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Greetings From The East!

December is here, and the year is about to come to an end. As we are in the Holiday Season, I wish you all a safe and Happy Holidays!

Along with Holidays, comes Christmas. Santa Clause is coming to Montgomery!

Naughty or Nice, Young or Old, I invite all to come down to our Breakfast with Santa, Pancake Breakfast on December 12 from 8:30am to 12:00pm. I look forward to seeing you at the Pancake Breakfast.

For those of you who have not heard, we will be opening at 6 PM sharp on December 17. This is our 3rd degree, and we have a very busy night planned.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone this evening. This will be a very special night for our candidates, and remember our Grand Master will be attendance this night.

Continued on page 4

MontgoMery Lodge #258 TRESTLE BOARD

December 2015

Upcoming events

Dec. 3 Stated Meeting

Dinner 6, Meeting 7pm

Happy Hanukkah Dec 6-14, 2015

Dec. 10

Officers Meeting First Degree Practice at 6pm

Dec. 12

Pancake Break with SANTA and Kids ID 8:30 to Noon

Dec. 17

Third Degree Degree begins at 6

Dec 25

Merry Christmas

Jan 7 Stated Communication

Published under the authority of the Grand Lodge of Minnesota.

© 2014, All rights reserved. www.MN-Masons.org

Montgomery Lodge #258 Telephone: 651/829-9258

Email: editor@montgomerylodge.com 200 E Plato Blvd, St Paul MN 55107

www.MontgomeryLodge.com

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From: http://www.massfreemasonry.org

What is the typical life of a Mason?

It’s a question we get a lot from men who are deciding if they’d like to join the craft. The real answer is: There is no “typical” life of a Mason. Masons come from all walks of life — from Corporate CEOs to city bus drivers, from commodities brokers to auto mechanics. What unifies Masons is not where we come from or what we do for a living, but rather what we aspire to be.

Qualities of a Masonic Man

The essential qualities Masons share in their diverse lives are a belief in a Supreme Being and a desire to strive for:

fellowship with other Masons

high moral standards

kindness in the home

courtesy in society

honesty in business

fairness in all dealings

Fellowship, Friendship and Community Service

Throughout a Mason’s life, fellowship and friendship is a key component, as well as community service. The typical Mason wants to continue to grow as a man and to benefit society

Montgomery Lodge #258 meets at the St. Paul Masonic Center. Meeting times: 1st and 3rd Thursdays

Dinner @ 6, Stated @ 7pm **RSVP requested for dinner**

2015-2016 Lodge Officers

Tom Hoemke Master (651) 271-6860

Chris Elmquist Senior Warden (612) 275-5707

Chris Zack Junior Warden (

Al Dreumont Senior Deacon

Matt Thury Junior Deacon

Thomas Keeley – PM secretary@montgomerylodge.com

Secretary (651) 829-9258

David Hansen – PM Treasurer

Lawrence Grufman – PM LEO

Timothy Julin – PM Chaplain

Kurt Dornfeld – PM Marshall

Ken White – PM Trustee

David Seitz – PM Trustee

Robert Wicke – PM Trustee Greg Guffey District Rep

Update your address, Email and Phone number with the lodge by contacting us at secretary@montgomerylodge.com

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A Masonic Golf Outing

The Master of the lodge and his two wardens went golfing one day. As they were about to tee off the first hole the course marshal came and asked if a young woman could join their group. Being a charitable group they all agreed. She turned out to be a scratch golfer but on the 18th hole she drove the green in two and was about to put for eagle. She then ask the three brothers if any one of them helped her make the put she would be eternally grateful. Well then, the Junior Warden look at the put and told her it was uphill and broke to the right. Well the Senior Warden being a more expert workman looked at it second, and said "That is partially correct but five inches from the hole it breaks back to the left." Well the Master of Lodge then took his turn. He looked at the put carefully and then went over to the ball, picked it up and exclaimed "It's a gimme!!!”

