Noah Lodge
#357 Trestleboard
September,
2011
Officer's Messages Are
Below
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Events Calendar
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WB
Larry Newton |
Noah
Lodge #357
Free and Accepted Masons
PO Box 3508
North
Fort Myers, Florida 33918
(41 Willis Rd, N. Ft. Myers, FL 33917)
239-995-1657
Website:
www.noahlodge357.org
Email:
secretary@noahlodge357.org
Stated Communications : 2nd and 4th Monday
From the
East
Greetings all,
Where for art thou Brother? I've been looking for you all year and haven't found you.
I would really like to sit in Lodge with you. We have accomplished a
great deal of things so far this year, including remodeling of the Lodge
that you have read about. This you have to see to believe.
This
late Trestleboard is my fault as I wanted to report on our fund raiser
at the Devil's Garden Mud Pit in Cleweston, but a more detailed report
will be given at our Scheduled Meeting on September 12, 2011 at 7:30 P.M. along with the final prep for the BBQ
and the Kids ID Program. This an event that you need to bring your kids
and/or grandkids to. There will be activities for everyone young or
old, and the kids will receive free dot-dogs. So be there or miss out
on the fellowship, the brotherly love and the enjoyment.
Here's
hoping you had a relaxing and enjoying holiday. Remember your Masonic
Tenets, be healthy, and remember, the more birthdays you have - the
older you get.
So mote it be,
Larry Newton
Worshipful Master
From The
West
Brethren,
September is coming upon us quickly,
we have plans of a
b-b-q on Sept 17 , 10:00am till 3:00 pm, with the country band One Night
Rodeo. On the same day we will also have Punta Gorda Lodge 115 assisting
Noah in a Child ID Program. Several of the Punta Gorda members said they
are coming for the day, it would be nice to have Brothers from every
Lodge come out and support Masonry. Our next best chance to reach all
the Lodges in our District and the Lodges in District 29 is to make the
Master and Wardens meeting one left before the BIG EVENT! We need
fliers badly!!!
August 8th if you weren't at Lodge then you missed one
great degree with our Junior Warden, Brother Jim Hamilton in the east.
RH Ed Lanham delivered the lecture and W B Dana McGrath delivered the
charge to our new Brother Frank D. Rooney - welcome to Masonry Brother.
To you and I the degree starts when the Master opens the Lodge but to
our candidates it starts the moment they walk into the Lodge to receive
their booklet to read while we prepare the Lodge for the degree. This
being said we as Master Masons must be on our best Masonic behavior, to
impress the importance of the degree to come. When the new Brother
receives his new apron from the Master on that night remember there is
nothing more honorable that can ever be conferred to a Brother Mason,
so lets make the rest of the degree just as honorable and memorable as the Apron Presentation as it should be.
Brothers, we would like all the other Lodges to come to our
functions and our degrees, let me just ask when have you been to another
Lodge to visit or to watch a degree. Noah must become involved with the
other Lodges in our district and district 29. You want more Brothers at
our functions then we must move outside of our own little comfort spot
called Noah 357. We need to regularly visit the other Lodges and attend
their functions before we can ever expect much from the surrounding
Lodges. I feel we have a rough and rugged road before us but Noah 357
is a Lodge of strong willed Masons who whole heartedly believe in
Masonry and anyone who believes differently needs to move aside and let
Noah 357 become the place where people want to come and want to be a
part of. All this begins with the Officers of Noah Lodge - we must step
out first and visit the other Lodges and help them when they need our
help great or small. With this first step from Noah the other Lodges
can not help but take notice to OUR Lodge and want to visit to see just
what do we have over here in North Fort Myers.
In closing, the new renovations are coming along
nicely, and no Brothers, this is not coming from the dues raised earlier
in the year, it is coming from Brothers who love Masonry and their Lodge
and are looking for "CHANGE". Oh that's been used, they just want to
spruce up the place to make it nicer for our guest and our families.
August 22, 2011 is another great Family night coming "Pot Luck Dinner "
is what I'm hearing think we will bring mini pizzas , remember them from
my Steward days they are great and almost edible. Thanks to all the
Brothers who care.
Harmony is strength!
Your Brother and Senior Warden,
Lawrence A. Tomlinson
From The
South
"Observing the time"
Greetings Brothers,
Origins,
Or-i-gin [awr-i-jin] noun
1. something from which anything arises or is derived; source; fountainhead: to follow a stream to its origin.
2. rise or derivation from a particular source: the origin of a word.
3. the first stage of existence; beginning: the origin of Freemasonry in America.
The theories about the true origin of Freemasonry are as varied as those pertaining to the origin of Man himself.
Even our own Grand Lodge refers to the Masonic "myth" Some place the origin with the Stone Masons in the middle ages.
Some credit a poem and the discovery channel has too many theories to list here.
Personally I have found that there are very few things in life that you can truly understand without understand the origin of
it. The "where and when" of Freemasonry may never be completely understood, however the most important part is plainly evident. As "Builders of Men" Ourselves first and foremost. We find the wisdom imparted in each of the degrees to be constant reminders of those things in ourselves that we should either work to improve or work to subdue. We labor to make the most of the gifts that each of us posess to the benefit of our families our brothers and hopefully the less fortunate among us.
We also labor to to do this with a level of humility and understanding that having been in like circumstances ourselves. There
is a time when we all will have met on the level.
I find it thought provoking that these men who were able to shape stone with the sheer strength of hand and the simplest of implements, found inspiration is those simple tools not only to build temples that soar into the heavens but also to restrain those urges to use that strength for anything less noble that that of lifting up themselves and those who seek the same
enlightenment.
I leave you with the words of William Shakespeare:
"What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how
infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like
a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals - and yet,
to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me"
Brother James E. Hamilton
Junior Warden
Noah Lodge 357.
From The Secretary's Desk
At
the end of June, I mailed out 23 late notices. So far I have received
five (5) responses.
We are planning a Bar B Que for Saturday,
September 17th
and we DO need help.
If you have not been to Lodge lately, you'll
be surprised at the renovations done by Brother Ed Ciofani and his crew of workers.
Hope
to see you at Lodge.
Fraternally,
Jerry Keeton
Secretary
From The Chaplain's Station
Pray
For America
My Brothers,
It
is time to pray for America. Pray for the President, for Congress, for
the Senate, that they may work not for re-election, nor for their party, or
for a dependent society, but work together for America.
Pray for the
Supreme Court that they may have the wisdom to know that being politically correct
is not always correct, that they will keep God in America, that the school doors
may be opened so God, prayer and faith values may return to the classroom.
Pray
for all the Military, for their safety as they serve to keep America safe. Pray
for their families as they live every day with the fear of that dreaded knock
on the door.
Pray for all who lost loved ones on 9/11 as they face another
reminder of that terrible day.
Pray for all who are struggling to fee
their family and keep their home in these trying times.
Pray that in
the next year a true leader may emerge for America.
My Brothers, Pray
for America.
May God bless
you every day in every way.
John McKinney
Chaplain
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