Sunday, September 18, 2016

Sir Knights and Cousins,

Gen. H. B. Stoddard KM Council No. 87 will meet this month, and we have a candidate upon which to confer the KM degrees.

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016 is the next “5th Thursday.”  Please mark your calendars accordingly and plan to be in attendance.  It is my understanding that we will have candidates upon which to confer the order so you will want to be in attendance.

Unless plans change, plan to be at our fellowship dinner at 6:00 PM at Shiraz Shish Ka Bob followed by our meeting afterwards at Brazos Union Lodge.   

Why do we call each other "cousin?" 

Members address each other as "Cousin" in reference to  I Esdras,Chapter 3.  This chapter refers to a great feast that Darius made for all his subjects, his household, all of the princes of his domain and all the governors, captains and lieutenants.  

After the feast and when everyone had left Darius went to sleep when three young men of the king's bodyguard determined that each would offer a bit of wisdom to the king in order to impress the king and win a victory to include being clothed in purple, to drink in gold and sleep upon gold, and a chariot with bridles of gold and a headdress of fine linen and a chain. But most importantly for our purposes "and he shall sit next to Darius because of his wisdom and shall be called Darius his cousin."

A cousin is a relative with whom a person shares two or more common ancestors. To be able to call the king "cousin" was to "be related" to the king.  A fine relationship indeed.

As York Rite Masons we come from diverse regions and bodies, yet we are all kindred Masons.  As such we are all brothers (very closely related) and cousins (closely related).  As Knight Masons (men attendants to the wisdom of Freemasonry) we serve wisdom, truth, and the support of kindred minds and hearts.

See you for victuals and Knight Mason work on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016, cousin.

No comments:

Post a Comment