Humor for the Lodge

Written by RWB Andrew W. Coid of Harp and Crown M.L.No.60, GL of Ireland

A ragged tramp stopped a Mason on his way home from the lodge and asked him for money for food. “I’ll do better than that!” said the Mason. “Come into the pub, and I’ll buy you a drink!” “Thank you!” said the beggar. “But I’ve never drunk and I never will!” “Well, let me buy you some cigarettes then!” said the Mason. “No, thanks!” said the tramp, “I’ve never smoked and I never will!” “Okay”, said the Mason. “Come back to the lodge with me and I’ll see you get a meal!” “No, thanks”, said the man. “I’ve never entered a masonic lodge and I never will!” “Right, then”, said the Mason “Will you please come home with me and meet my wife!” “Why?” asked the tramp. “Well”, said the Mason. “I just want her to see what happens to a guy who doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke and hasn’t joined the Masons!”

The Secretary’s Corner

It's that time again! As we move to the second half of the year, we approach the time for lodge dues. Montgomery's annual dues remain at $85. You don't have to wait for your dues notice, you can remit them now and save the lodge a stamp!

Or, if you are like me and keep forgetting the dues, you can enroll in the lifetime membership option and never have to worry about paying them again! Contact me any time and I'll let you know what that would involve.

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FROM THE EAST Continued from page 1

One of the bigger events coming up will be our Montgomery-Versery. This night is the anniversary of our

Lodge Charter, and it is also our Past Master’s night. This very special date is January 21st, 2016, social hour set for 6:00pm, dinner at 6:30pm. Invitations are in the works and will be out soon, RSVP is requested. Ticket prices will be $15.00 each or $25.00 a couple. Yes I did say couple, so you are allowed to bring your other with this night. A meal from Magnolia’s will be catered in this night, so you will not walk away hungry but very happy.

With January comes the Grand Lodge One Day to Masonry class. If you know someone wanting to go through the one day class, it will be held on January 16, 2016. Petitions will need to be turned in no later than the December 17th meeting to insure the petitioners have a chance of attending the one day class.

I look forward to seeing you in lodge! Fraternally, Tom Hoemke, Master

Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill

Having read the quote above, I hope each reader will contemplate how you have experienced this is your own lives and how important of a teaching it is to be passed on to each generation to come

Definitions in Masonry The Hour-Glass — is an emblem of human life; behold! How swiftly the sands run, and how rapidly our lives are drawing to a close.

Flaming Sword – A sword whose blade is of a spiral or twisted form is called by the heralds a flaming swords from its resemblance to the ascending curvature of a flame of fire. Until very recently, this was the form of the Tiler's sword.

Dotage – This is not a very beautiful word but it is interesting. It first came into existence among the early English, Dutch, German, and Scandinavian peoples, generally in the form dotten, dutten, meaning to nod with drowsiness, to nap. Since it was old people who most frequently sat nodding in their chairs it became associated with old age. "An old man in his dotage" is one who nods or prattles like a sleepy child, and whose faculties have begun to decay through old age. Old age is never a bar to Masonic membership unless it has reached this stage.

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This article is found at http://masoniceducation.com.

A Stroll Through The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences By Richard D. Marcus

George Washington Lodge # 337 F&AM, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin

Throughout our lives, we have heard of the liberal arts and sciences. But until we were presented with them in The Winding Stair lecture, most of us had only a vague notion of what they consisted. The Fellowcraft Degree commends Freemasons to study the Liberal Arts and Sciences, which are grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. When we study the historical background for this list, we will uncover layers of Masonic meanings for us in each of the seven areas of knowledge.

Parts of the original list date back to ancient Greece. By medieval times, the completed list had become central to educators and scholastics. The following remarkable woodblock print symbolically captures the relationship of knowledge to crafts.

This print is German from about AD 1500. It shows a goddess holding a book and a rod. She is called Wisdom or Sophia. The love of wisdom or the "philio of Sophia" is the meaning of the word Philosophy. We see Wisdoms lifeblood pouring into all of the arts and crafts drawn as young men. All knowledge is united in this illustration. Painters, architects, musicians, and soldiers receive Wisdom.

