Transcendence and Masonic path

It is amazing the number of sites dedicated to antimasonic propaganda. Part of them are related to religious confessions that consider freemasonry a falsification of the divine enlightnement pursued by  Jesus Christ or even the personification of the devil. Other part is associated with people that were members of the Craft, somewhere in the past, and then they leave The most elaborated theories about freemasonry "real" intentions and projects of profane power don't resist to some minutes of careful analysis and refutation. If freemasonry has the power that some people insist she has, we really cannot guess why so few chiefs of State and government allow their names to be associated with the Royal Order. We should not deceive those fairytale tellers because they need some radiant illusions so they can present themselves as experts of something they really cannot understand and explain. Conspiracy theories always pay back to those who insist in their veracity, as they breed their fantasies and make them "important people". People always like to believe an incredible history for more stupid that it is.
I admire people who feel confortable with a sober sense of divine and have a very discrete relationship with the Creator, away from public eyes. A good friend of Luz do Oriente likes to observe, that he, an assumed Christian, likes to go to the Church when nobody is there and use a couple of minutes for a fruitful and intimate dialogue with the Father of us all. This is the sense of transcendence that every fine man looks for, when he joins the path of a religion or just a meaningful dialogue with the slice of divine that lays inside himself. Freemasonry allows every fine man with good report to experiment and identical path. That is why discrency and humility are cardinal values for every Freemason. Of course not all obey to these mandaments but we like to put them as target of an ethical attitude.
Of course we acknowldge that some people transform the Craft and the Lodges on sites of personal power looking to make good business or meet the proper people. This illusion comes normaly at a very fast speed and these travellers of the unknown move in another direction.
This is not to say that everything is fine within the ranks but we feel confortable with the enlargment of the columns and having new people approaching us. We need to do more to bring new generations to our organization and part of the problem deals about things that we consider impossible to change or dogmas. This reasoning would lead us far away but for the time being just let us conclude saying that one of the larger challenges of the Craft is the following question:
What  does Freemasonry have to offer to youngsters that can be useful to their patterns of life, expectations and sense of identity?

Hope

The second round in the theological and Masonic ladder, and symbolic of a hope in immortality. It is appropriately placed there, for, having attained the first, or faith in God, we are led by a belief in His wisdom and goodness to the hope of immortality. This is but a reasonable expectation; without it, virtue would lose its necessary stimulus and vice its salutary fear; life would be devoid of joy, and the grave but a scene of desolation. The ancients represented Hope by a nymph or maiden holding in her hand a bouquet of opening flowers, indicative of the coming fruit; but in modern and Masonic iconology, the science of Craft illustrations and likenesses, it is represented by a virgin leaning on an anchor, the anchor itself being a symbol of hope (see Immortality of the Soul).

In Encyclopedia of Freemasonry.

Faith

In the theological ladder, the explanation of which forms a part of the instruction of the First Degree of Masonry, faith is said to typify the lowest round. Faith, here, is synonymous with confidence or trust, and hence we find merely a repetition of the lesson which had been previously taught that the first, the essential qualification of a candidate for initiation, is that he should trust in God. In the lecture of the same Degree, it is said that "Faith may be lost in sight; Hope ends in fruition; but Charity extends beyond the grave, through the boundless realms of eternity, and this is said, because as faith is "the evidence of things not seen," when we see we no longer believe by faith but through demonstration; and as hope lives only in the expectation of possession, it ceases to exist when the object once hoped for is at length enjoyed, but charity, exercised on earth in acts of mutual kindness and forbearance, is still found in the world to come, in the sublime form of mercy from God to his erring creatures.

From Encyclopedia of Freemasonry.

The importance of fortitude

From the Masonic World, here:

The EA degree introduces candidates to seven moral principles, which we group into three tenets and four Cardinal Virtues. The tenets are brotherly love, relief, and truth. [Portuguese brethren should know this by heart because is one of the points that they may be cross-examined by the Deacon when visiting a anglo-saxon Lodge; it is presumed to be know by instinct] These tenets are key to any organization, but especially to our fraternity. Relief is practiced through our Masonic charities as an expression of brotherly love. If we are to become better men, we seek truth and enlightenment. These tenets are supplemented with four Cardinal Virtues of temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice.The idea of four Cardinal Virtues comes from Plato. 'Cardinal' is derived from the Latin word cardo, which is a hinge on which a thing turns. All moral virtues hinge on these four virtues. Plato writes in The Laws, (Book I, 631): "Wisdom is the chief and leader: next follows temperance; and from the union of these two with courage springs justice." Our present-day four Cardinal Virtues map directly into Plato's quartet with wisdom (or Sophia) being associated with prudence, courage with fortitude, and the other two being kept intact.

