From The South

All of our hard work paid off last month, and we very successfully initiated Brother Yuri into our Fraternity.  I congratulate the officers on their excellent work, and especially those filling new positions for the first time: Brs. Irving and Alaeddin!  I thank all of the brethren in attendance — we had a great turnout for that important milestone in Br. Yuri’s Masonic journey, and I was very pleased to see so many brethren enjoying fellowship (and dessert) upstairs following the conferral.  It was a truly memorable evening in our pursuit of Brotherly Love.

June Activities

Our June Stated Meeting will be on the 6th.  You and your family are invited to join us for dinner before the meeting.  We will be enjoying a salad, roasted chicken, and dessert for only $5.  Please RSVP with Annie by Friday, June 2.

This month’s District School of Instruction will be hosted by Phoenix Lodge on Monday, June 8, and is focusing on the first section of the Master Mason degree.  Attendance is mandatory for all officers, and highly encouraged for all of our Master Masons.

We will host an open practice on the 13th.  We foresee another 1st degree conferral in our near future, in addition to raising Br. Alaeddin to the sublime degree within the coming months.  This practice will be a great opportunity to brush up on some of the fundamentals of our ritual work, as well as a chance for some of our members to sit down with their mentors and work on their degree proficiencies.  

Join us on the 20th for dinner and a screening of the film Contractor’s Routine.  This drama/thriller film was produced, directed and written by Yuri, our newest Entered Apprentice.  After the screening, we’ll have the opportunity to discuss the themes of the film while enjoying dessert and fellowship.  This is a unique opportunity to witness the artistic talents of a brother within our very own lodge!

Our Summer Table Lodge will be on the 27th.  Join us as we celebrate not only the Feast of St. John the Baptist (a traditional day of great significance among Masons), but also the 300th anniversary of the founding of the very first Masonic grand lodge!  All Masons are invited to join us as we break bread, deliver warming toasts, contemplate thought-provoking readings on Masonic history, and revel in jovial fellowship among the Brethren of Golden Gate Speranza Lodge.  Reservations are absolutely necessary to ensure that we have enough food for everyone.  Please submit your reservation online (at: www.ggs30.org/summertablelodge) or by contacting me immediately.

July Activities

July will be a short month, as the 4th falls on a Tuesday this year.  July 4th will be the only dark Tuesday this year.  Please enjoy the evening with friends and family, and join us the following week for our Stated Meeting.

Our July Stated Meeting will be on the 11th.  You and your family are invited to join us for dinner before the meeting.  We will be enjoying a salad, swiss steak, and dessert for only $5.  Please RSVP with Annie by Friday, July 7.

We’ll be hosting a Prospects Night on the 18th.  This will be a great opportunity to meet some of the men interested in joining our Fraternity and to share your own Masonic experience.  Dinner will be served at 6:30 P.M., followed by an informational presentation on both our Fraternity in general, as well as our lodge in particular.

Our July Lodge of Education will be on the 25th.  As always, we’ll have a great meal, tasty beverages, rousing toasts, and (most importantly) thoughtful presentations and discussions on topics of Masonic interest.  May’s Lodge of Education featured presentations on the theme of “The Circumpunct” (also known as that “certain point within a circle ... supported by two perpendicular parallel lines”), including presentations by our own Br. Luis Martinez, as well as a guest presenter: Br. Rich Campbell of Pacific Starr-King Lodge.  This month’s Lodge of Education promises to be another thought-provoking addition to our Masonic Education program, and an exciting opportunity to further our philosophical, ethical, and spiritual development.  Please RSVP via the Lodge App, or by calling or emailing me by the preceding Friday.

If you have any questions, or have any suggestions for Tuesday evening activities (or even just meal/beverage preferences), please feel free to contact me.  We’ve been very happy with the growing level of participation at our lodge, and that’s all possible because of the feedback we receive from our brethren.  Let us know how we can improve your Masonic experience.

Fraternally,

Michael Ramoneda
Junior Warden

From The West

This month due to space limitation, I will deviate from my serial articles on U.S. Presidents who were Masons to Alexander the Great, best known as the mighty Macedonian Conqueror of the ancient world. Alexander was born in Pella, Macedonia (now Greece) in 356 B.C., and died of Malaria at age 33 in Babylon in June 323 B.C.

On his death bed, Alexander summoned his army generals and told them his three ultimate wishes:

1. The best doctors should carry his coffin......
2. The wealth he has accumulated (money, gold, precious gems) should be scattered along the procession to the cemetery......
3. His hands should be let loose so they hang outside the coffin for all to see......!!