Proverbs 9:1 says, "Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn her out seven pillars." Religious scholars have long speculated upon the seven pillars of Wisdom. Wisdom is poured out to seven vocations or callings. Wisdom also is seen presiding over branches of knowledge.

This leads us to a second woodblock print, which also is German from about the same time. This one includes clear words representing the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. Once again a book and rod, symbols of a teacher, are held by a three-headed winged Wisdom. She oversees seven maidens.

In AD 420, Marcianus Capella in Carthage wrote an allegory of the Phoebus-Apollo, God of the Sun, presenting the Seven Liberal Arts as maids to his bride Philology, a lover of words. Thereafter, artists have illustrated the liberal arts and sciences as maids. The maids congregate around Wisdom. Knowledge is drawn within a circle. Above Wisdom are morals and theology. In the bottom corners are Aristotle and possibly Plato. But the central figures are the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The Winding Stair

Youth, manhood, and age are the three stages of our lives. Likewise, the three degrees of Masonry progress from youth to manhood to maturity. The EA degree builds a foundation of brotherly love, relief, and truth. The FC degree leads us toward successful manhood with an attentive ear, an

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instructive tongue, and a faithful breast. The MM degree teaches us, among other things, that time and patience will accomplish all things.

We advance in life as if we were climbing a winding stair. We cannot see too far ahead. Our progress requires courage to press on as we grow and mature. We first encounter the three steps in Masonry. Next, we master our five senses as we observe our world. And we climb the steps of the seven liberal arts and sciences. Likewise, education is a process of steps up a winding stair. First grade teaches us to read and write simple ideas. We progress up the steps of schooling to abstract concepts and ideas.

There must be many fields of knowledge that could have been listed: history, chemistry, or literature. Yet this list is commended to our consideration. Why "grammar"? Why "rhetoric"? We may well ask, "Why this list and not others?"

A History of the List

The phrase, the liberal arts, comes from the Latin artes liberales. Liber is translated both as Free and Book. Much of the well-educated in antiquity disliked work. If you were indentured as an apprentice, you were not free to study what you wanted. You had to do what was assigned to you. The artes illiberales were vocational studies aimed for an economic purpose, such as a being a stonemason. So it is intriguing that speculative Masonry encourages us to study the liberal arts and sciences.

The history of the seven liberal arts and sciences is intricate, but chiefly Pythagoras, Plato, and St. Augustine play key roles in framing it.

Pythagoras, illustrated above, was not only a great mathematician and philosopher, he was a master Greek theologian. His students in the Academy looked for connections between Geometry and the Divine. His disciples sought relationships in music, arithmetic, and astronomy. Pythagoras is associated with the last four in the list of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. Pythagoras was at his peak around 520 BC.

About BC 400, Plato wrote of the importance of education for citizens in The Republic. Plato (illustrated in a statue above) emphasized logic, philosophy, and dialectic. For Plato, logic represented our highest cognitive faculty. To see both sides of an argument,

the pro and the con, is to understand it.

St. Augustine of Hippo left behind 5 million words that still exist today. Though he lived in the third century AD, he was the greatest teacher of rhetoric in the known world. He held that if one wished to defend truth, one must be eloquent to refute falsehood through the power of oratory. He filled out the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences with his emphasis on grammar and rhetoric.

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An Orderly List

There is wisdom in the order of the items in the list. Teachers and scholastics have found these seven and their general order to be of great utility. Home-schoolers today are returning to this list to start with grammar and rhetoric in their education.

As infants, we are unable to speak. We must learn words to describe everything. Words organize our thoughts. Language is essential for learning. As we progress up the winding stairs, we learn to speak with eloquence and grace, which is rhetoric. We learn to use logic to make our arguments persuasive and true.

We advance up the lessons to higher levels of arithmetic, geometry, and music. These require abstract thinking and greater levels of concentration. As we mature in life, we gain perspective and wisdom as we enjoy the glorious works of creation, the stars and planets, astronomy, and the Divine. The order of these topics was developed over a thousand years. They continue to attract our attention today.

