Burlington Lodge #32, F&AM

 

    

 

My Brother,

                As the time has passed since I became a Master Mason, I have often spent hours reading as much as I can about Masonry.  I began the journey like most other tasks I take on, with the idea that at some point, I would read a chapter or finish a book that would explain it all to me.  I have come to realize that there is no book that can both teach the mysteries of our craft and show me how to live its noble tenants.

                We as Masons are given the first few chapters of a personal book through our degree work in the lodge, our outside reading of Masonic works, and the tutelage of our more experienced brethren.  However, your personal Masonic book is given to you with only those first few chapters written down, the rest of the chapters are blank.  They are blank because the GAOU expects each and every one of us to finish those chapters with descriptions of our undertakings in life that comport with our fraternity’s noble principles and challenges.

                Ask yourself, what is that final book going to contain in those chapters when it is finished.  Will you be proud to have others read it, will it be filled with acts of compassion and charity?  Your mystical Masonic book is the biography of your life on this earth and each day another line, paragraph, or chapter is completed.  We will all reach a time when there is but one chapter left to be completed, make sure that you have no regrets as to what you have chosen to be written in those preceding  chapters.   Is it something that you yourself would be proud to have read by others when we each for the last time wear the lambskin of a Mason?  Ask yourself everyday if you are proud of what you are writing in your book.

Fraternally,           
David R. Payne,
Worshipful Master