From the Worshipful Master

To be elected to the position of Worshipful Master of Wayfarers Lodge #50 is truly an honor. As I sit in the East I will be referred to as “Worshipful Master” but this title does not suggest that I am to be “worshiped” but rather that my acts as Master should be worthy of respect. As Master, the emblem of my office is the Square and it is an emblem of truth and morality, and one of the principle working tools of our craft. As I wear the emblem of the square I will be constantly reminded that truth and morality is not a man-made invention, rather a necessary part of our Universe needed to maintain order.

Examples of the square being a vital tool in our daily lives can be found in every circumstance of life. When you were growing up, you learn from your parents that it is necessary to eat three “square” meals a day to maintain a healthy life, when you played sports or games it was important for you to win “fair and square”, which is to say you won in an honest way and when you leave something “squared away” it suggest that it is all in order and the way it should be.

This year the three pedestal officers will work together to ensure that Wayfarer’s Lodge #50 is “Squared Away” and with your support and attendance continue to be the Masonic Jewel in the desert.

We have many challenges this year and I will need your support to ensure we are successful. Some of these challenges are to create a new five year plan, fix the long standing issue with our HVAC in the building, growing membership with quality men, creating a financial plan to ensure future stability, and finding a way to make you as a member of Wayfarer’s Lodge #50 attend lodge and want to be a part of something great. We have several new candidates coming in to the lodge and your attendance in vital in giving the candidate the most out of this experience.

We ask that you keep our Brothers, their families, and our men and women who serve to protect this great country in your prayers.

Fraternally,

Doug Steele
Worshipful Master

From the Senior Warden

For this year the jewel of my office is the Level. The level is taught by the fraternity to represent time. Time is short, and a resource that can never be renewed. As I indicated last month it seemed like only yesterday that I was appointed Senior Deacon, and now I am in the West, looking to the East, and getting ready for a year of learning and of service before the lodge again elects a new Master. Twelve months is a very short amount of time, and while a lot can be done in that short amount, too little is often accomplished. With the level as an ever present reminder of that shortage of time as a resource, I hope to accomplish as much as I can in service to Wayfarers before this term has expired.

The book of Job in chapter 14 verse 1 says that “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Few days is very wisely stated. We do have few days. While days translate to months and months translate to years, I have found that as I get older, the years seem faster and fewer. Saying that we are full of trouble is also sadly true, but the lodge is a place of calm serenity where we may meet together as equals while leaving those troubles at the door.

The level reminds us that “we are travelling upon that level of time to that Undiscovered Country, from who’s born, no traveler returns.” What the ritual is saying is that as our time draws closer to its end point, we reach a place where we may never be earthly again, so we must make the most of what we do while on Earth for the greater good of both Masonry, and our fellow man. We should always be reminded that “the setting splendors of a virtuous and well spent life” are to give us hope for the future generations that come after us. And it is my humble opinion that we can do no greater good as Men and Masons then to leave the world a better place then we found it.

The level reminds me of all of that and more and as the symbol of my office for this year, it will remain the ever present symbol of what I should be doing in the short time that I have as your Senior Warden. My hope is to focus more on our education, while at the same time making good men Masons.

Yours in the Craft,

Jason Michlowitz
Senior Warden

From the Junior Warden

The website OxfordDictionaries.com (“The World’s Most Trusted Dictionaries,” according to their own tagline) defines a “plumb,” as, “noun: a ball of lead or other heavy object attached to the end of a line for finding the depth of water or determining the vertical on an upright surface.”

Operative masons use a plumb to ensure that vertical angles are straight and true. With this tool, they may ascertain that upright structures do not deviate from their proper course; and if they find them so, they can adjust, and recheck them, until the plumb falls straight, accurate.

As men who use the tools of an operative mason in a metaphorical sense, we Free and Accepted Masons find the plumb of as great importance as do operative masons. We use it to measure the “straightness” of ourselves, as we walk our path each day. Men, like structures, sometimes deviate from what is right and good. We strive to be moral men, but it is easy to lean one way or the other; men, like walls and columns, do this, at times. Yet we are given this metaphorical plumb to measure ourselves against: that we walk tall and straight, on a true path, not deviating too far to one side or the other, but keeping passions and urges from drawing us too far off course.

As the Junior Warden of Wayfarers Lodge, for 2014, I wear a jewel that represents the plumb. I hope that each time I wear it, it reminds me to walk straight, true, and to not deviate from the path of rightness and good actions; and that even when I do not wear it, I will remember it.

The metaphorical plumb is one of the tools given us by the Great Architect of the Universe; and all men and Masons may use it, whether they wear it physically or not, to remind them how to walk before both the Supreme Being, and all mankind.

Fraternally,

Bryan Bullock
Junior Warden