One of his generals, surprised by these unusual requests, asked Alexander to explain. Here is what he had to say:

1. “I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate that in the face of death, even the best doctors in the world would have no power to heal.”
2. “I want the road to be covered with my treasures so that everybody sees that material wealth acquired on earth will stay on earth.”
3. “I want my hands to swing in the wind so that people understand that we come to this world empty handed and we leave this world empty handed after the most precious treasure of all is exhausted.... and that is TIME.”

I don’t know how true this is, but it is correct in theory. We do not take to our grave any material wealth.

TIME is our most precious treasure because it is LIMITED. We can produce more wealth, but we cannot produce more time. When we give someone our time, we actually give a portion of our life that we will never take back. Our time is our life!

The best present that you can give to your family and friends is your undivided TIME and attention. May God grant YOU plenty of TIME to share with all, especially you Fathers!

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

Sincerely,
Vrej Mekhalian, PM
Senior Warden

From The East

In the previous article I reflected about our brethren who lived and worked in Masonry many hundreds of years ago, and what it would have been like to live at that time—a time when there was not much daily pressure, as we know it, and a time when there was operative Masonry, not speculative.

I now go back through time and put myself there. Being just raised to Master Mason, I feel I could find work in Egypt, Rome, Venice, Athens, Jerusalem, the Isle of Rhodes, and many other places. As a Master Mason I could work on colossea, aqueducts, fountains, or statues. I like Venice, but will select Jerusalem so I can work on the Temple of Solomon.

Most noticeable in going back in time is the few people that are there and the way they live. The population has not expanded; the industrial revolution is hundreds of years away, so there is no electricity or other inventions and pleasures that go with the industrial age. There are few really solid homes—mostly tents inside and outside the walls of the city. Everywhere during the day there is lots of dust and smoke from the household fires; look at all the camels and donkeys—such filthy beasts! There is no indoor plumbing and running water. When I ask where something is—this or that—the people don’t know what I am talking about, as though I were speaking a foreign language. I can understand that. If they only knew what their descendants will have in the future.

It’s about 5:00 in the morning, just before sunrise; there are no electric lights, so I will have to rub sticks together or use flint to get a flame to light the oil lamp. No alarm clock; the rooster is sick. No shaving or showering at home, and no coffee at the office. No freeway to tie up traffic, that’s a relief. I live about a half mile outside the city, where there is a beautiful view of the valleys and hillsides, but it’s such an ordeal getting from the suburbs since public transportation doesn’t run by my tent.

But now, becoming a Master Mason, I will be able to afford a house inside the walls of the city and move out of the family tent, where all the aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers and their children live. Just think, we will be able to move to the safety of a house inside the city walls, a house of our own where my mother and father, my wife’s mother and father, and our four children will live.

The white rock for the house came from the local quarry. The house will have a courtyard and oval fire kiln for baking our bread. It will also have a kitchen and one other room; such luxury—all my hard work seems to be paying off. My wife is now preparing my lunch; she has taken some bread and formed it into a pocket, and is filling it with small pieces of lamb, corn, dates and walnuts. She spices it with some wine, pepper, oregano, rose petals, and saffron. I have just gathered together my tools: square, compass, level, setting maul, and straight edge. Now off to work.

As I enter the city the gate is open and as usual guards are stationed at the entrance watching the crowd. This is interesting; there is now an Avis rent–a-camel station by the South gate; they will give Hertz’ donkey and horses a run for the developing travel business. Maybe in a few years I will be able to afford a used camel or donkey. As I move through the narrow streets, I see so many new bazaars.  Caravans from China, Turkey, India and Greece crowd the streets, not to mention the imports from Japan.

I am now walking down the Via Dolorosa where the stones making up the walkway are so large (about 2’ by 3’) and they are so clean. Just think: in future years every time the city is ransacked and destroyed and then rebuilt there will be another 10 feet of sand, dirt, dust, bricks, burned wood, and other rubble on top of this walkway—where I now stand. All that future historians will have to do is to dig down; every 10 feet down will be another civilization. Many artifacts will be intact, recording which group of people occupied the city and showing how we lived, what we ate, and what we did.

I am now joining the workmen as we come close to the Temple. Rounding the corner—yes, there it is. It’s not completed but it is beautiful and should last for thousands years.

I ran out of time again so it looks like it will be the next issue before I get to work and finish this voyage through time.

Fraternally,
Henry T. Dosdorian, Jr., P.M
Master

From The South

Fraternal Greetings, Brethren!

May is a month of beginnings and endings.  As always, we begin the month with our monthly business meeting.  Following that, much of this month will be dedicated to perfecting our ritual for the first degree, culminating in the initiation of a new brother Mason.  Finally, we’ll close out this month’s labors with this year’s third Lodge of Education.

