Greetings Brethren,
As our Lodge comes back into the light with regular communications, and even an Entered Apprentice Degree on the calendar, I thought I would re-read “Introduction to Freemasonry – I– Entered Apprentice” by Carl H Claudy.
We all remember the very first time we entered the Lodge, “coming in the same way and manner as all others who have gone this way before.” It was an exciting and magical moment, full of promise for a new initiation into a new world.
The rectangle shape of the Lodge, the floor, the aprons and ambulations, the Mosaic Pavement carpet field and altar were obvious but the symbolism was not so obvious. Claudy reminds us the ancients visualized the world as a rectangle. Thus the rectangular shape of the Lodge is a metaphor for it being a world unto itself. In many ways it is. Amidst the concerns the world we are “divided by a thousand influences” but “In the Lodge, Men are united in the common bond of three fundamental beliefs; the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, and the immortality of the soul, and of all the sweet associations that spring therefrom. In the world without, men travel many roads to many goals; in the Lodge the Initiate does as all others who have gone this way before him, and all, youngest Entered Apprentice and oldest Past Master, travel a common way to an end which is the same for all.”
From Ritual in the Lodge to Masonic activities outside the Lodge, as Brothers, all on the same level, we are privileged to be traveling together. Hoping all our Brothers take some time to enjoy that special gift.
Fraternally,
F. Lawrence Vernamonti, WM