Although all seven moral principles deserve our full consideration, let us concentrate on fortitude. Fortitude is a virtue to which we aspire. Perhaps we should assess where we currently stand in terms of having fortitude. Social scientists use questionnaires to measure beliefs, attributes, and preferences. To measure our response to the statement,"I have fortitude," they would use a seven-point Likert scale. What number from 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest) do you give yourself using the following scale?

1-----------2-----------3-----------4-----------5------------6------------7

Very Strongly Disagree...............Neutral....................Very Strongly Agree

To be a better man, we would want to improve in several dimensions: fortitude is just one dimension. The image of a limited amount of fortitude is inappropriate, as we have untapped fortitude that only becomes necessary in times of great trial. Nevertheless, we may find ourselves saying we are only a "4" or a "5" on the scale of having fortitude. It should be one of our goals to achieve a greater reservoir of fortitude for when we will need it.

Why Fortitude and Not Other Virtues?

Fortitude is clearly an important virtue, but we may well ask why this moral principle was included in the four Cardinal Virtues and not others? There are many valuable moral principles in life. Some biblical virtues include compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, patience, righteousness, and long-suffering.

Biblical virtues are often viewed as gifts or fruits given to us. Fortitude is not listed as a gift of the Spirit; indeed fortitude does not appear in the Bible at all. On deeper introspection, it appears that some virtues are learnable and capable of being improved. As we seek to become better men, fortitude is a manly virtue that we should work to inculcate. It is not given as an inherent quality, but one that a lifetime of practice can perfect.

Masonic Year

A new masonic year has started and this will be a good occasion to question ourselves as masons about our mission between humans, as Men of Duty and Honour. This dual expression has been quoted, in political terms, recently, concerning the current presidential debate in the United States, a country known by its major contribution to freemasonry. But the expression makes every sense, as a new era of moral relativism has introduced, putting in question the basic foundations of our societies and the cement that keep them coherent and united. In the United States and before in Georgia we assist to a certain return of old ghosts or evil spirits that were supposed to be full buried. First, the ghost of uncertainty, of anarchy, of might and no law. Second, the perception that our economic and financial system that interconnect the world lays in very poor scaffolding. These two facts reveal the imperfection of our human dimension, the precarious status of our knowledge, and the fallacy that through control we may avoid the problems and manipulate the world and celestial constellation. The euphoria of human divinity has come to an end and with it the time of optimism that succeed the end of the 80s. In a certain way we move backward, to the past.
What role has freemasonry to perform in the year ahead? What can we give to the community of Men? Freemasonry has become in some places more an institution of the past than a realistic promise to the future. It has restrict itself to blank ritualism and forgot to take outside - to the profane world - the light that was attained within. Freemasonry doesn't do, for definition, politics, but nothing forbiddens us to intervene in our communities challenges and dreams. It is, really, the opposite. Our doctrine teach us that we should take what we learn in our intimate construction and bring to the community of Men, our Brethren in condition. This requires effort, sacrifice and dedication and doesn't resume to a donation to the obole. This is important but doesn't substitute the human effort and the assistance to the needed. How many of us are involved in solidarity work helping those who have special needs and need a word of comfort and simpathy? How many of our Hospitalers don't do nothing, just sitting in Lodge, performing the usual business? How many of them visit the Brethren that are ill and the widows that suffer the lost of their dearest companions? What means solidarity, charity and human love? What these virtues mean in this starting of the 21st Century?
That the Great Architect of the Universe enlight and guide our masonic works within our Lodges and Grand Lodge in the year ahead and helps all to become more sensitive, careful and human.

Temperance (Temperança)

Temperance is one of the four cardinal virtues, the practice of which is inculcated in the First Degree. The Mason who properly appreciates the secrets which he has solemnly promised never to reveal, will not, by yielding to the unrestrained appeal of curiosity, permit reason and judgment to disappear, and subject himself, by excess, to discover that which should be concealed. The virtue of temperance is wisely impressed upon Mason's memory, by its reference is one of the most solemn legacies of the ceremony of initiation. Some Freemasons, very properly condemning the vice of intemperance and abhorring its effects, have been unwisely led to confound temperance with total abstinence in a Masonic application. The masonic law authorizes no such regulation. It leaves to every initiated the indulgence of his own tastes within due limits, and demands not abstinence, but only moderation and temperance, in anything not actually wrongs. The knowledge of freemasonry is one of these commodities. Freemasons are not forbidden to learn from more advanced degrees but prudence orders to be patient. it take the convenient time to apprehend all the significance of what masonry does and lectures. Freemasonry is a career, a pathway, a journey that requires time and study.