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Issue No. 33 December 15, 2006 |
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R:.W:. Joseph R. Leo R:.W:. David L. Blasch V:.W:. John W. Cola V:.W:. Scott A. Klein Lodges of the Athelstane Cornerstone Goshen Hoffman Hudson River Jerusalem Temple Naurashank Port Jervis Stony Point-Wawayanda Wallkill Warwick West Point Archives No.
1 5/5/06 |
This has been a rough week for our District. Several Brothers have been hospitalized and several others have been called Home by the Great Architect. I wish Bob and Sammy a speedy recovery (details below) and extend my condolences to the families and Lodges of our fallen Brothers. Bob informs me that he is well enough to take your RSVPs for the ORDMA Holiday Party on December 30th, please read further below for details. I also implore each of you to take some time this week to concentrate on your health and consider what steps must be taken to allow you to enjoy a safe and healthy New Year. In the Individual Development COurse, we discuss how to create a Plan for Personal Growth and our Health is one of the twelve daily questions that we encourage people to ask. When we think of daily priorities, our health is often near the bottom of the list. It’s vital to know and follow healthy guidelines daily. Ask yourself: Is your health enabling you to succeed today? Remind yourself that today’s health gives me strength. There’s an old saying that “A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools” and our own ritual reminds us that the man who has his health, strength and ambition indeed has his plenty. In creating your daily plan, leave time for a proper night’s sleep and some exercise, even if it’s an extra few minutes allowing you to park a little farther away and walk, or taking the stairs instead of an elevator. Meals especially fall victim to poorly planned days and the reliance of fast food wolfed down on the run now may cost us the time we need to fulfill our life’s goals later. We may have to rethink our unofficial Masonic Menu of 'All Carbs All the Time'! Aside from Sickness and Distress, it's been another busy week here in the District with Degrees at several Lodges and our DeMolay Chapter showing signs of growth again. Next week has several holiday parties on the trestleboard. Just remember to listen to the little Junior Warden angel on your shoulder when he reminds you that you've had enough. I want you all back here next week... see you then! A Holiday Greeting From our Grand Master
My Brethren, Family and friends, We greet this holiday season as a time to be with our families and friends, to find joy in the spirit of giving, and to reflect on the year just passed while anticipating the New Year about to come. It is a time filled with happiness for many of us. Perhaps this year, we can all stop for a moment and think of those who may be experiencing sadness during this season: our Brothers with families who may be struggling through difficult times; a widow spending her first holiday alone; a family with a son or daughter serving overseas. Let’s take time to remember these people in our prayers and in our plans this year, and see if our happiness can lighten their cares, even for a few moments. This, my Brothers, is what Masons do. So whether you light the candles on the Menorah, or string the lights on the Christmas tree, may these shining lights be beacons for peace in this holiday season, and may these beacons be reflected in every window in the world. On behalf of our family and your elected and appointed Grand Line, Joyce, Brian and I wish to extend to you and all you cherish our warmest wishes for a joyous holiday season. May you have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a New Year filled with good health, happiness and especially peace on Earth. May God continue to bless you, your family and our great Fraternity. May He watch over our men and women in military service and bring them safely home, and may He continue to Bless America.
Sincerely and fraternally,
DISTRICT NEWS
Father and Son Degree at Cornerstone Lodge No ORDMA Meeting This Month Purple Heart Hall of Honor Masters and Wardens Meeting ORDMA NEWS
ORDMA Dinner Dance ORDMA Calendars Now Available! SHOLARSHIPS! SCHOLARSHIPS! SCHOLARSHIPS!
Frank M. Totton Essay Contest The winner is customarily asked to read the essay the first day of Grand Lodge in May. The winner and sponsor are also invited to the Grand Lodge VIP Dinner with a room at the Grand Lodge Convention hotel on Sunday evening, before Grand Lodge convenes Monday. The form is available on the Grand Lodge web site (www.nymasons.org) and any questions can be directed to RW Cary Cohn and the Grand Lodge Youth Committee. DATES TO REMEMBER
SCHOOL OF INSTRUCTION
The Orange-Rockland School of Masonic Instruction will convene on the second Monday of each month, at locations around the District. Instruction will rotate on a monthly basis between Ritual, Grand Lodge educational programs, and seminars on topics like Leadership and Communication. Our next School will be held on Monday January 8th at Jerusalem Temple Lodge at 8:00 p.m. The trestleboard for the School will be announced shortly. Please bring your Entered Apprentices and Fellowcrafts for this informative evening.A brief Masters and Wardens meeting will precede the School at 7:00 p.m. If you have any questions, please contact the DDGM. We'll see you there! Did You Know?