The Trivium

The Trivium comes from the Latin for Three Vias or roads. The first three of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences represent a crossroads or intersection where the public meets. We could call it the public square, where the public meets to discuss the usual topics of the day: the weather and harvest.

Those who excel at quickly remembering common experience are good at "trivia." Trivia is at the center of everyday knowledge. The Trivium consists of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic.

1. Grammar

In Genesis, the first job given to Adam is to name all things. Adam is told to name them and to have dominion over creation. Knowing the name of things gives a man authority to speak and to understand.

In elementary school or Grammar School we learn to recite the alphabet, numbers, and colors. Grammar involves words and meanings. The earliest lessons in speaking involve repetition and alliteration. We say tongue twisters and recite phrases to learn to speak. We say, "she sells sea shells by the seashore" as an articulation exercise. Children learn their own language as well as foreign languages. To learn another language, grammar and structure are essential.

Grammar can be divided into technical or exegetical grammar. Technical grammar is what most of us associate with the word grammar diagramming sentences with subjects and verbs. Grammar involves learning declensions for verbs and nouns. But exegetical grammar involves learning the meaning of words, their nuances, and how they fit in different settings.

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We learn that deferential language is appropriate to use for speaking to those in authority over us. We are told to keep a tongue of good report in the FC Charge. The FC historical lecture directs us to have an instructive tongue so that we become better men. Grammar teaches us to speak clearly and concisely.

2. Rhetoric

A synonym for rhetoric is persuasion. To study rhetoric is to study speaking and writing to persuade others. Too often we think of rhetoric as unimportant, as in the throwaway line, "well that was just a rhetorical comment." Rhetoric is serious business: it has substance. Rhetoric is essential in the study of law and regulations. Roscoe Pound, Albert Mackey, and Allen Roberts were some of the greatest writers on Masonic jurisprudence. They were marvelously persuasive writers as well.

Influential Romans learned to speak in public with fluency and oratory. Newly initiated Entered Apprentices are invited to speak in Lodge on whatever was on their hearts. Public speaking is terrifying to some: but to Freemasons, we learn both to speak to listen to others.

Rhetoric adds force and elegance to our thoughts. As we improve in rhetoric, we captivate the hearer with both the strength of our arguments and the beauty of our expression. Our mastery of rhetoric teaches us to entreat and exhort our brethren to acts of charity. Skillful rhetoric uses tact to admonish our brothers. Rhetoric weaves praise to applaud excellence in conduct or deportment.

Discussion in lodge gives us practice in listening to train the ear. As we climb the winding stairs, we must gain mastery of our five senses. One of the moral principals taught in the FC Degree is to have an attentive ear. Listening teaches us to hear the poetry of language and word order. We know somehow that Faith, Hope, and Charity sounds better than Charity, Faith, and Hope.

Lodge discussions offer opportunities to explore styles of learning. Our oaths and promises are heard and repeated. We prepare them in our posting. We listen to historic lectures, orations, or talks on speculative Masonry. The various tokens and grips in our ritual are lessons in listening. We are asked, will you be off or from? By listening we hear the word and give the proper reply. As we talk and listen to each other in lodge, we grow in appreciation of debate and exhortation. We are brothers speaking to and listening to one another.

3. Logic

Logic is the third step of the Trivium. Logic directs and guides us after truth. It consists of a regular train of argument where we deduce or infer from the facts. Logic leads us to conclusions based on our knowledge.

We use all of our faculties of conceiving, judging, reasoning, and disposing of questions before us. Logic trains the mind to think clearly. We are charged to be good men and true. Sincerity and plain dealing should distinguish any Mason.

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Dialectics is the term used to describe critical thinking. We weigh the pros and cons to find the better choice. We observe the world. As we see patterns and relationships, we begin to make predictions using inductive reasoning. Dialectics guides us to make proofs or syllogisms.

Early on, we find that you can disprove assertions easier than prove them. Reductio ad absurdum means to find a contradiction that proves the opposite. It is easy to disprove, "all elephants can fly," simply by finding one that cant. A single observation proves that, "not all elephants can fly."

