| Los Altos Lodge No. 712: | Last Updated on August 29, 2000 |
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This stated meeting on September 11th Los Altos Lodge will have three of our members celebrate 50 years as a Mason and receive their Golden Veterans Award. The awards will be presented by Wor. Dan McDaniel, our District Inspector, on behalf of the Grand Master of Freemasons in California. This is especially interesting because we have only been a lodge for 49 1/2 years, so obviously all 50-year members affiliated with Los Altos Lodge. I have always felt it was a nice feeling to see that Masons want to affiliate with my lodge. That means we must be doing something right!
Please mark in your calendar Monday September 25th. We will be conferring the Hiram Award on Wor. Richard Rosenberg, who has served not only as Master of our Lodge, but also as Master of California Lodge No. 1 in San Francisco. On that evening we also will have Bro. Maury Dunbar give us an interesting story relating to our U. S. Constitution.
At our October Stated meeting Monday October 2nd we will have the pleasure to have as our guest speaker Chief Lisa Carleton, who is the Chief of Police of Los Altos. Please feel free to invite friends and guests, but be sure to let our Junior Warden know so we can plan for enough food to feed everybody.
Now also is the time to start thinking about attending the Annual Communication in San Francisco, October 8th through October 11th. Many have already planned to attend. It is important to contact our Secretary Richard Rosenberg to obtain your credentials. Do it now, and avoid those last minute headaches!
I want to congratulate Wor. Bill Malmstrom for personally putting on a very tasty steak and chicken BBQ dinner for our Lodge last August 21.
Finally, be sure to mark your calendar for the Grand Master's Reception on Sunday October 15th, at the San Jose Masonic Center (on the "Hill"). Festivities start at 3:30 P.M. Tickets are only $10 for a steak dinner with all the trimmings. Western style wear and theme and live Western music! Come and meet your new Grand Master, and many of the newly installed Grand Lodge Officers, too. This year Los Altos Lodge has the honor to be the host, so we are planning a really fun day!
Fraternally
Robert W. Martin, P.M.
Master
I hope to see more of you, your wives and families at the stated meeting dinners as summer winds down.
Fraternally,
Bob Lake
On Sept 25 Los Altos will be presenting this years HIRAM AWARD, to our very own RICHARD ROSENBERG, PM. Richard was Master in 1996 and is our current Secretary. Dinner is at 6:30 pm and we are inviting all the brethren to participate.
Also on the same evening Bro. Maury Dunbar will address all present about our constitution in honor of Constitution Observence month. Please attend and help make this a memorable evening for Brother Rosenberg, his family and our Lodge.
For those planning in attending, the dinner for the night will be: Swiss Steak, Potatoes, Salad and Apple pie and Ice Cream. The cost will be $10 per person.
Please make your reservations with our JW as if it were for a stated meeting.
Brethren On Sept 11 the following brothers will receive their 50 year awards.
Bro. Carroll Wesley Corliss, 3/28/50, Bro. Richard Lawrence Hayes, 9/8/50, and Bro. Charles E. Sebley 2/18/50.
All brethren and their families are invited to attend and participate in this highly honored event.
2000 Grand Lodge Communication
To those brethren that wish to attend the October 2000 Annual Communication of Grand Lodge in San Francisco on October 8 through 12. You must contact our Secretary ASAP so that he may provide you with credentials in time.
This year Los Altos is honored to be the host at the Grand Masters Reception to be held in San Jose on October 15th at the San Jose Masonic Center.
This year just like last year, the attire is casual or western, as you may prefer. The menu is in accordance to the attire, western style BBQ. The cost is $10 per person. Contact our JW for reservations.
Please make your reservation early and let Los Altos open the Year for our new Grand Master.
Initiation into St. Omar Priory
Congratulations to Jason A. Martin and Christian M. Martin who were initiated into the St. Omar Priory Chapter in Las Vegas, Nevada last Month. Any DeMolay boy who is at least seventeen years old, and any Man who was a DeMolay as a boy, can apply for membership. I traveled to Las Vegas with Jason and Christian and saw them "Knighted" in a beautiful and very rarely seen ritual. In case you were wondering what a Prior does - it's members support DeMolay and continue the fine traditions of Masonic youth. There are only 15 remaining Priories in the United States, and the only one west of the Mississippi River is locate in Las Vegas.
Robert Martin, PM
A "Lodge of the Saints John In Jerusalem"
We ask: Whence come you?... and the answer is: from a lodge of Saints John in Jerusalem. That phrase is exactly the same in the oldest rituals in Masonry and in today's ritual.
