"I think my grandfather was one, but I'm not sure what that means"

"Yea, my dad and uncle both used to go to Masonic meetings - I remember Uncle Fred coming by to pick him up. But I don't know where they went or what they did."

"I remember when I went away to college my dad showed me his ring and told me, if I ever needed help, I should look for a man with a ring like that and tell him I was the daughter of a Mason, but he never told me much about it."

That's not a surprising question. Even though Masons (Freemasons) are members of the largest and oldest fraternity in the world, and even though almost everyone has a grandfather or relative who is or was a Mason, many people aren't quite certain just who the Masons are.

The Answer is simple. A Mason is a member of a fraternity known as Masonry. A fraternity is a group of men(just as sorority is a group of women) who join together because

• There are things they want to do in the world
• There are things they want to do in their own minds
• They enjoy being together with men they like and respect

Masonry is the oldest fraternity in the world. No one knows just how old it is because the actual origins have been lost in time. Probably, it arose from the guilds of stonemasons who built the castles and cathedrals of the MIddle Ages. Possibly, they were influenced by the Knights Templar, a group of Christian warrior monks formed in 1118 to help protect pilgrims making trips to the Holy Land. I

In 1717, Masonry created a formal organization in England when the first Grand Lodge was formed. A Grand Lodge is the administrative body in charge of Masonry in a geographical area. Silver State # 95 is in the Colorado Jurisdiction. Local organizations of Masons are called lodges. There are about 13, 200 Lodges in America today.

The word "lodge" means both a group of Masons meeting in some place and the room or building in which they meet. Masonic buildings are also sometimes called "temples" because much of the symbolism Masonry uses to teach its lessons comes from the build of King Solomon's Temple. The term "lodge" itself comes from the structures which the stonemasons built against the sides of the cathedrals during construction. In the winter, when building had to stop, they lived in these lodges and worked at stone carving.

Since Masonry came to America from England, we still use the Enlist titles for Officers. The Worshipful Master of the lodge sist in the Eats ("Worshipful" is an English term of respect which means the same as "Honorable"). He is called the Master of the Lodge for the same reason that the leader of the orchestra is called the "Concert Master". It's simply an older term of "Leader". In other organizations he might be called "President". The Senior and Junior Wardens are the first and second Vice-Presidents. The Deacons are messengers and the Stewards have charge of refreshments.

Every Lodge has an alter holding a "Volume of the Sacred Law". In Silver State #95 that is the Bible.

This is a good place to repeat what was said earlier about why men become Masons

• There are things they want to do in the world
• There are things they want to do "inside their own minds"
• They enjoy being together with men they like and respect.

The Lodge is the Center of those activities.

Masonry does things in the world

Masonry teaches that each man has a responsibility to make things better in the world. Most individuals won't be the ones to find a cure for cancer, or eliminate poverty, or help create world peace, but every man can do something to help others and make things a little better. Masonry is deeply involved in helping people, it spends millions of dollars every day in the US, just to make life a little easier.

The answer to that question is simple. No.

We do use ritual in the meetings and because there is always an alter or table with the Volume of the Sacred Law open if a lodge is meeting, some people have confused Masonry with religion, but it is not. that does not mean that religion plays no part in Masonry - it plays a very important part. A man who wants to become a Mason must have a belief in God. No atheist can ever become a Mason. Masonry encourages every Mason to be active in the religion and church of his own choice. Masonry teaches that, without religion, a man is alone and lost, and without religion, he can never reach his full potential.

Some men are surprised that no one has ever asked them to become a Mason. they may even feel that the Masons in Pueblo don't think they are  "good enough" to join. But it doesn't work that way. For hundreds of years, Masons have been forbidden to ask others to join the fraternity. We can talk to friends about Masonry, we can tell them about what Masonry does. We can tell them why we enjoy it, but we can't ask. There's a good reason for it. It isn't that we're trying to be exclusive. But becoming a Mason is a very serious thing. Joining Masonry is making a permanent life commitment to live in a certain way. To live with honor and integrity, to be willing to share and care about others, to trust each other and to place ultimate trust in GOD. No one should be "talked into" making such a decision.