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Membership CenterLearn more about MasonryWelcome to the Grand Lodge of Texas Membership Center
Here you will find answers to some of the most common questions people have of Masonry. The answers are by Texas Masons, both young and along in years, newly made and some in their 50th year of membership. Their answers will be different from one another illustrating that each man's journey in Masonry is special and unique unto him. Although our journeys may be singular and we may have come to the Fraternity separated by economic strata or profession and distinguished by age or rank, we are Equals in Masonry and bound to each other by the unifying concept of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man and that as Masons, he is my Brother...and I am his.
This section is always growing. Masons are encouraged to post their own answers to the below questions. Non-Masons are urged to send in questions by using the "Ask A Mason" form on our website. Why did you join?
What has Masonry done for you?
Ready to Begin?
Get started on your petition
Find a Texas lodge near you
Additional ResourcesLearn about the symbolism, history and traditions of Masonry
Masons have played incredible roles in Texas
- Common questions about Freemasonry
- What Masons do
- Petition for the Degrees It took many years of my life to come to two very important conclusions. First to conclude who I was as a person, and what the world truly is (not just the way I want it to be.) Upon coming to these two conclusion I immediately knew that I need to be associated with "like minded" men.
A young man passed a pawnbroker’s shop. The moneylender was standing in front of his shop, and the young man noted that he was wearing a large and beautiful Masonic emblem. After going on a whole block, apparently lost in thought, the young man turned back, stepped up to the pawnbroker, and addressed him:
In the Farmer’s Almanac of 1823 the following was printed under the heading, “Definition of a Freemason”.
The real Freemason is distinguished from the rest of Mankind by the uniform unrestrained rectitude of his conduct. Other men are honest in fear of punishment which the law might inflict, they are religious in expectation of being rewarded, or in dread of the devil in the next world.
By: Bro. Rudyard Kipling
By far, the thing I enjoy most is the fellowship of my brethren, and the knowledge that they are men who can be trusted and relied upon.
I enjoy knowing that I can go to any community anywhere in the world and even if I have never been to that community before, I will already have friends there: brother Masons. I sought to become a Mason after, as a young adult, I discovered that there was a common element shared by a great many of the men whom I came to respect the most. Some were professional colleagues and some were friends on a personal level. These men came from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and had varying educational, religious, and political views. However, they all shared one thing in common. I am Ray Forrester, I began my masonic journey on 11/15/1975 in a small up-stairs lodge in Lovelady TX. ( Lovelady Lodge 539). (My great grand father, grand father and dad as well as five Forrester Uncles and Great Uncles were masons.) It was a very cold night, 18 degrees outside and 8 degrees inside. Never the less, sweat was running off me in sheets. After being raised, I was quickly installed as JW of that lodge. Shortly there after, I was promoted in my Job and relocated to Rosharon TX. I took a plural membership with Alvin Lodge 762. I joined out of profound gratitude to the Masons of Texas. As a orphan of a Texas Mason, I was placed in the Masonic Home & School in Fort Worth in 1962 and provided a wonderful environment to grow up and begin my life. I knew at that early age that any organization that would do something that charitable and good for mankind was an organization I wanted to be a part of. I joined when I turned 21 years old. To this day, I thank Masonry for the opportunities I was given by being raised at the Masonic Home. Since I was a very young man I had an interest in becoming a Mason, mainly from the influence of my Great-Grandfather who was a Mason as well as a man whom I highly respected & loved dearly. My Great-Grandfather passed away before I was old enough to ask him for a petition & I felt my only ticket to becoming a member of the fraternity was gone forever. |
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The Grand Lodge of Texas Ancient Free and Accepted Masons
715 Columbus Ave.
Waco, TX 76701
e-mail: gs@grandlodgeoftexas.org
254.753.7395
Fax: 254.753.2944