In all the countries that use the Scottish Rite in the first three degrees (Latin America, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, most of the African countries, and Israel) these celebrations are obligatory Masonic Feasts. The most significant is St. John the Baptist (June 24) because it coincides with the anniversary of the foundation of the Grand Lodge in London in 1717, and the Summer Solstice. The one for St. John Evangelist comes on December 27 and is also a celebration of the Winter Solstice, a custom that comes from ancient mysteries to thank God for Earth's bounty and for the rebirth of Earth's life. Until the early 1900s, the Feast of St. John was celebrated with public parades in full regalia, religious services in churches and special banquets with toasts. If you look at the old California and Hawaii papers you will find announcements calling the brothers to these celebrations. What has happened to this custom? Gone with declining interest in Masonic study and tradition! I guess.
Why the Saints John and not, for instance, St. Thomas the patron of architecture? The basic idea comes from the celebration of festivals in ancient rites in observance of equinoxes and solstices. All the ancient mysteries introduced in their festivals, some forms of astronomical features and their vital influence upon the rotation of the seasons that they could not explain, but could feel, see and live with. They identified those natural occurrences with the names of their Gods.
The Roman pagans celebrated Ceres, as the goddess of agriculture, and in Egypt there was the allegory of Isis, Osiris and Horus. Among the ancients, every statue, temple, altar or sacred place was dedicated to some divinity. It was then part of the natural process of changes that when Christians began influencing the life of the people and replacing the pagan customs for Christian features, they also looked for new names to replace the old ones. By the fourth century the church was celebrating festivals with names of apostles and saints. Saints John were there to celebrate the birth of the Baptist in Midsummer on June 24th and the death of the Evangelist on December 27th.
Operative Masons were essentially Christians in Europe and dedicated their guilds to some patron saint. St. John the Baptist was the most popular among them. He was also referred to as the "seeker of light". We know that the Masters of Comocino at Lake Como in Italy, whom several authors attribute the origin of Masonry, chose St. John who became the patron saint of that city that still today celebrates the festival with great pomp and enjoyment. Operatives began to adopt the Baptist but it is known that some guilds began celebrating two festivals and the second one was dedicated to the Evangelist.
The Charter of Cologne (one of the first documents of organized Operative Masonry) in the 1500s indicates that every year a feast was held in honor of St. John, the patron of the community. So we can see that when Masonry as we know it today, was organized in 1717, there were long established paths leading to the celebration of a St. John Festival. This is why they chose June 24th (St. John's Day) to create the Grand Lodge of London in 1717. The Evangelist came naturally as a completion of the whole idea to revive our thanks to God and the celebration of the shortest and longest day.
The Saints John Festivals are opportunities to rejoice, remember our ancient past, and look toward the future. They are celebrated in two parts. First the meeting at the lodges where the two Saints John are discussed. Then comes dinner with the obligatory toasts where the Apprentices serve the table, as in olden times, and full of fraternal spirit. Toasts are made for the country and its government, for the Grand Lodge and its Grand Master and, finally, for the visiting brethren and for all Masons on earth. A real Masonic Festival for Masons only. A very different Masonry from today's practices
Historically the medieval operative craft guilds guarded their trade secrets by posting a sentry outside the meeting place. From a Masonic perspective the Tyler continued this "guarding" tradition. In the 1723 Constitution he was referred to as "another brother to look after the door, but shall not be a member of it." The English Grand Lodge in 1728 described him as an "officer who kept the door.
The early tilers wore very colorful clothing. The Grand Lodge Tiler of 1736 was described as wearing a red waistcoat under a dark blue coat trimmed with gold lace, yellow trousers and a large triangular hat, which he wore in public, as when delivering summonses or in processions. The Tiler is a Master Mason, usually a Past Master, who is respected and well-informed in Masonic law and custom. He need not be a member of the Lodge, but if so, has the right to debate and vote. He is a one-man welcoming committee for visitors, giving them the first and most important impression of his Lodge. He assures that members and visitors sign the "Tiler's Register."
His classic duties included the preparation and service of notices and summonses. He had the key to the apron box and was in charge of the Lodge's possessions, arranging them properly for upcoming meetings and securing them afterwards. The special "Tilers knock" signals the Lodge already in session that a qualified Brother requests admission. He will refuse entry to anyone whom he does not personally recognize or who cannot be properly, vouched for by another Brother.
Since we learn the value of proper preparation and the virtue of caution from the Tiler, then each of us should, in a way, be our own tiler.
Let us tile ourselves when recommending and investigating candidates. Let us tile our discussions about the ritual. Let us tile the business discussed in Lodge, especially that which relates to our members and
candidates. Let us tile our words and actions to foster harmony, as this will not only preserve our own integrities and reputations, but also that of our beloved Fraternity.
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