Every blog entry here is ended with the above blessing. It is offered sincerely and whole heartedly to all masons. However, it appears there are some, a few, who have a lot of anger, resentment, whatever over the whole regularity issue. This blog has addressed Regularity, and women/co-ed Masonry, so there is no point in rehashing that issue here.
Regularity, as has been noted elsewhere, IS a Grand Lodge issue. Regular, irregular, clandestine etc. are legalistic terms for describing various types of Masons. This blog is not about categorizing brothers and fellows. If you consider yourself a Mason, no matter the provenance of your degree, the author is willing to extend personal recognition of your being a Mason.
Now, the blessing that is offered at the closing of every entry is taken directly from the
It is a symbolic lodge that we create, when we labor toward a common goal. The Lodgeroom is this small segment of cyberspace, yet, Masons all, we labor here together toward common understanding. My Lodge teaches that when we labor together there should be no contention, except that noble contention, of who best can work and best agree.
Therefore, at the close of our common labor, the author offers the benediction to all readers, regardless of whether they are a Member of the Grand Lodge of California, the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of California, Inc., another Grand Lodge with whom these Grand Lodges are in amity, or ANY OTHER BROTHER.
In
So, if you consider yourself a Mason, the blessing offered to you, and if you are reading this, and are not a Mason, consider the blessing also extended to you. Masons are, after all, taught to consider the whole human race as one family, the high and the low, the rich and the poor, who, as created by one almighty parent and inhabitants of the same planet, are to aid, support and protect one another. Lets have a bit more brotherly love in our lives, and a bit less looking for reasons to separate ourselves and get our feelings hurt, ok?
May the blessing of heaven rest upon us and all regular masons. May brotherly love prevail, and every moral and social virtue, cement us.
4 comments:
So there!
“Every blog entry here is ended with the above blessing. It is offered sincerely and whole heartedly to all masons. However, it appears there are some, a few, who have a lot of anger, resentment, whatever over the whole regularity issue. This blog has addressed Regularity, and women/co-ed Masonry, so there is no point in rehashing that issue here.”
And I: "What is it, master, that oppresses
these souls, compelling them to wail so loud?"
He answered: "I shall tell you in few words.
Those who are here can place no hope in death,
and their blind life is so abject that they
are envious of every other fate.
The world will let no fame of theirs endure;
both justice and compassion must disdain them;
let us not talk of them, but look and pass.
Dante, Inferno, 3: 43-51
Bro. Dunn,
From my perspective, humanity in general has come to accept a "victimization" attitude. They seem to focus on reasons to be offended when no offense was intended.
Galen Dean
Brother Dunn,
I agree. I was a guest at an AMD meeting a couple of months ago a brother there was "chastising" me and my chapter for having a communication read from a Mason in Italy without knowing first whether or not they were accepted as Masons by our Grand Chapter of Oregon. I shot back without blinking an eye (and without much thought) that this attitude was surely outdated considering the prevalence of the Internet. "Oh no, we can't allow this," nearly all the Masons rejoined. They were horrified at my suggestion that we lay aside our differences and join in our common work, one and all.
I, for one, am not interested in separation. To me a Mason is a Mason. We all have common edicts of moral and social behavior that we embrace. If a brother has been made a Mason in his heart, then who am I to shun his society?
Larry Stokes
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