The education of our minds includes proofs and deductive reasoning. We start to see actions that help one person may not help all. We learn to avoid arguments that something is true or false simply by who says it, instead of its inherent truth.

As we advance in logic, we begin to think about proofs for the existence of God. We see the beauty of an autumn leave, so intricate and perfect. The teleological proof of Gods existence is that design in nature proves that there must have been a designer, our

G.A.O.T.U.

Grammar, rhetoric, and logic are the trivium, or first three, of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. We are charged to polish and adorn the mind by studying them.

The Quadrivium

The Quadrivium is associated with science and learning the mysteries of the universe. Pythagoras is chiefly responsible for these four branches of science: arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

The Quadrivium means the Four Vias or paths. Where four roads converge is the center of the town or city. We leave the village of three roads and progress to the more advanced level of the city. A robust mind progresses as if upon roads or paths to the secrets of wisdom. A wise man strolls along the paths of science.

4. Arithmetic

Arithmetic involves computation or reckoning with numbers. Ignorance of numbers leaves many things unintelligible. To perceive the world accurately, we need facility with counting and measurement. Mathematics is taught step by step. We first learn to count before we learn to add and subtract. As a science, it is progressive by building skill and familiarity through frequent practice.

We develop abstract operations such as addition and multiplication. A number of Masonic writers have handed down a useful moral lesson: For the Freemason, the application of this science is to:

Add to your knowledge - Never subtract from the character of your neighbor

Multiple your benevolence to your fellow creatures & Divide your means with those in need.

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Arithmetic offers a structured system. In has rules, order, and operates in terms of equations. Balance and equality are principles learned in arithmetic that should remind us to act on the level.

There is beauty in arithmetic and mathematics. We discover symmetry and proportion. Numbers fascinates us. Leonardo Fibonacci in AD 1201 discovered that rabbits reproduced in a series of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 13. Ratios of any two successive numbers approach the Golden Mean, which is 1.618. The inverse of 1.618 is .618. The same digits reappear. The Parthenon was built on this same proportion of the length 161.8% of the height.

We feel awe and wonder at the beauty of mathematics. We find fractal patterns in biology, chemistry, and physics that are repeated. The Fibonacci spiral is found in conch shells

Mathematics shows that some propositions are right, and some are wrong. It indirectly teaches us about morality. There is no moral relativity here.

5. Geometry

Geometry concatenates geo and metric, or earth measurement, within it. Geometry discovers unmeasured areas by comparing them to areas already measured. Geometry is synonymous with self-knowledge, the understanding of the basic substance of our being. Freemasonry places special emphasis on geometry.

The tools of geometry are plumbs, squares, and levels. They are the basic tools of operative Masons. We use them in speculative Masonry to teach lessons of right-behavior, rectitude, and truthfulness. Our conductor in the FC degree leads us much like the apprentice is led by a Master of his trade.

The sense of seeing is developed in Geometry. We grow in perceiving which structures are in order and which ones are not well arranged. We acknowledge that geometric is the foundation of architecture.

6. Music

Music is the sixth of the seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. Pythagoras and his followers were keen on studying music as a science.

Music is part of us. Our heartbeat is the basic pattern, with sounds ranging from the first cry of a newborn baby to our last gasp for breath. The sense of hearing is improved, so that we recognize ditties and rhythms and syncopation. Clapping and singing are part of who were are as humans.

Vibrations cause sounds. Pitch is determined by the frequency of the vibrations. We learn to hear major, minor, and chromatic scales. We attempt to match the pitch of the lead singer. It takes discipline, but we achieve harmony. Many have sought to hear the sounds of the universe in radio frequency. Whole pieces of music have been dedicated to the music of the spheres. The Senior Warden is sometimes associated with this Science, as the Warden asks for harmony in the Lodge.

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7. Astronomy

Astronomy is last in this list of Arts and Sciences as we contemplate the stars and planets, and yes, the G.A.O.T.U.

