NM Freemason
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Two Kinds of Charity

KTEF EYES SHRINE HOSPITALS RARA HEARING CMMRF VASCULAR STF TRANSPORT DYSLEXIA TAKE FLIGHT RELIEF · TWO HANDS, MANY MISSIONS

Why this matters

A Mason's reputation gets built two ways at once. The published charities (KTEF, KTEdF, RARA, CMMRF, the Shriners Hospitals for Children, the Shrine Transportation Fund, the Take Flight Dyslexia Program, plus the Masonic Charities Foundation of New Mexico working through Lodges in their local communities) are visible work the Craft does collectively. The other half is what the same Mason does on a Tuesday morning when no one is watching: the half-hour to help a neighbor, the call to a brother who has been quiet, the way he treats the cashier and the contractor.

Most brothers can rattle off two or three of the institutional charities. Far fewer can name them all and add the New Mexico Foundation that works through their own Lodge for local need and statewide disaster, and almost no one frames the personal duty in the same breath. This chapter gives you the names and missions, and it puts them next to the rule the Old Testament and the Gospels both call the second great commandment: love your neighbor as yourself. Both faces belong together. Knowing only one is half the lecture.

What this chapter is

Charity in Masonry has two faces. The institutional face is the published work of the Masonic charities: the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, the Knights Templar Educational Foundation, Royal Arch Research Assistance, the Cryptic Masons Medical Research Foundation, the Shriners Hospitals for Children, the Shrine Transportation Fund, the Scottish-Rite-sponsored Take Flight Dyslexia Program, and the Masonic Charities Foundation of New Mexico working through Lodges in their local communities. The personal face is what a Mason does at his neighbor's door. Both faces share one rule: treat your neighbor as yourself.

How to practise it

A lesson walks the same seven steps every time. Read the intro, study the material, then drill it through Quick Fire, Matchup, Sequence, Flashcards, and the Mix capstone. Each step opens to the next; no choices to make in the middle of the work.

Begin lesson →
What if · take it further ▸

Sit with this

  • Where in your own week, this coming week, is there a chance to practise the second face of charity? Not money, not a check to KTEF, just a half-hour of help to a person within walking distance of where you sleep.
  • If a curious neighbor asked you to name three Masonic charities, could you do it in plain language without checking a phone? If not, that is exactly the gap to close.

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