Every active Mason has within himself the ability to improve his Lodge--to move it forward.
Our Fraternity is a society of Friends and Brothers. Our ritual and ceremonies are intended to provide a shared, common experience that is the beginning of a lifetime of Friendship.
Too often, Freemasons focus on the "problems" of Freemasonry rather then on the true glory of it-the making and keeping of friends among those who otherwise would have remained at a perpetual distance.
Our rules, like our ritual, are fairly straightforward. However, like our ritual, our rules often become an unfortunate stumbling block for those who are not willing to familiarize themselves with them.
Yet within the basic framework established by our ritual and rules, there is much work left to be done to make a Lodge complete. Its adornments, be they successful or failures, are left to the Brethren of a Lodge to create.
Like our operative forefathers who actively sought the skills and new techniques developed at other successful building sites, so should the Masons of today look to successful Lodges to learn how to do things a little differently or a little better.
The desire to get back to the basics of the good old days is a classic desire of mankind. Whenever the road becomes difficult, mankind looks back to what it believes was the Utopia of a bygone day.
Freemasonry has been able to pass on its
gift of friendship from one generation to the next, not
because it has held onto a ridged orthodoxy, but because the symbology
of Freemasonry is such that each generation is able to adapt it
to its own needs.
Freemasonry of the post Second World War era was not the Freemasonry of the Civil War. Freemasonry of the Westward Migration was not the Freemasonry of the American Revolution. No, every generation has found in Freemasonry and made of it that which it needed to continue on the rough road of life.
It is important that today's generation do the same.
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