PARENTHESES

I Congratulate you on your admission into the most ancient and perhaps the most respectable Society in the universe. To you the mysteries of Masonry are about to be revealed, and so bright a sun never shed its lustre on your eyes. In this awful moment, when prostrate at this holy altar, do you not shudder at every crime, and have you not confidence in every virtue? May this reflection inspire you with the noble sentiments; may you be penetrated with a religious abhorrence of every vice that degrades the dignity of human nature; and may you feel the elevation of the soul which scorns a dishonourable action, and ever invites to the practice of piety and virtue!

These are the wishes of a father and a brother conjoined. Of you the greatest hopes are raised, let not our expectations be deceived. You are the son of a Mason who glories in the profession; and for your zeal and attachment, your silence and good conduct, your father has already pledged his honour.

You are now, as a member of this Illustrious Order, introduced a subject of a new country, whose extent is boundless. Pictures are open to your view, wherein true patriotism is exemplified in glaring colours, and a series of transactions recorded, which the rude hand of time can ever erase. The obligations which influenced the first Brutus and Manlius to sacrifice their children to the love of their country, are not more sacred than those which bind me to support the honour and reputation of this venerable Order.

This moment, my son, you owe to me a second birth; should your conduct in life correspond with the principles of Masonry, my remaining years will pass away with pleasure and satisfaction. Observe the great example of our ancient masters, peruse our history and our constitutions. The best, the most humane, the bravest, and most civilized of men have been our patrons. Though the vulgar are strangers to our words, the greatest geniuses have sprung from our Order. The most illustrious characters on earth have laid the foundation of their most amiable qualities in Masonry. The wisest of Princes planned our Institution, at raising a Temple to the eternal and Supreme Ruler of the Universe.

Swear, my son, that you will be a true and faithful Mason. Know from this moment that I centre the affection of a parent in the name of a brother and a friend. May your heart be susceptible of love and esteem, and may you burn with the same zeal your father possesses. Convince the world by your new alliance you are deserving our favours, and never forget the ties which bind you to honour and to justice. View not with indifference the extensive connections you have formed, but let universal Benevolence regulate your conduct. Exert your abilities in the service of God and your Country, and deem the knowledge you have this day attained the happiest acquisition of your life.

Recall to memory the ceremony of your initiation; learn to bridle your tongue, and to govern your passions; and ere long you will have occasion to say “In becoming a Mason I truly became the Man; and while I breathe will never disgrace a jewel that kings may prize.”

If I live, my son, to reap the fruits of this day’s labour, my happiness will be complete. I will meet death without terror, close my eyes in peace, and expire, without a groan, in the arms of a virtuous and a worthy Freemason.

(Taken from THE NEW AGE – OCTOBER 1961)

Friday the 13th as many would believe is a day to avoid for it brings evil and bad luck.

Last Friday the 13th of this month, with a Brother as guide, I climbed the flight of winding stairs to the Middle Chamber of King Solomon’s Temple as a newly passed Fellow Craft.

Friday the 13th of October will forever be a memorable, nay, emblematic date for me. It was the very exact date when our hero and martyr, Jacques DeMolay, the last Grand Master of the Knight Templars, was arrested in Paris, France in 1307 AD. On this very same date, I, a DeMolay, passed to the Degree of Fellow Craft Mason in a Masonic Lodge that immortalizes the Last Templar Grand Master by having Jacques DeMolay as its Lodge’s namesake.

I am now just one step away from the Sublime Degree of Master Mason at which I hope to arrive by a virtuous education, my own endeavors and the blessings of the G.A.O.T.U..

My journey in seeking further light in Masonry continues…

Last Friday, August 18, 2006, was one of the momentous day of my life, I was initiated to the mysteries of the gentle craft – the great Masonic fraternity. As an Entered Apprentice Mason, my journey in seeking further light in Freemasonry has begun.

This week marks the 87th year of the International Order of DeMolay since its Annos Ordinis. This week also marks the 692nd death anniversary of the Last Grand Master of the Knights Templars, Jacques DeMolay, our hero and martyr whose name we have taken into our lips.

