A Message From The Grand Master

 

Brethren,

“MASONS ALWAYS RISE TO THE OCCASION”

 

Thank you for the honor and Privilege you have bestowed upon me by allowing me to serve you as your Grand Master. I also want to thank you for your foresight in electing our Grand Lodge Officers. To the Grand Lodge Officers thank you for your undying devotion to our Fraternity.

We have recently concluded our 181st Annual Grand Communication, and are entering into a time like never before. We are experiencing the best exposure our Fraternity has ever enjoyed. We are in the spotlight with all the movies, books and television documentaries that are very positive. We are having a great influx of young men who are not only curious about our great Fraternity but, they also want to attain the knowledge we have to offer mankind.

Are we ready to accept this great and wonderful challenge? Have we examined our infrastructure to see if we are ready? Do we have the right Catechism Instructors, Mentors and Masonic Education Committees in place in our Lodges?  Are we ready to SEIZE THE MOMENT?  

My Brothers “MASONS ALWAYS RISE TO THE OCCASION”!!!  

The Grand Master’s Charity for this year will be The Masonic Medical Research Laboratory, otherwise known as the MMRL. To name a few of the MMRL’s achievements, it has “discovered or unraveled the mechanisms of the majority of known cardiac arrhythmias” and its “research has played an important role in the implementation of devices like the pacemaker, implantable cardioverter defibrillator” and the automatic external defibrillator. Furthermore, “MMRL continues to play a major, and in some cases a pivotal role, in the development of heart medications.” “MMRL scientists were instrumental in providing the first direct evidence linking Sudden Infant Death Syndrome to abnormal heart rhythms.” They have recently begun an exciting new aspect of stem cell research by growing heart tissue from human DNA cells in a Petri dish, so that healthy heart tissue may be implanted back into the patient. The MMRL is on the cutting edge of scientific research, and it is wholly involved with cardiac research. Heart disease is still the Number 1 killer in America. Brethren the MMRL, has been our Flagship Charity since 1997. Let’s get behind this charity and make it our Landmark, and as identifiable as the Shriner’s Hospitals.

Brethren, we have much to accomplish, I feel certain we can and will attain all of our goals. However, no one can do this alone. I’m asking for your help and assistance.

It starts with one man in one Lodge, that leads to two men in two Lodges and it will grow to the District, Zone and State levels. Let us, all of us, commit to resurrecting our Fraternity to the heights it has enjoyed in the past.
Let us commit to PERFECTION and shoot for PERFECTION, because if we don’t shoot for PERFECTION we will settle for less than mediocrity, and that my Brothers is not acceptable for ANY MASON!!

We need not be the one’s who ask “what happened!”, or those who ask “what’s happening!”

BUT THE ONES WHO SAY “WE’RE GOING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!”

My Brothers “MASONS ALWAYS RISE TO THE OCCASION”!!!  

Respectfully and Fraternally,

J. Dick Martinez
Grand Master