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Summer has been a relaxing time, but
continues to be busy with degree work. Our Warden’s Night in July was a great time. Thank you to
everyone who played along, and donated to the Stewart Wilson Miner Scholarship Fund. Congratulations to
all of our new Master Masons.
Our newly wed Brother Gilberto Rosado, along with our stewards and lodge volunteers,
have been doing a great job cooking our meals prior to our meetings.
Brother Sam Pooré is recovering from by-pass surgery. Keep him in your thoughts and
prayers.
Looking forward to fall we will most certainly continue to be busy and enjoy
interesting meetings. Ladies Night is scheduled for September 14th. RSVP’s need to be completed by
September 6th.
Our first meeting in September, had Brother John Bullach speaking on Masonic
Words/Symbols, which will need to be re-scheduled at another meeting. We will instead be having Masonic
education with some assistance of the Masonic Board Game and a variety of players attending lodge, while
honoring our Past Masters. Guest speaker for the evening is to be announced.
Our second meeting honors our youth, the future of our fraternity, with a talk by Dr.
John Young of Howard University. John will be giving a PowerPoint presentation on the Knight’s Templar.
Our district blood drive is on September 15th at AC Glebe Lodge with our lodge
providing the canteen. Also on September 15th is Mroz DeMolay stated meeting honoring education. Bethel
1 has two meetings in September the first meeting honoring youth and the second honoring parents. Unity
#201 OES meets in September on the 21st honoring Brother Rob Morris.
A sidebar regarding our youth groups,
Bethel 1 placed 1st in choir at Grand Session and 3rd at Supreme Session. Mroz DeMolay placed 1st in
basketball competition at Virginia Conclave, and 2nd place in billiards, tennis singles (Jordan Norris),
and tennis doubles. Kahung Lai, the current Master Councilor, won in election the position of Northern
Region Deputy Master Councilor. Congratulations to all of our youth and their accomplishments!
Your continued support of our youth is greatly appreciated.
With many new Master Masons I am including in this trestle
board information regarding our obligation as Freemasons.
Our Obligation
OBLIGATION is a binding agreement -
moral, legal and even spiritual - between two entities. It can also be looked upon as one's bounden
duty, a solemn pledge, a serious promise, an oath an act imposed by the relations of society, something
one is bound to do as by law or conscience.
In Freemasonry this bond is symbolized, and which has two ends - one representing the
individual Freemason and the other the Fraternity as a whole. The body itself is the force binding
together both the entities. It is the obligation of the Fraternity to teach the brother the tenets and
principles of the order and that of the brother to learn, assimilate and actually weave them into the
very web of his life.
In public life we see many top ranking men occupying high offices like that of the
President, governors, judges of the Supreme and High Courts etc. They are all administered an oath of
Secrecy and an oath of office, before assuming the duties and responsibilities annexed to their
appointments. The first oath is of vital importance in preserving the safety and security of the country
in times of war, political or economic turmoil etc…
Likewise Obligation is a very important aspect of Freemasonry. It is a solemn and
binding duty and a sacred undertaking. It is by the undertaking of duty that one can advance and make
progress and when once one assumes that duty, it becomes part and parcel of one's mundane and spiritual
life.
In all the degrees of Freemasonry there is an obligation principally concerning
SECRECY. However in the third degree in Craft Masonry, besides secrecy, the obligation makes a pointed
reference to maintaining and upholding 'in act as well as in word'.
Secrecy concerns the form, the details of the ceremonial, the manner of teaching and
certain modes of recognition which will enable us to distinguish a genuine brother from a base impostor.
In the obligation of the first degree, there is a short Anglo-Saxon word 'hele' which means 'to bury or
cover up'. It connotes that away in the great store-house of memory, far out of reach of profane, the
brother will hide away all the affairs of the Lodge particularly those which are derogatory to its
dignity. In a deeper sense Secrecy refers to spiritual and philosophical TRUTHS which can only be
experienced but cannot be expressed. Unless one has a prepared mind and one cannot imbibe such Truths.
The idea of an OBLIGATION of secrecy existed from time immemorial in many Ancient
Rites and Initiations. In the Ancient Mysteries or Secret schools of Egypt and Greece, the obligation of
Secrecy pertained to the inspired NEW Philosophy of the Unity of the Godhead (Monotheism) and the
Immortality of the soul - a philosophy quite antagonistic to the beliefs of the common man of that age
in the concept of Polytheism without any idea of a SOUL or its immortality.
Although the ceremony of obligation immediately concerns the Candidate, it should be
clearly understood by all others that they too 'take' the obligation along with the candidate 'inwardly'
so as to remind themselves of it once again.
The serenity, sublimity and solemnity of the occasion demands an absolute and perfect
silence on the part of all the other Brethren assembled in the Temple. They stand 'to order' with
military precision but not 'at ease'.
As every word and gesture in our ritual is meaningful, it is important to study the
ritual with some depth, of understanding to see if we can perceive in the various words that are used,
the gestures and the ceremonies that are performed, an ever deeper significance. It seems to me that
this is what may be meant when we obligate ourselves to make a daily advancement in Masonic Knowledge.
If we become aware, at every moment, of what it is we are doing, then we begin to see even outside the
Lodge, the practical application of the lessons which we learn within the Lodge.
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