The main topic of discussion will be our upcomign “Beef and Beer” fundraiser, set to take place on May 30th to benefit our Masonic Home. The agenda will also include planning our annual lodge fishing trip this summer and the ongoing Fischer’s Pot Pie sale.

Please come out and support the Gavel Club as well as your lodge. We would love to hear from you!

I AM FREEMASONRY

I was born in antiquity, in the ancient days when man first dreamed of God. I have been tried through the ages, and found true. The crossroads of the world bear the imprint of my feet, and the cathedrals of all nations mark the skill of my hands. I strive for beauty and symmetry. In my heart is wisdom, strength and courage for those who ask. Upon my alter is the book of Holy Writ and my prayers are to the one Omnipotent God. My sons work and pray together, without rank or discord, in the public mart and in the inter chamber. By signs and symbols I teach the lessons of life and death and the relationship of man with God and of man with man.

My arms are widespread to receive those of lawful age and good report who seek me of their own free will. I will accept them and teach them to use my tools in the building of men, and thereafter, find direction in their own quest for perfection so much desired and so difficult to attain. I lift up the fallen and shelter the sick. I hark to the orphans cry, the widows tears, the path of the old and destitute. I am not church, nor party, nor school, yet my sons bear a full share of responsibility to God, bear liberties, and alert to lurking danger. At the end I commit them as each one undertakes the journey beyond the vale into the glory of everlasting life.

I ponder the sand within the glass and think how small a single life in the eternal universe is. Always have I taught immortality, and even as I raise men from the darkness into the light, I am a way of life.

I AM FREEMASONRY

Fraternally,
Roger D. Bohn Sr.
Worshipful Master

You are fraternally invited to attend the following Communications of Mozart Lodge No. 121, F&AM, to be held at the West Jersey Masonic Center, Route 295 and Haddonfield-Berlin Road, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, 08003.

Regular Communication Tuesday February 3^rd, 2009. Dinner will be at 6:30 pm, prepared by Bro. Todd Mertz and his wife.  Please call, email, or text Chef Mike so we have enough food for everyone. Regular Business Discussion on the proposed consolidation with Henry S. Haines, closing, and refreshments

By Order of Worshipful Brother

Roger D Bohn Sr., W.M.

Attest: Frank Dominiano, Sec.

What is a Mason

A Mason is a Man and A Brother, whose trust is in God.
He meets you on the level and acts on the square.
Truth is his Compass and he is ever Plump.
He has a true grip on all that is Rite.
He is true to his order and whatever his Degree he is Master of himself.
In his Lodge he wears unstained the White Lambskin of innocence.
On his initiation as an Entered Apprentice he travels ever East
Towards the Light of Wisdom.
Until he receives the final, the Divine Password that admits
him into the Ineffable Presence of the Eternal Supreme Grand Master
of the Universe GOD.

Author Unknown

Fraternally,
Roger D. Bohn Sr.
Worshipful Master

If you do not have a 2009 Dues Card, chances are you have not paid your 2009 Dues. Brethren, YOUR Lodge needs the resources to survive! If you don’t pay your dues, we can’t pay our bills.

If you are unable to pay your dues, or will be sending them, please contact the Secretary or the Worshipful Master.

On Friday, March 13, 2009, The Grand Lodge of New Jersey is sponsoring an Open Table Lodge. This event is open to all ladies of our Appendant Organizations as well as the ladies of Master Masons.

The event will be held at Fellowship Hall, Burlington, New Jersey.

Social Hour from 6:00PM to 7:00PM. The Table Lodge will follow.

***$35.00 per person -All Inclusive***

Tickets must be purchased by February 27, 2009.

Make Check payable to: Grand Lodge of New Jersey and send with a self-address, stamped, envelope to:

Grand Lodge of New Jersey
1114 Oxmead Road
Burlington, NJ 08016

President-elect Barack Obama’s swearing-in Tuesday will incorporate several elements out of America’s Masonic past.

One-third of the signers of the Constitution, many of the Bill of Rights signers and America’s first few presidents (except for Thomas Jefferson) were Freemasons, a fraternal organization that became public in early 18th-century England.

Although it became fabulously popular in America, at one time encompassing 10 percent of the population, Pope Clement XII condemned Freemasonry in 1738 as heretical. The latest pronouncement was issued in 1983 by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI - who called Masonic practices “irreconcilable” with Catholic doctrine.

Still, as the first president, George Washington had to come up with appropriate rituals for the new country. He borrowed many of them from Masonic rites he knew as “worshipful leader” of a lodge in Alexandria.

His Masonic gavel is on display at the Capitol Visitor Center. Until this inauguration, Washington’s Masonic Bible - on which he swore his obligations as a Freemason - was used for the presidential oath of office. President-elect Barack Obama will use Abraham Lincoln’s Bible.

The worshipful master administered the Masonic oaths. This was adapted to the president vowing to serve his country in an oath administered by the top justice of the Supreme Court.

I learned all this from Garrison Courtney, a 30-something government worker who gives Masonic tours of the District in his spare time. He is worshipful master at the Cincinnatus Lodge in Georgetown. Contrary to public perceptions of Masons being older white guys, current local membership is a racially and religiously mixed group of Gen-X men, he says.

They have, he adds, gotten a bad rap as a secretive organization.

“If people have questions, we will tell them,” he says. “We’re pretty open as an organization.”

Calling themselves a “spiritual organization,” Masons need only believe in a Supreme Being. Masons have grown nationally in recent years, he said, with 38 lodges in the District alone.

The late President Gerald R. Ford was the last presidential Mason.

“We actually had a Masonic procession to his casket while he was lying in state at the Capitol,” Mr. Courtney said.

The inaugural parade, he tells me, began as a Masonic procession [a parade of Masonic notables] from the still-unfinished White House to Capitol Hill, where Washington traveled on Sept. 18, 1793, to lay the cornerstone for the Capitol. Lafayette Park was the site of a makeshift Masonic lodge, in which the Scottish stonemasons - then working on the executive mansion - lived.

Washington also ensured the boundaries of the District - each 10
miles along - formed a perfect square, which symbolizes ultimate virtue in Masonry.

“The whole idea behind the building of Washington was to convey the message about the new experiment, a new way of thinking the Founding Fathers had in mind,” said Akram Elias, past  randmaster of all the District’s lodges.

Whole books have been written about the Masonic imagery on buildings around the District. Many of their cornerstones were laid with Masonic ceremonies involving oil, wine and corn.

“All five statues in front of the White House are Freemasons,” Mr.
Courtney said. “Every single one of the statues on Virginia Avenue are as well. Masonry is ingrained in the city and in the American culture.

masonic, Barack Obama

I know that time restraints and obligations to our family and jobs often interfere with the intention of going to lodge. Take that first step, come out, renew and develop new friendships. Reach out, call, text, or email a brother who has not been around for awhile. Practice what we are taught in masonry about caring for one another and invite them back out.

Mozart Lodge has installed new officers and we are buzzing along with anticipation of growth and activities. It is good to see so many white apron brothers in line this year. Barring any unforeseen circumstances it looks like a good line to build on.

Let’s not lose the enthusiasm of our younger members and officers. Come out and share your wisdom and historical knowledge with us, and answer questions our newly raised brothers may have.

All the officers of Mozart Lodge including myself are looking forward to meeting you at lodge for dinner before our regular and emergent communications, see you then my brother.

Fraternally,
Roger D. Bohn Sr.
Worshipful Master