From the East – February 2018

Dear Brothers,

One of the things you are charged with when you become Worshipful Master is providing and spreading masonic light and/or knowledge to the craft.  This can be done in many ways and takes many forms.  The most common is though the monthly message in the trestleboard and any programs that might be done during the monthly communication.  To be quite frank, this was the greatest apprehension I had when I began my journey through the officer line.

Many of the messages and programs are usually in areas that are of interest to the Worshipful Master and while interesting and informative, may not have been what a Brother was looking for when he first petitioned to join Freemasonry.  The fact is that we have all came to the light of Freemasonry through different paths.  Therefore, our individual expectations from Freemasonry differs from brother to brother.

As I prepared for the office of Worshipful Master, I found many different podcasts, blogs, video blogs, websites, books, articles, etc. dedicated to spreading the light of Freemasonry.  Their subjects varied from masonic history, symbolism, esoteric and many other areas of interest.  There are also research lodges such as New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research & Education #1786 (www.njlore1786.com), where you can enhance your masonic experience.  What was that saying we all heard when we first joined our lodge “You get out of Freemasonry, what you put in to it”.

The point of this message isn’t to not only encourage the exploring the various areas of Freemasonry by other means than just attending a meeting, but to bring that light back to the lodge to share your Brothers.  The fact is that if you are interest in a certain area, so is another Brother, who may be apprehensive to say anything for various reason.  Bringing masonic light back to the lodge does not require doing a research paper but could be as simple as explaining why on the front of this trestleboard the year is denoted as both 2018 AD and 6018 AL.  By the way, AD or Anno Domini is Latin for “in the year of our lord” and is the numeric year we are all familiar with, while AL or Anno Lucis is Latin for “Year of Light”.  Many believe that the Bible dates the creation of the world to be 4000 years prior to the birth of Christ, i.e. when the Lord said “let there be light”, therefore we add 4000 to the current year to get the number of years since light.

So, go out and explore the different aspects of Freemasonry, it is what I believe separates us from other organizations, and bring these thoughts, ideas, information back to share with your Brothers.

Fraternally,

Daniel E. O’Brien

Worshipful Master