Millions of young men from all walks of life all over the world have become members of the Order since its founding in 1919. Many DeMolays became prominent in their fields of endeavor, like Walt Disney, John Wayne, John Steinbeck, Mel Blanc and Former US President Bill Clinton to mention a few. The Order of DeMolay was founded by Dad Frank Sherman Land, a prominent Mason in Kansas City, Missouri. Since its foundation, the Order is kept under the guardianship of the world’s most ancient and noble fraternity, Freemasonry.The Order of DeMolay is the main youth organization of the universal Masonic fraternity.

The Philippines takes pride in being the first to establish a DeMolay Chapter in Asia, the Jose Abad Santos Chapter which was established in March 23, 1946. Today there are more than 70 DeMolay Chapters scattered all over the country existing under the auspicies of the Supreme Council of the Order of DeMolay of the Republic of the Philippines. Philippine DeMolay has also its share of members excelling in their chosen fields like the award winning film directors Joel Lamangan and Ben Cervantes, Mayors Jejomar Binay and Nepthali Gonzales Jr, Eli Buendia of the erstwhile Eraserheads, Luke Mejares of the South Border Band, etc.

This year also marks my 25th year as member of the Order of DeMolay. Since my initiation to the Order until now I have always enjoyed the comradeship of my brethren. I consider it a unique privilege to be counted as one among the million of men around the world who have knelt before the altar of everlasting fellowship, beheld our martyr’s trial, took his name sacred and proudly proclaims, “I am a DeMolay”.

To my Brethren in the Order of DeMolay, my stp o grs, sgn o wcm, tkn o btd n wrd o emn,DeMolay! Happy 87th Anniversary!!!

Our Order had endured the test of time and thirteen years more, we will be celebrating our Centennial!

After being accepted as member of the Order of DeMolay, one undergoes a solemn ceremony called the Flower Talk. It is a ceremony dedicated to our Mothers and to the memory of our Mother’s love. Every DeMolay holds in their hearts a shrine dedicated to their Mothers love.

On Mothers Day I find it fitting to share the Flower Talk and once more dedicate it to honor my Mother’s love and to all Mothers of the World.

My Brothers, you have just been permitted to take upon yourselves the name of one of the world’s most heroic knightly figures. Now you can say “I am a DeMolay.” To be deemed worthy of the privilege of entering into the comradeship of that great army of youth both here and abroad who have dedicated themselves to the ideals of Jacques DeMolay, demonstrates our confidence that the fineness of your purposes will guide your development into the highest type of manhood. To be accepted as a DeMolay is, therefore, an honor of which any young man may be justly proud.

In being received into our ranks, you have been instructed in the seven cardinal virtues of this great Order. We hope you have been deeply impressed with the lessons they teach. There is no better foundation on which to build your character and future life than the practice of these virtues. The Order of DeMolay teaches many beautiful lessons, but none is more important than honor and true respect for womanhood, and more especially for motherhood. It is fitting, therefore, that you have been called upon to stand again before this Altar in a few moments of special emphasis upon the virtue which has been given first place among the jewels adorning the Crown of Youth – Filial Love.

For my purpose now, this Altar is dedicated to our mothers whose love never fails. You may rise to positions of great influence in commercial, political or professional life, but you can never reach the heights of your mother’s secret hopes for you. You may sink into the lowest depths of infamy and degradation but never below the reach of her love. The memory of it will always stir your heart. There is no man so entirely base, so completely vile, so utterly low that he does not hold in his heart a shrine sacred and apart for the memory of his mother’s love.

Were I to draw you a picture of love divine, it would not be that of

“A stately angel
With a form that is full of grace,
But a tired and toil-worn mother
With a grave and tender face.

It was your mother who loved you before you were born – who carried you for long months close to her heart and in the fullness of time took God’s hand in hers and passed through the valley of shadows to give you life. It was she who cared for you during the helpless years of infancy and the scarcely less dependent years of childhood. As you have grown less dependent, she has done the countless, thoughtful, trouble healing, helpful and encouraging things which somehow only mothers seem to know how to do. You may have accepted these attentions more or less as matters of course and perhaps without conscious gratitude or any expressions of your appreciation.

