, orientation, disagreement, or confirmation, support; messages that help in the vocation and ministries to which I am called. Some messages put in beautiful prose, others in simple jargon. Yet contributing to a single message of Hope that maintains and directs this itinerant minister in a vocation that is beyond his human capacities and thus challenges him to be

Most sincerely in Jesus Christ

Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.

PAROQUIA – SANTO ROSÁRIO

Residência Nssa. Sra. de Fátima14 March, 2010 XL:1
Trav. Carlos Portes, 171
62.900-000 Russas, Ceará e-mail: [email protected]
BRASIL

Dear Colleagues, Friends, Benefactors and Family:

Limits abound! All creatures have limits. Even the universe has its limits which is why it can expand. We tend to like limits. They are something we can measure or at least estimate. That implies explanation, something we highly crave, exactitude.
Our patience has limits as does our understanding and even our perception. All of these vary with each individual. As most dedicated instructors and educators can attest, each student is unique in his or her abilities to perceive, grasp and then understand. If they are slower than most others, they are labeled as indolent or dull of mind. If they are especially rapid in that grasp they may be labeled as brilliant. However if they are extraordinary in their ability to grasp, they may also be labeled as “dull of wit” because they perceive more than the lesson-course of instruction and even more than the instructors are prepared to measure. An intellect can reach beyond an academic level and surpass limits, thus raising questions of measure, quite perplexing. Disarming one of intellectual defenses can open an individual more completely to the power of the Almighty; ask any mystic.
Formed by Almighty God in His image and likeness, we have distinct capacities. These are amplified by the totality of blessing, completely available to us but which we cannot measure. This frightens us. We thus impose artificial limits and even close ourselves, through our disobedience to God. We exclude ourselves from the power of Divine blessings, infinite assets originating from Almighty God, which is why He is Almighty and why many people refuse to believe in Him. God´s Infinite Being defies our craving for explanation. The Limitless is conceivable but scientifically unexplainable.
The challenge of limits is that they can vary with person, creature and situation. Human terms define “normal” within some subjective context into which fit the majority of persons, beings or other components of a group. Absolute Normal is defined by the Creator and thus always has a degree of mystery to it. Virtues and Blessings fit in this group. They are complete; but WE, have, limits! Thus we can perceive them but not fully understand them.
However God bends to our cravings to some degree. The Mystical Body of Christ has limits beyond which there is no salvation, however only God Himself knows those limits. This too can be perplexing to us. We do not want to be excluded from that Body but we are tempted to exclude others, thus to quit on ourselves and others.
Yet God never quits on us. His call continues notwithstanding our closure and, at times, our self-exclusion. Historically in fact, through our human fall, that exclusion was complete. The Benevolence and Charity of the Creator, then specified that He became Redeemer raising and defining us into the distinct units of His Mystical Body. He did so in one generation, one life with an intensity of Passion previously unknown; complete Redemption for all; marked in a total conquest of evil.
We celebrate that Passion of Benevolence and Charity in the Lenten-Pascal Season; solemn, profound, limitless in HIS gift of Redemption.

Have a Happy and Blessed Lenten-Pascal tide!

Yours Faithfully in Jesus Christ

Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.

Dear Friends, Colleagues, Family and Benefactors:

Evolution as a theory has been and remains a highly functional philosophical tool for analyzing points of complexity between diverse and dispersed aspects of the universe. This helps bring some semblance of order to a work whose majesty defies any simple explanation. Species and their individual members, extant and extinct, can nicely be presented in sequence or sequences, branch or branches that recognize relationships. As a point of reference Evolutionary Theory becomes polemic when people treat it more as fantasy Or as law and “absolute” in itself, neither of which it is.

Timing intervals concerning evolution in years, centuries and millennia can cover millions and even billions of years. Their order and breadth are magnificent especially if one considers time as invariable in itself. However variability makes its presence in all of this. It can come from density factors regarding matter, space, time and even velocity (e.g. black holes). Thus, gaps, questions and outright holes can arise in the data.

A recent discovery identified a hominoid (human-like creature) dating to more than 1.4 million years past. This “being” had the capacity to walk upright (rather than only on all four legs) and also to climb trees. My age notwithstanding (63 years), this one could well be ME.

Overall I find some glee in the fact that I have some (many?) essential attributes of a supposedly extinct ancestor. Extinction has a crucial place with the Theory of Evolution. Some (many?) known species have no known extant (living) representatives but apparently had such representatives in ages past. Their continuing definition lies in their continuing genetic codes. Newly discovered species, recognized through recently identified specimens, require full taxonomic classification, also based on their genetic codes.

The entire process for both extinct and extant species nicely finds foundation in genetic codes. Complications arise for “beings” that have no known genetic codes. Their taxonomic classification can present problems, yet their existence is most objective. Angels, demons, guardians, messengers can all fit in this category. Even Almighty God can be troubling to our taxonomic classification system. He is above and beyond it. Yet His subtle presence among us is objective and most recognizable.

The Divine Presence took the human nature some 2000 years past with the arrival of Jesus Christ in this world. Subtle and gently, that presence was and remains definite to this day. We celebrate His arrival in Judeo-Christian Tradition at the Hanukkah, Christmas-New Year’s Season, not as a system of biological classification but as a sacramental presence that blesses and attracts the whole of creation to and for immortal glory. I pray that you accept your part in this glory and celebrate it with a:

Joyful Christmas and Blessed New Year of 2010!
Humbly in Jesus Christ

Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.

