By J. E. C. Rafisura — Sr. Warden
Greetings everyone! I hope all is going well at this time of the year. As we are entering the 4th and final quarter, I am excited for what is to come. Advancing to our next stations as your officers, we are honored to be serving our ancient fraternity in general and Crow Canyon Lodge No. 551 in particular. Busy times this coming quarter.
Your current set of officers, the Executive Committee and the Centennial Committee have been meeting regularly to continue to plan for this year and next. On top of that, the incoming three principal officers and the Senior Deacon are currently working hard to qualify for the chairs that we will be occupying next year. This is to ensure that the preservation of our ancient traditions, ceremonies and rituals will remain in good and qualified hands. To this effect, on September 29th, we have invited Wor. Allen Cuenca, Inspector of 317th Masonic District, to witness us exemplify our ritual capabilities and hopefully gain his approval. Please don’t forget, the 29th is also our Potluck Night! So if you’d like to have a “dinner and a show”, you know what to do!
As I study my part and slowly march towards the East for next year, it has brought me back to a time when I was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. The exercise of deciphering those lines and reviewing the rituals and its meaning, reminds me of the solemn obligations that we all took before God and the brotherhood upon the Holy Altar. As I began to re-commit to memory the rituals and
ceremonies, I was reminded of the valuable lessons that masonry has been teaching us for centuries. Those values include having inflexible fidelity to a trust, love of virtue, goodness of the heart, purity of intention and unfeigned piety to God, among others, have certainly produced serious and melancholic reflections. Having the opportunity to revisit and recapitulate the lectures of each degree are, to me, the true wages of becoming a lodge officer. More than the accolades, the title, the respect and honor of being a Master, are the opportunities to recall and dive deeper into the profound meaning of the events that we so dramatically impart to the new initiates.
Having progressed through the stations and now having this opportunity to lead our lodge next year during our 100th anniversary is both an honor as well as a herculean challenge that I do not take for granted. As we have been taught, “time, patience and perseverance will accomplish all things”. No matter how slow, we continue to learn and improve ourselves. Masonry also teaches us to learn progressively, much more like life, as we learn and grow from infancy to adulthood and into old age. I truly hope and pray that each one of us, from time to time, revisit those Masonic lessons that were inculcated in us when we were progressively admitted into a Masonic lodge. Participate or be a sideliner in degree conferrals and other activities and be reminded of those lessons. Let the drama of the rituals put you in a trance and take you on a trip down memory lane as you reflect on those truly Masonic values that we hold so dear. This is how we learn. We constantly seek the truth. We seek further light as it shines brighter and brighter as we draw closer to that glorious and celestial lodge above.