Time and space seem to dwarf us. We feel tiny as we look at the Milky Way. Often it is said that the Fear of God is the Beginning of Wisdom. Looking at the universe helps to instill both fear and a sense of the glory of the universe.

The globes in the Lodge teach us to understand the rotation of the earth around the sun and the diurnal rotation of the earth. Daylight shrinks in the days before December 22nd, and then begins to lengthen. We observe this. Times and seasons are understood by contemplating astronomy.

A Charge in the Liberal Arts and Sciences

The Seven Liberal Arts & Sciences are branches of Wisdom or Learning. If we are to become better men, we should work on becoming better able to understand our world. These seven are key to learning other areas of knowledge including history and psychology. These branches are like rooms in a magnificent garden in which we should daily stroll.

There is a charge to us in these seven steps. That charge for us is to continue to be learners. Our education doesn't stop in high school or college. We are to continue to read classic literature, the Bible, biographies, history. We should see ourselves as life-long learners.

We should better comprehend the use of music, plays, and art in our lives. We should use math and geometry. We need to continue even with the Trivium to expand our vocabulary and practice writing. As we persevere in learning throughout our lives, we will become better men in Masonry.

*** UPCOMING THIRD DEGREE ***

Our 3RD DEGREE is scheduled for Thursday, December 17th. The Degree will be starting at 6pm with dinner in between the different sections. This is also a special evening as will be having Most Worshipful Grand Master John R. Gann visiting our Lodge. We hope you will come down, support the Lodge and enjoy a great evening of degree work and comradery. Haven’t been here for a while? Not to worry our Deacons Brothers, Al and Matt are here to help as are all of the officers.

May the sun bring you new energy by day, May the moon softly restore you by night,

May the rain wash away your worries, May the breeze blow new strength into your being,

May you walk gently through the world and know it’s beauty all the days of your life.

- Apache Blessing

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Words of Wisdom from Bro. Benjamin Franklin

“Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.”

More Humor There's a man, walking down the street at 1 in the morning and he's very drunk. A policeman stops him and asks: Where are you going in that condition? Man: II'mm on mmyy waayyy to a lectttuurre on FFreemmassonnrrry. Officer: Where can you possibly get a lecture on Freemasonry at this time of night? Man: Frromm mmyy wifffe, wwhenn I gget homme! How are freeways and Freemasonry alike?

They both provide a pathway to where you want to go.

More Humor Thinking outside the box

answers on page 15

1: If there are 3 apples and you take away 2, how many do you have?

2: What starts with the letter “t”, is filled with “t” and ends in “t”?

3: You walk into a room with a match, a kerosene lamp, a candle, and a fireplace. Which do you light first?

4: What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?

5: How many months have 28 days? 6. What has hands but cannot clap? 7. I’m tall when I’m young and I’m

short when I’m old. What am I?

Brothers, This newsletter has one large article that is located on http://masoniceducation.com that I found to be interesting. And as our newest Brothers have just completed their Fellow Craft degree I believed that this article will provide information for contemplation and will enlighten the readers. Please remember that I am always looking for submissions for the newsletter to share papers that you may find or that you have written. Maybe a note for the Lodge. Fraternally, Shawn Carrick, Editor

Pancakes & Santa & KIDS ID Oh My!

December 12th from 8:30 to

noon

Please let others know about this great event

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Match the person to their famous quote

A. Eleanor Roosevelt, B. Mahatma Gandhi, C. Dale Carnegie, D. Mark Twain, E. Vince Lombardi

____ 1. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”

____ 2. “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”

____ 3. “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

____ 4. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

____ 5. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”

St. John The Evangelist - published on http://www.la-mason.com/john-the-evangelist/ Prepared by W:B: C. B. Griggs, PM, J. C. Stewart Lodge No. 460.

In a previous treatise I gave my understanding of the Saints John, with particular emphasis on St. John the Baptist. I will attempt to do the same for the other St. John, by giving equal attention to the day in December (27th) that is a part of our Masonic calendar. By this date, we must install all officers for the ensuing year. A special dispensation is required to install later than Dec. 27th.

