Worshipful Daniel J. Di Natale

Dear Brothers, What a wonderful first half of our year as your First Erie District Team. It has been a pleasure to attend your Degrees and practices. Remember what I have said during our official visitations, please don’t keep these dates a secret. Our Masonic work binds us all together. What purpose does light have if none are around to share in it? Brothers, share your light!

Lets really reflect on what this whole ritual thing is. I see a lot of good things happening out in the district but I feel many Brothers look at great ritual as one’s ability to memorize words on a page and repeat them back. Our work is not memorizing the phonebook. It is real living thing. It has meaning deeper then the words on a page. The true master of the ritual not only knows what words to say but why and what they mean. This takes a lifetime but the quest is worth it. The is my challenge to all of you my Brothers, don’t just memorize the work – learn it, live it, and be it. Our Grand Lecturer – RW Richard J. Kessler – talks about what Most Wor. Calvin Bond said to say to him, that ritual is a symphony and when done well you can close your eyes and hear the beauty in its execution. The only way we can get to that level is by serious dedication to the work’s meaning, not just what the words are.

We have had a ton of activities centered around our Ritual this first half of the year. The Grand Lecturer’s Convention was the best attended in the state (until Second Erie’s in January, if you did not get the Potts – time for round two) and a wonderful homecoming for our Grand Lecturer. We had four Lodges that won the Potts award with three or four other Lodges only missing by a few officers. The School of Instruction was very well attended and the Ritual Renaissance Program Orientation was well supported even with everything else that was going on that day.

We have plenty of things coming up for your Ritual mastering needs –

– Second Erie Grand Lecturer’s Convention January 24th at Western Star Temple

– Year Three for The Ritual Renaissance Program is March 28th at 10.00 Am at the Sweet Home Temple – $15 a ticket -Covering the whole of the 3rd Degree

– Erie County School of Instruction “The Four Special Places – Our Work in the Preparation Room, Altar, Master’s Carpet, and Balloting” on February 24th at Western Star Temple

It has been a joy serving as A.G.L. I look forward to the next year and half. I will see you ll in the quarry! Bro. Daniel J. Di Natale