THE GRAND MASTER’S SPEECH

The following is an excerpt from Most Worshipful Brother Paul Weglage’s 2022 report to the Grand Lodge when he was Senior Grand Warden. His words reflect the importance of building personal relationships with each other and how our lodges can promote a better Masonic experience. His words remain true today.“While our earnest hope should be to continue this reinvigoration and renewed focus on preserving our craft for future ages by growing our membership, we should be wary to balance the need for purely membership expansion by recalling that we in our lodges are empowered by the Grand Lodge to make Masons not merely members. At first blush that injunction is simply stated and has the appearance of a task which can be marked off of our to do lists with relative ease.How do we go about turning that aspiration into reality? How do we live up to the aphorism of Benjamin Franklin when he stated that well done is better than well said? To make our vision for a more engaged craft from the smallest country lodge sitting on the corner next to the single red light in the town to the most cosmopolitan lodge which meets at the heart of the thriving and diverse metropolis. We all must make concerted efforts to establish meaningful interpersonal contact at every point of our Masonic lives and journeys.So it is with this thought that I wish to leave you with today to take back to your lodge.Revitalize your lodge and yourself by reaching out to your brethren. Make another personal connection. Never let a brother sit by himself in the north. Go out of your way to share your story while collecting the stories of the brethren surrounding you. Do not lose sight of the importance of merely being there to share time even if it is in the briefest of moments with the brethren of our craft. Take the time to make the connection and strengthen the craft. Even in the encounter you didn’t give a second thought to, that brother may treasure that moment far beyond your belief. As Seneca the Younger so eloquently wrote in the correspondence that is now known as Letters from a Stoic, “ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship; but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul. Speak as boldly with him as with yourself. Regard him as loyal and you will make him loyal.”