We might identify this John as O. J. (Other John) but this might be misleading as to the true nature of John. We could call him J. R. (John the Revelator) but that too would be misleading. So, let’s just call him by how we first meet him in our Rule and Guide. Let us also examine his true nature and accomplishments to understand why our ancestors accepted him as one of our patron Saints of Masonry.

We first find John in the Gospel of Mark 1:16-20. We find that John responded to the call of “Follow me” without hesitation. He did so without excuses, without asking what were the benefits, without asking if he were “good enough”, and without any alibi to shirk the

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call. As we consider this act, let us ask ourselves, how many times we were called before we responded (I am assuming all have answered the call).

We further find that John the Apostle came to be among the top three of the twelve in their close relationship with Jesus. We also note that he was known as “the beloved” and “the one whom Jesus loved.” John was chosen to participate in many important events in the ministry of Jesus, one of them being at the crucifixion of Jesus. At this point in The Gospel (19:26) of John we find that Jesus saw both his mother and John nearby, and placed his mother in the care of John. To get a true picture, imagine that you, as a reader or listener, are leaving on an extended absence. You wish to place your mother in a situation in which you could be assured of her safety and well being. What kind of person would you entrust with this responsibility? Do you know of one at first thought? This describes the true nature of John the Apostle.

In Acts of the Apostles, 1:13 and 8:14 we find this John acting in carrying out the Great Commission, that of establishing the Church. He must have displayed the fortitude necessary to continue steadfast in this mission, as he was banished to the Island of Patmos by the Roman Emperor Dominican for his continued work in the early Church. Here again, he probably could have avoided exile had he violated his principles.

In his writings and epistles, we find that John deals with the central theme of the Christian faith; that is, the eternal and steadfast love of God the Creator to his creation. This love is not conditional, nor is it terminal. Time and space does not permit us to properly describe this St. John as he relates to Masonry. However, to me, any description would not be complete without a short look at one of the most important aspects of his apostleship. That is, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, as revealed to John while in exile on the island of Patmos. As we are taught, God created order in six days and consecrated the seventh as a day of rest and worship. We find that John is given the revelation as he was “in the spirit on the Lord’s day” (Rev. 1:10), meaning that he was in close communion with God on the Sabbath day. What was revealed to John? A brief summary would be to say that God allowed him a sneak peek at “the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” This allowed John to tell his readers some of the joys awaiting us at the end of our journey.

This brief description of John the Apostle makes me proud that our founding fathers chose this St. John to share equal claim to the Patron Saints of Masonry. Masonry is stronger by our affiliation with him and will continue to be strong as long as we identify our fraternity with him.

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Bethel 16 2nd & 4th Sunday 3:00 pm Masonic Center 200 E Plato St. Paul, MN Wanda Thompson onederful_wanda@yahoo.com

LINCOLN DEMOLAY 1ST & 3RD Thursday 7:00 PM Masonic Center 200 E Plato St. Paul, MN Rique Beslin riquebeslin@frontiernet.net

Lodge of Sorrow Born Initiated Passed Raised Celestial Lodge

Bro. Paul Houska 08/22/1935 03/27/1957 04/04/1957 04/25/1957 09/24/2015 John H Johnson 03/06/1923 06/04/1959 06/18/1959 10/03/1959 09/27/2015

Your Ad could be here!

For rates contact editor@montgomerylodge.com

Answers to thinking outside the box: 1: If you take two apples, than you have of course two. 2: A teapot3: The match. 4: A Towel. 5: All 12 months. 6. A clock. 7. A candle.

Match the person to their quote: a. Eleanor Roosevelt #3, b. Mahatma Gandhi #4, c. Dale Carnegie #1, d. Mark Twain #5, e. Vince Lombardi #2

The time is always right to come to Lodge no matter how long it has been. We look forward to seeing you

“The first rule of management is delegation. Don't try and do everything yourself because you can't.”

- Anthea Turner

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Support those that help to support the Lodge’s great and good works

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