You are rapidly approaching the time in life when you will be entirely independent of your mother. The ties with which dependency has bound you to her may be severed as you grow older, but the tie of mother-love can never be broken.
Thinking back upon the years of your life when you have reached the threshold of manhood, your mother might well say in the words of the poet:

“My body fed your body, son,
But birth’s a swift thing,
Compared to one and twenty years
Of feeding you with spirit’s tears.
I could not make your mind and soul,
But my glad hands have kept you whole.
Your groping hands
Bound me to life with ruthless bands.
And all my living became a prayer,
While all my days built up a stair
For your young feet that trod behind,
That you an aspiring way should find.
Think you that life can give you pain
Which does not stab in me again?
Think you that life can give you shame
Which does not make my pride go lame?
And you can do no evil thing
Which sears not me with poisoned sting.
Because of all that I have done,
Remember me in life, O son.
Keep that proud body fine and fair,
My life is monumented there.
For my life make no woman weep,
For my life hold no woman cheap,
And see you give no woman scorn
For that dark night when you were born.”

These flowers which you see on our Altar are symbols of that motherlove – the white, the love of the mother who has gone – and the red, the mother who still lives to bless your life.

Far in the dim recesses of her heart
Where all is hushed and still
She keeps a shrine.
‘Tis here she kneels in prayer
While from above long shafts of light
upon her shine.
Her heart is flower fragrant as she prays.
Aquiver like a candle flame,
each prayer takes wing
To bless the world she works among,
To leave the radiance of the candles there.

We want each of you to take a flower from this Altar. If your mother has passed over to the other shore, you will choose a white flower and keep it always sacred to her memory. May the sight of it always quicken every tender memory of her and strengthen you anew in your efforts to be worthy of her hopes and aspirations for you. If your mother is living, you will choose a red flower. When you go home tonight, give it to your mother. Tell her it is our recognition of God’s best gift to a man – his mother’s love. Take her in your arms and say – “Mother, I’ve learned a great lesson tonight. The ceremonies have helped me realize more fully how much you really mean to me. I’m going to try to show you daily how much I appreciate the sacrifices you have made and the love and care you give me.”

Some day you’ll find that flower, I know not where, perhaps in her Bible or prayer book or some other sacred place, a silent witness to what this night has meant to the one whose love for you, her son, is beyond the comprehension of any son. My brothers, each of you will please take a red or white flower from the Altar.

DeMolay can ask no more of you than that you shall endeavor so to live as to be worthy of your mother’s love.

Traditionally for members of the International Order of DeMolay, March 11-18 is observed as DeMolay week. This week DeMolays all over the world will commemorate the 691st Death Anniversary of the last Grand Master of the Knights Templars and the 86th Founding Anniversary of the Order of DeMolay.

This week marks the 691st death anniversary of the hero and martyr whose name we have taken into our lips.

On March 18, 1314, Jacques De Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templars was burned at a stake along with his brother Knight, the Templar Preceptor of Normandy, Guy of Auvergne. Their death was ordered by King Philip IV (the Fair) of France and Pope Clement culminating seven years of persecution and torture of the Knights Templars. They succeeded in destroying one of the most powerful and respected Knightly Orders in history. But the ideals and precepts of the Knights Templar lives on.

Six centuries later, the precept and example of Jacques DeMolay was resurrected. On March 18, 1919, Frank Sherman Land, a Master Mason together with nine young men organized a fraternity based on the ideals of the martyred Grand Master and formally naming it as the Order of DeMolay. Since then, from Kansas City, Missouri, the Order of DeMolay continued its growth initiating new members and instituting new chapters in all states of the continential USA. DeMolay then crossed the oceans and the organization was developed in many countries around the globe. Thousands upon thousands of young men have become members of the Order of DeMolay. Hundreds of members of the Order became prominent figures in their fields and profession, the likes of Walt Disney, John Wayne, John Steinbeck, President Bill Clinton,…etc.

The Order of DeMolay reached the Philippine shores in 1946. The first DeMolay Chapter in Asia, the Jose Abad Santos Chapter was founded in Manila on March 23, 1946. Today the Order of DeMolay in the Philippines has established 70 Chapters all over the country. The Order of DeMolay prides itself to be the most dynamic youth organization of the Masonic Family.

Jacques De Molay lives on. From his funeral pyre, his spirit rose like Phoenix to the hearts of hundreds of thousands of men all over the world who has taken into their lips his sacred name and living up to the Templar tradition of comradeship and fidelity.

I am a member of the Order of DeMolay for 24 years now. And like all my brethren, I will always keep sacred and apart the comradeship and my obligation that binds me to my fraternity.

To my brethren in the Order of DeMolay, I give you my step of greetings, sign of welcome and token of brotherhood. Happy 86th Anniversary!