Bartlett Lodge has been making good men better since 1850.
What's a Mason?
That's not a surprising question. Even though Masons (Freemasons) are members of the largest and oldest fraternity in the world and even though almost everyone has a father or grandfather or uncle who was a Mason, many people aren't quite certain just who Masons are.
The answer is simple. A Mason (or Freemason) is a member of a fraternity known as Masonry (or Freemasonry). A fraternity is a group of men (just as a sorority is a group of women) who join together because:
· There are things they want to do in the world.
· There are things they want to do "inside their own minds."
· They enjoy being together with men they like and respect.
Masonry does things in the world.
Masonry teaches that each person has a responsibility to make things better in the world. Most individuals won't be the ones to find a cure for cancer, or eliminate poverty, or help create world peace, but every man and woman and child can do something to help others and to make things a little better. Masonry is deeply involved with helping people-it spends more than $1.4 million dollars every day in the United States, just to make life a little easier. And the great majority of that help goes to people who are not Masons.
Some of these charities are vast projects, like the Shriners Hospitals for Children and Burns Institutes. Also, Scottish Rite Masons maintain a nationwide network of over 100 Childhood Language Disorders Clinics, Centers and Programs. Each helps children afflicted by such conditions as aphasia, dyslexia, stuttering and related learning or speech disorders.
Some services are less noticeable, like helping a widow pay her electric bill or buying coats and shoes for disadvantaged children. And there's just about anything you can think of in-between. But with projects large or small, the Masons of a lodge try to help make the world a better place. The lodge gives them a way to combine with others to do even more good.
Masonry does things "inside" the individual Mason.
"Grow or die" is a great law of all nature. Most people feel a need for continued growth as individuals. They feel they are not as honest or as charitable or as compassionate or as loving or as trusting or as well informed as they ought to be. Masonry reminds its members over and over again of the importance of these qualities and education. It lets men associate with other men of honor and integrity who believe that things like honesty, compassion, love, trust and knowledge are important. In some ways, Masonry is a support group for men who are trying to make the right decisions. It's easier to practice these virtues when you know that those around you think they are important, too, and won't laugh at you. That's a major reason that Masons enjoy being together.
Masons enjoy each other's company.
It's good to spend time with people you can trust completely, and most Masons find that in their lodge. While much of lodge activity is spent in works of charity or in lessons in self-development, much is also spent in fellowship. Lodges have picnics, camping trips and many events for the whole family. Simply put, a lodge is a place to spend time with friends.
For members only, two basic kinds of meetings take place in a lodge. The most common is a simple business meeting. To open and close the meeting, there is a ceremony whose purpose is to remind us of the virtues by which we are supposed to live. Then there is a reading of the minutes; voting on petitions (applications of men who want to join the fraternity); planning for charitable functions, family events and other lodge activities; and sharing information about members (called "Brothers," as in most fraternities) who are ill or have some sort of need. The other kind of meeting is one in which people join the fraternity one at which the "degrees" are performed.
But every lodge serves more than its own members. Frequently, there are meetings open to the public. Examples are Ladies' Nights, "Brother Bring a Friend Nights," public installations of officers, cornerstone laying ceremonies and other special meetings supporting community events and dealing with topics of local interest.
Cement Trowel
"…... symbolically for the far more noble and glorious "purpose" of spreading the cement of Brotherly Love and Affection." Here the educated Brother associates the mortar used in a building with those truly Masonic virtues, Brotherly Love and Affection. It seems quite certain that our Brother realizes that these Masonic attributes must not merely be word pictures, pleasing to our senses, but that if our Masonic structure is to endure, the Brotherly Love and Affection which cements it together must be as solid, sturdy and durable as rock.
As the rock of which the Operative Mason's cement mortar is composed, it must be devoid of all impurities as if tested by fire, clean as by the continuous washing by the waters of life, and joined into one binding and abiding cement by the life we so willing share with our Brother.
The trowel may be worn and discarded, the Master Mason may have joined the Celestial Lodge above, but the cement they together have spread lives on forever and is the cement to which the ritualistic refers when he says: "(the cement) which unites us into one sacred band or society of friends and brothers--a Temple of living stones, among whom no contention should ever exist, save that noble contention, or rather emulation, of who can best work and best agree."
Joining The Freemasons:
If you are not already a Freemason, perhaps you are interested in becoming a Free Mason. Joining Freemasons betters most mens' lives...no matter their income level, their religion, (Freemasonry accepts men from all religions) nor what country around the world in which they live.
Freemasonry truly does make good men, better.
If you would like to join the fraternity, contact a lodge near you, the Grand Lodge in your state or country,...or if you see men wearing Masonic emblem clothing, such as Masonic shirts, Masonic hats... Masonic Rings or a vehicle with Masonic auto emblems, ...simply ask him if he is a Freemason and request information about Freemason membership.
