75 min · about 5 sittings
Learn what Masons do for the community
We'll help you understand the charity work the Craft supports, by name and by mission, plus the personal charity each Mason owes his neighbor.
Why this matters
A neighbor asks you what Masons actually do. You start with something about the Shriners and a children's hospital, hesitate, mention an eye foundation you heard about once, and trail off. The truth is that the published charity record of the American Craft is broader, longer, and more concrete than most members carry around, and the personal-charity side (how a Mason treats the person in front of him) is the part the institution does not advertise at all.
This goal walks both sides of the published Masonic charity practice: the institutional charities by name and mission, and the brother-to-brother and brother-to-neighbor charity the published lectures actually ask of every member. By the end you can answer your neighbor's question in concrete terms and can also read the published expectation that lives in the back of every degree.
Masonic charity has two faces. The first is institutional: the published charities the Craft funds collectively, from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation to Royal Arch Research Assistance, from the Shriners Hospitals for Children and the Shrine Transportation Fund that pays to get a child there, to CMMRF's vascular research and the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital's Take Flight dyslexia therapy, with the Masonic Charities Foundation of New Mexico working through Lodges in their local communities. The second is personal: how a Mason treats the people closest to him, under the published rule 'love thy neighbour as thyself.' This goal walks the chapters that cover both, including the public-facing ceremonies (funeral, installation, cornerstone) at which the Craft meets the community face to face.
The path · practise in order
Start with "Two Kinds of Charity" →- 1. Community & CharityTwo Kinds of Charity
Two kinds of charity: the institutional charities and the duty to your neighbor.
- 2. Community & CharityMasonic Charity in the Community
Masonic charity in the community: MSANA, Shriners Hospitals and Transportation Fund, Scottish Rite, GL-NM Charity, and MCFNM.
- 3. Community & CharityFuneral and Memorial Service
Funeral and memorial: the public ceremony the Craft offers to its dead and their families.
- 4. Community & CharityInstallation of Officers
Installation of officers: the public ceremony at which a Lodge presents itself.
- 5. Community & CharityLaying of a Cornerstone
Laying of a cornerstone: the published ceremony, corn, wine, oil.
- 6. Community & CharityMasonic Procession
Masonic procession: how the Craft moves in public.
What if (after you finish the path)
Reflective prompts
- Pick one published Masonic charity from this goal and read its current annual report on its own site. What is it doing this month, in dollars and people? The published material is more concrete than most members realize.
- Where in your week is the second kind of charity (the brother-to-neighbor kind) most undone? The published lecture is not theoretical; it points at a specific person in your actual life.
Where to go next
- Two Kinds of Charity
Two Kinds of Charity. The introductory chapter for this whole theme.
- Masonic Charity in the Community
Masonic Charity in the Community. The institutional side in detail.
- Take a first look at the Craft
If charity is what made you curious about the Craft, the wider first-look goal builds out from here.
Make it stick
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