Our May Stated Meeting will be on the 2nd.  You and your family are invited to join us for dinner before the meeting.  We will be enjoying a salad, meatloaf, and dessert for only $5.  Please RSVP with Annie by Friday, April 28.

This month’s District School of Instruction will be hosted by Pacific Starr-King Lodge on Monday, May 8.  Attendance is mandatory for all officers, and highly encouraged for all of our Fellowcraft and Master Masons.

We will be practicing our first degree ritual on the 9th and the 16th in preparation for Yuri’s initiation into our Fraternity.  Our degree team has been working hard to provide a memorable experience, and we’re proud to have a bunch of members performing new roles for the first time.  All Masons and prospective members are invited to join for our meal at 6:30 P.M., though only Masons may remain for the practice that follows.  

We’re excited to be initiating Yuri Tsapayev into our Fraternity on May 23rd.  All Masons are invited to witness this important day in his Masonic career.  We’ll enjoy a celebratory dinner at 6:30 P.M., followed by the conferral of Yuri’s first degree beginning at 7:30 P.M.  It’s not often that we get to see a friend of our Lodge become a brother, and we hope to see many of you in attendance.  

We’ll be hosting our May Lodge of Education on the 30th.  As always, we’ll have a great meal, tasty beverages, rousing toasts, and (most importantly) thoughtful presentations and discussions on topics of Masonic interest.  Last month’s Lodge of Education featured presentations on the theme of “The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences” — a topic of special importance to Fellowcraft Masons, and of general use to all Masons wishing to further both their education and how they interact with the world around them.  This month’s Lodge of Education promises to be another memorable addition to our Masonic Education program, and an exciting opportunity to further our philosophical, ethical, and spiritual development.  Please RSVP via the Lodge App, or by calling or emailing me by the preceding Friday.

I end my article on a bittersweet note: our very own Worshipful Brother Ed Sadler will be moving East to Virginia toward the end of the month.  While we’re very excited for him as he embarks on this new adventure, we’ll very much miss his presence on Tuesday nights.  Ed has invested an incredible abundance of time and effort into our Lodge during his time here, from executing a busy calendar of Masonic events seemingly effortlessly, to happily and expertly performing any role required on our degree team.  Ed has been both a mentor and a Masonic role-model for me, and I’ve been able to count on his good counsel to point me in the right direction during my entire Masonic career.  I simply cannot imagine my personal Masonic journey thus far having been as rewarding or memorable without his presence and influence.  We wish him well on this new chapter in his life, and we look forward to him visiting in the future.  To quote the Tiler’s Toast oft repeated at our Lodges of Education and Table Lodges: “Happy to meet.  Sorry to part.  Happy to meet again.”  Good luck in all your travels, Brother Ed!

Fraternally,
Michael Ramoneda
Junior Warden

From The South

March was a blast!  I’d like to offer many congratulations to Brother Alaeddin on being passed to the degree of Fellowcraft — his hard work as an Entered Apprentice really paid off, and we’re happy to see him continue on his journey.  I’d also like to thank everyone for all of the help we received to make this year’s first table lodge a success.

Our April Stated Meeting will be on the 4th.  You and your family are invited to join us for dinner before the meeting.  We will be enjoying a salad, salmon, and dessert for only $5.  Please RSVP with Annie by Friday, March 31.

Our Lodge will be hosting this month’s district school of instruction on the 11th.  Our district inspector will be teaching us about the 2nd degree.  All Fellowcraft and Master Masons are invited to join us for refreshment, followed by instruction.

On the 18th, We’ll be practicing our 1st-degree conferral for Yuri Tsapayev.  Attendance is mandatory for officers, and very much encouraged for all of our Brethren.  Yuri is a great addition to our Lodge, and we’re very excited to be initiating him into our Fraternity in May.

This month’s Lodge of Education will be held on the 25th.  Our January Lodge of Education was well-loved by the numerous Brethren in attendance, including visitors from two other lodges.  We enjoyed a fantastic 5-course meal prepared by Brothers Keith Gabriel and Ray Zerbib, participated in thought-provoking presentations on the topics of “Making Good Men Better” and “Symbolism of the Craft” (by our own Worshipful Brothers Luis Martinez and Ed Sadler, as well as Brother Irving Sambolin), and reveled in the seven ceremonial toasts.  This month’s Lodge of Education is shaping up to be another memorable night, so be sure to call or email me to reserve a seat as early as possible.

As a final note, I’d like to extend special thanks to Brother Keith Gabriel for the tremendous effort he invested behind-the-scenes to make the table lodge run smoothly.  We’re sad to bid him farewell this month as he makes his annual trip overseas, but we look forward to his return toward the end of the year.  Travel well, Brother!

Fraternally,

Michael Ramoneda
Junior Warden