May 2012 - Hawthorne-Fortitude Masonic Lodge No. 200

Featured Writer- Bro. David Browning
“The Importance of Good Masonic Ritual”
By Bro. David Browning, DDGL NC 16 th Masonic District
“Freemasonry, a beautiful system of morality,
veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols…” is one
of the most well-known and used quotes of our
Fraternity. It is through our ritual that this beautiful
system of morality is imparted to our candidates and
allegories and symbols play an important role in how
these moral lessons are conveyed. Ensuring that these
fundamental moral lessons are conveyed consistently
and that each candidate has the opportunity to learn
these moral lessons is the goal of our ritual. It should
also be the lofty goal of every brother to ensure that
we only practice good Masonic ritual.
There has been a lot written about Masonic
ritual during the history of our Fraternity and yet it is
still one of most intriguing subjects to the uninitiated.
Our ritual is meant to be symbolic in every aspect with
the overall goal “to imprint upon the mind wise and
serious truths”. It is during the conferring of the three
symbolic degrees that we learn moral lessons about
how we should endeavor to live our lives. In many
cases these lessons are nothing new, as an immoral man
would find it difficult, if not impossible, to make it into
our Fraternity. In my humble opinion, it is not the
content of these lessons, but rather the manner that they
are conveyed to the candidate in such a short period of
time, that makes them so powerful and potentially life
changing to all who enter our Fraternity. This is one
of the reasons why it is so imperative that our rituals
be carried out with dignity and respect and performed
as correctly as humanly possible.
We have all seen good degree work, and
unfortunately, in many cases, we have also seen degree
work which is not so good. There is no such thing as
a perfect degree. With that said, I feel that every lodge
and brother of our Fraternity has a personal
responsibility to ensure that every degree that they
participate in is the best that it can be. When observing
a degree you can always tell those lodges and brethren
who have studied and rehearsed their part(s) as opposed
to those who go through the motions
and put on, at best, a mediocre degree. We should all
do our diligence to ensure that we are never part of a
degree that is not the best that we are capable of putting
on.
In addition to the actual degree, there is a
lecture which accompanies each degree. This lecture,
when given as it has been passed down through the
ages, serves to reinforce and teach new lessons that are
essential for the candidate to learn as he advances his
knowledge in Masonry. The catechism is also a
reinforcement of the candidates understanding of what
he has been through and his opportunity to show that
he is willing to labor in quarry to advance in his
Masonic career. The coach and the brother being
coached each have a responsibility to ensure that this
is learned as correctly as possible before returning it
in open lodge.
The Entered Apprentice degree is a candidate’s
first impression of our Fraternity and we should strive
to make that impression the best that it can be. We
only get one chance to make a good first impression.
That impression, if positive, should serve to encourage
the new brother to learn his catechism and seek more
light in Masonry. That impression, if negative, may
cost us a candidate who otherwise may have made us
a good Mason. With the ever increasing challenges
that we face in attracting new members and
maintaining our membership levels we cannot afford
is for a new candidate to be so unimpressed with the
experience of being initiated that he goes home after
Initiation and never darkens the door of the lodge again.
I know that this is the worst case scenario; however, it
is something that we can all play a part in preventing
by ensuring that the degree work that we put on is done
to the best of our ability.
(Continued on page 39)
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