Independence Lodge From the East

Greetings Brethren,

                              For the recently raised brothers I know you have heard something being said at the opening and closings of our meetings that you can not quite make out. I know I did for about 4-meetings after I was raised I just could not figure it out and had to ask a brother what it was they were saying. So Mote It Be was the answer.

                              As far back as we can go in the annals of the Craft we find this old phrase. Its form betrays its age. The word Mote is an Anglo-Saxon word, derived from an anomalous verb, MOTAN. Chaucer uses the exact phrase in the same sense in which we use it, meaning “So May It Be.” It is found in the Reius Poem, the oldest document of the Craft, just as we use it today.

                                As everyone knows, it is the Masonic form of the ancient AMEN which echoes through the ages, gathering meaning and music as it goes until it is one of the richest and most haunting of words. At first only a sign of assent, on the part either of an individual or of an assembly, to words of prayer or phrase, it has become to stand as sentinel at the gateway of silence.

                                 So, too, in the Lodge at opening, at closing, and in the hour of initiation. No Mason r enters upon any great or important undertaking without invoking the aid of Deity. And he ends his prayer with the old phrase, “So Mote It Be.” Which is another way of saying “The Will of God Be Done.” Or, whatever be the answer of God to his prayer: “So Be It –because it is wise and right.

                                  The other meaning of the phrase is even more wonderful: it is the assent of God to be the aspiration of man. Man can bear so much – anything, perhaps – if he feels that God knows, cares and feels for him and with him. If God says Amen, So it is, to our faith and hope and love: it links our perplexed meanings, and helps us to see, however dimly, or in a glass darkly, that there is a wise and good purpose in life, despite    its sorrow and suffering, we are not at the mercy of fate or the whim of Chance.

                                    The Brethern and I would like to thank Brother Charles Prestopine on a wonderful presentation of the story of the “Billy Yank Memorial” and its reconstruction along with its relocation. Brother Prestopine along with the Hackettstown Civil War Memorial Monument Committee brought back a piece of Hackettstown. Everyone enjoyed the story, DVD, and pictures. Thanks to Brother Reed for the pictures taken. It was a great evening.

WB William Kelly, W.M.