Intervals can vary in their size, their span. Time and space intervals seem especially varied in their values, and those values often seem more arbitrary than objective. A rather wise old gentleman once observed that the calendar time intervals of a year (or multiples thereof) tend to pass ever more rapidly as we grow older. In my youth at the time, I paid little attention to his observation. However age has allowed me to recognize the accuracy of that observation. It is not that years grow any shorted as we age. Their temporal constitution of days, weeks and months remains quite exact. Our personal rate of motion merely slows with age. We move more slowly, thus time seems to move more rapidly.

Projects, planned or unplanned, tend to present definite time spans from initiation to completion. Life spans, human or otherwise, tend to be quite specific to individual species, although significant variation for and by individuals within a species can be most fluid. Humans tend to live about 70 years, or about 3 generations as measured in hereditary spans. Some may enter their 80’s, 90’s or even 100’s, but seven decades seems to be the maximum quota of years that most of us can endure.

Temporal counts for vocations can be quite mysterious and perhaps misplaced. Since vocation (e.g. Marriage, Holy Orders, Personal Oblation) originates from God and is a continuing function of His presence, mere human counts seem artificial. Yet we have a certain attraction for temporal counts, if for no other reason but to mark perseverance (or perhaps outright stubbornness) on our part.

The more mysterious an interval, the less essential it seems to be to the entity it purports of measure. If the universe is a billion light years in spatial size (and a light year is 300,000 km/second multiplied by the number of seconds in a year, then multiplied by a billion) the resulting kilometric interval is so large that one’s mind tends to dismiss it. If the age of this same universe is 4.5 billion years, that number also is of precious little meaning especially since time measurements seem to be affected my material densities (e.g. “black holes”) and velocities of entities in motion.

As I mark 25 years as presbyter in Holy Orders my thoughts are of perseverance (or stubbornness) in this Gift which Almighty God has bestowed. A mere quarter of a century, it has been the most RAPID quarter century of my life. Gratitude to God and to all of you who have accompanied me during all or part of this quarter century is the personal stance most apparent at this time. Many of you were physically present on 8 September, 1984 for that ordination. Many, including my beloved Dad and Mom, have gone to eternity. The rest of us will arrive soon enough. I pray that we persevere in navigating this life with, through and in Jesus Christ.

With grateful blessings in Almighty God

Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.

PAROQUIA – SANTO ROSÁRIO

Residência Nssa. Sra. de Fátima 27 February, 2009 XXXIX:1
Trav. Carlos Portes, 171
62.900-000 Russas, Ceará e-mail: [email protected]
BRASIL

Dear Benefactors, Friends and Family:

Multiples tend to draw our attention. They attract or repel our instincts but seldom leave us indifferent. Always based on numbers, multiples are not as cold as hard numbers which tend to be invariables that are associated more with endless statistics. Multiples, in fact, are associated with and represent everything that straight numbers represent (even more), BUT their form and presence is usually rather smooth and even artistic at times. If I discover that I am in debt for 1 million dollars (US$1,000,000) that number is staggering even frightening. However if I express the same dept as a multiple of ten; 1×102, that figure appears less threatening. It gives a qualitative tone to an otherwise quantitative question ($1,000,000”) whose value is too obvious and may even be an outright shocking.

Multiples lend a sense of security to certain questions in an insecure world. If millions of people are starving somewhere, the challenge of facing that problem seems impossible. However if I speak of the “many” starving in the world, the sheer scope of the problem seems more manageable. Where hard numbers are invariable facts, multiples have a approachable, perhaps controllable, aura surrounding them. If one declares that he is 64 years of age, that age seems inescapable. Yet if I say that I have 26 or 43 or 82 years of age, this value seems negotiable.

We tend to procure and prefer things in multiples; wealth, talent success, autonomy, respect. When I was a child the term “millionaire” denoted monetary wealth at one or more multiples of a million dollars. It connoted autonomy and even success to some degree. It belied the responsibility that came with such wealth. Having (and trying to live) a vow of Poverty has paradoxically clarified (somewhat) such responsibility.

Multiples lend themselves well to metaphysical, that is, to transcendental spiritual topics. If one is highly blessed by Almighty God, the blessings received can be expressed as a plethora or abundance. One can try counting those blessings but exact numbers tend to fail us, thus we have to be content with the “multiplicity” of blessings received. We feel a certain justified security in this.

One area of spirituality however that lends itself to temptation (in multiples) is the presence of God. Ancient peoples usually worshipped a multiplicity of gods. These gods were associated with various needs, tasks, pleasures or sufferings. Slowly humanity came to recognize One True Divinity, but the temptation to follow multiple gods remains and modern society is not immune. We seem in fact, more prone to polytheism (multiple gods) than our ancestors were. ALMIGHTY GOD REJECTS THIS! He is revealed and manifest in multiple ways, BUT still one TRUE GOD. We celebrate the gem of that manifestation (done once for all humanity for all ages) in SALVATION; the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (God With Us) in a special way during the Lenten-Easter Season. Thus I pray God grant you and personally wish you

A Happy and Blessed Pascal Season of 2009!

Yours faithfully in the Risen Jesus Christ

Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.