Thank you, brothers, for all of your kind words following the loss of my grandmother. I loved her dearly and she is now in a much better place. I truly appreciate it. I am now certain that I made the right choice to go through with the raising. It was a magical way to end my Thursday. The lecture within this degree helped greatly ease my pain of loss into a better mindset regarding that loss. In some ways I am glad the funeral was held that morning. That being in the back of my mind, I was clinging to every word spoken in the temple during the degree. I feel it helped me to have a greater understanding of what I was experiencing, helped put feelings to the words, making more of a learning experience to me.
On that note, I am extremely thrilled to now be a Master Mason. That was a very special night, one I shall never forget as long as I live. I have heard the MM degree referred to by many words...exciting, powerful, packed with knowledge, packed with ancient history, etc... To me, it was all of the above and more. I cannot wait for the opportunity to view the Sublime Degree from the sidelines in the future. It feels great inside to know that I am part of something that many great men through history have been part of, to know that today's ritual is the same content as it was when our founding fathers went through it (mostly), it really does create a special type of feeling deep down inside. I will do my best to represent the fraternity in the best way I can and be the best Mason I can be. It seems like only yesterday that I was turning in my petition. I only hope that the coming years don't fly by as fast, so that I can make the most of my time and learn as much as I can about the history of the Craft. I must also say that I am glad I had the self restraint to NOT look up any of the ritual content online in advance. Having now gone through it, I firmly believe that any advanced knowledge that people find online taints the experience by denying the individual the suprise and shocking twists and turns of the evening. Some of the guys mentioned they had tried to Google the MM degree before they had gone through it, and no one on the internet has it complete and accurate anyway. I would compare my thoughts on this to the following:
If you told me at the start of the first Star Wars that Luke is Leia's brother, Darth Vader is thier father, and Han Solo goes from smuggler to hero, then sitting through ten hours of tye Star Wars trilogy would have inspired less thought and less excitement.
I am also looking forward to November, as our Senior Deacon has been asked to present the FC examination for GLI. As I just went through that exam, I was asked to play the candidate role forbthe presentation.
Sorry for rambling on, I am just having trouble containing my excitement. If anyone takes anything from my babbling, it should be that I am pleased to a part of this great worldwide brotherhood, that it means a great deal to me, and that knowing in advance would have made the night less impactful. Thank you to all of the brethren around the world and throughout history for maintaining and preserving the foundations of our organization. I am honored to he a part of it and, as the first Mason in my family, hopefully not the last I look forward to seeing future generations knock on the temple door, with the knowledge that they too will experience something special inside and find a connection of fellowship that is above and beyond anything they would experience elsewhere.
Bro Brian McFadden
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