As Masons, we are called to seek a hidden light and to manifest that light to the best of our abilities. This revealed light could be called the badge of a Freemason, and our most honored regalia might be but its emblem.

We are tried by the angle of the Grandest of Masters’ jewel. Our actions are measured against its rectitude. We are further charged with humility and to love our neighbors as ourselves acknowledging that we all are fellow travelers on this road to the unknown. As we traverse this path with all its many perils, we are to do so uprightly as this is the proper station of man.

We are admonished to meet our fellow man with an embrace (that of a friend or a brother) and to commune with him leveraging our combined strength and wisdom. The world is filled with the beauty wrought by the men who could best collaborate in their work. This too is our means and end.

We are to accentuate all our work with the timeless virtues best expressed by those ancient porch philosophers: to temper our desires and passions; to endure in the face of danger; to be skillful and measured in our work; and to be lovers of all that is just and right.

By these we may be known to be Masons – not by titles, honors, memberships, oaths, or secrets, but by those virtues which emanate from love. By these we might shine rough ashlars though we be and I the roughest.

May the Grand Master above recognize us all.