http:\/\/www.egfbenya.com<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Dear Friends, Benefactors, Collaborators, Colleagues and Family:<\/p>\n
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Smoke is an indistinct word in itself! Broad in form (noun, verb, adjective) it can have many meanings. Context says everything .In years past, \u201cSmoke?\u201d was a simple introductory offer that helped break initial tensions of encounter. A simple cigarette could initiate proceedings between common people. Today that is in decline.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmoke! Fire!\u201d can be an alarm, a call to awareness and action, as an emergency arises. Centuries and even decades past that call was a community alarm to mobilization as neighbors of a settlement, town or village quickly gathered to face a sudden common threat; unplanned fire. \u201cSmoked\u201d perishables (meats, cheese, etc.) have a history dating from millennia past as \u201csmoking\u201d was a basic necessary method of preservation. Still available today, such commodities are more a luxury than a necessity.<\/p>\n
Many North American Indians, indigenous peoples used tobacco as a fuel for pipes of peace between their villages and peoples of distance, persons of different origin as the \u201cpeace pipe\u201d served as a symbol of welcome, calm and even reconciliation. Notwithstanding its hazards and abuses, tobacco can still serve as a distinct symbol for and of these peoples. Many indigenous Peoples used \u201csmoke signals\u201d to convey messages in spacious but relatively close geographic regions to rapidly inform allies of a crucial event or sudden change of plan.<\/p>\n
The \u201csmoke signal\u201d also makes its presence in at least one very European setting but quite universal in its scope. With a variability that is highly unpredictable, the \u201cEcclesiastical Conclave\u201d convenes cardinals of the Catholic Church at each vacancy of the \u201cChair of Peter\u201d, usually when the Bishop of Rome dies but also when he formally resigns. In conclave, these men are sealed in conference with NO contact with the outside world. They receive food indirectly as they are charged with the task of selecting (by vote, proclamation or appointment) a successor to the Vicar of Christ. Their only contact with the outside world is by \u201csmoke signals\u201d; twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon UNTIL they find a Vicar. Votes are taken these 4 times each day until someone, either among them or external, receives two thirds PLUS 1 of the voting cardinals present. Ballots are burned after each vote. IFF the vote does NOT achieve the 2\/3 + 1, the ballots are burned with a chemical mixture yielding black smoke. IFF the necessary count is achieved or surpassed, the ballots are burned with another chemical mix rendering white smoke, a sign of a successor. The \u201csmoke signal\u201d is crucial.<\/p>\n
Thus Catholic ecclesiastics and American Indians use the smoke signal as an essential tool of communications. Our personal communication can seem \u201csmoky\u201d at times especially if we are not in complete control (which for most of the time we are NOT).<\/p>\n
Among religious, that \u201csmokiness\u201d can be profuse. Yet Almighty God always proceeds in and for clarity. That clarity has been most profound these 33 years since I was ordained especially in the benevolence and charity He has shown in and through you. I do thank you as I also thank God as I pray that He bless you and your families always.<\/p>\n
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Gratefully in Jesus Christ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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