The Lodge A Lodge is a body of men so organized that they move and work together as if many men had but one body. The Operative Freemasons were under necessity to work together as a body because they were engaged on the same task, at the same time, under one supervision. They knew that nowhere, nor under any circumstances, could a public building be erected if each man worked alone; nor was it a mystery that they had a room for themselves, because they had to think together, decide together, know their places and designs together, and to receive at one time instructions for their labor. Insofar as they were a body of men of flesh-and-blood, working together because it was impossible to work alone, we also in Speculative Freemasonry are a body of flesh-and-blood men in an actual and literal body, and not in any abstract or unreal sense, because ours is the same Lodge as theirs. If we say that it is a symbolic Lodge it is not because we have turned the Lodge itself into a symbol, but because we as Speculative Masons do not make the same use of it that Operative Masons did. In one sense it is impossible to put this meaning into words, because to possess it fully and for himself a man must enter into it, and become a member, and learn it by experience; in another sense it is not difficult to put it into words, though they would fall short; if expressed in words the meaning of the Lodge when symbolically used would be expressed in some such fashion as:-"A Masonic Lodge was a body of men. The men formed a body in order to do their work in architecture. Craftsmen could not act adversely or independently of each other when constructing a building. This necessity for working as a body was true of Operative Masons; it is also true of any men engaged in any work. To be in association, to act collectively, for many men to be as if they were one man, is everywhere necessary in work. If you cannot sustain yourself, or give your family the food, housing, furniture, clothing, and medicine which they must have in order to live, if to have those things it is for you a question of life or death, then you must be able to work together with other men, to be in association with them, to cooperate with them, to go through the days with them peaceably and harmoniously, to be in a brotherhood with them, to lodge with them, because not otherwise can you continue to work, and without work you will cease to be. "If any man thinks that he can be a lone wolf, if he believes that brotherhood, and fraternalism, and friendliness are Utopian ideals and luxuries of sentiment or unreal dreams, he is a moron or a fool. The brotherhood of men in work is not a dream but a stark reality, not a vision but a necessity, for without it any man would starve to death and peoples would perish. Freemasonry does not hold brotherhood, which is membership in a body of men at work, before us as a desirable but remote ideal, hanging in the skies of some unattainable future, but knows it to be a necessity, and not only a necessity but one which may even be for some men a cruel necessity, because it is an iron law of things. We are not Brothers because we hope to be but because we already are; we are not Brothers because we desire to be, but because we must be." The Lodge itself is the form taken by brotherhood in Freemasonry, so is it also Masonic sociability. Masonic fraternalism, Masonic association, is not a frame-work or background, is not an opportunity or occasion, but is itself what these things are. In substance as well as in form it is unlike any other body of men, certainly it is not to be confused with collectivism, socialism, or communism, which are either economic or political forms of association. It is not consistent with individualism if by individualism is meant that competition in which men prey upon each other; but it is consistent with competition if by competition is meant that emulation of who best can work and best agree.
SICKNESS AND DISTRESS
On Tuesday evening, Wor. Sam Phelps III, Past Master and Trustee of Wallkill Lodge, was involved in a motor vehicle accident and was airlifted to Saint Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie. We're told that he is going to OK after a very bad accident. He should be home by the time you read this and will recuperate there. Wor. Robert Morlang Jr., 1st VP of ORDMA and Co-Chairman of the District's Youth and Brotherhood Fund Committees, suffered a mild heart attack last weekend and had two stents put in on Monday. He is resting comfortably at home after a stay in Westchester Medical Center. V:.W:. Richard Dahlgren, a past AGL of our District and avid reader of Orange-Rockland Masons Online, informs us from New Hampshire that he has been having trouble with my lower back for a number of years and it has gotten increasing worse. An MRI taken this month reveals nerve compression at L2-L5 but no ruptured disc. He will have surgery on 1/11/07 at the Concord, NH Hospital so will be down and out for a few months. I know he would appreciate your cards and letters! You can contact Dick at train361@tds.net. We regret to inform you of the passing of Bro. Andrew G. Lee Jr., a Brother of Jerusalem Temple Lodge No. 721 who celebrated his 60th year in the Craft earlier this year. Bro. Lee passed away at his home in Ohio and was 83. We extend our deepest condolences to the family and the Brothers of Jerusalem Temple Lodge. It is also with a heavy heart that we report the passing of Bro. George Brown, a long time member of Athelstane Lodge. Bro. Brown was raised in Tappan Zee Lodge in 1964. We express our condolences to the family and to the Brothers of Athelstane Lodge No. 839 during this time of loss. With sadness, we also regret to inform you that Bro. Gus Pappas was called to the Great Architect of the Universe this past weekend. Bro. Gus joined Athelstane Lodge along with many other Brothers at the One Day Class back on March 26th, 2003. Services were held on December 10th, 2006 in West Nyack. Our prayers are with his family during this time of loss. HELP WANTED
Restoration Help Wanted Master Mason Degree Assistance Needed Master Mason Degree Assistance Needed Copyright 2006 Orange-Rockland District, GLNY F&AM. All rights reserved. |
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ORDMA Holiday Party