"Brothers,
the Lodge is alarmed. One of our co-workers is called to the Eternal East, and
so, he had to put down his Tools. His co-workers had to experience, that a
chain in the chain of Brethren is gone, and they are painfully aware of the
crack in the chain.
We
can only become aware of the loss for the Lodge, if we notice which place our
Brother had in our midst. As an Apprentice he worked, like all of us, at the
Rough Ashlar; as Fellow he filled in his task in this Lodge with strength,
inside and outside the Lodge; and as a Master he worked in loneliness on the
tracing board, lest the building could progress. But where necessary, he has
not scrupled to work as a Fellow, and where it was needed, to perform the
humble work of an Apprentice. Because the true Master knows to work there,
where it is needed, and he will always help there, where his labours at a whole
will receive the most benefit. The Master knows how to be the most humble of
all.
Our
Brother worked as long as it was day, and when the night arrived, he put down
his Tools, in the certainty, that He, who can oversee the entire building plan,
knows best, when a task should begin or end.
We
trust, that the Great Architect of the Universe will be satisfied about the
labour of our Brother, and possible defaults in the delivered labour will have
covered with the trowel of Love…"
(Excerpts from
the “Ritual for the Lodge of Sorrow”)
FOOTNOTE: Photos taken during the District Lodge of Remembrance held at Cabanatuan Lodge No. 53.
