Welcome to the Tyler’s place podcast the official podcast of the Scottish right of Freemasonry Southern jurisdiction mother Supreme Council of the world I am your host Matt Bowers 32nd degree Scottish Wright Mason and also the Tyler’s place podcast is in the top 20 of feedspot.com top 20 Masonic podcasts
You can go to feedspot.com type that into the search engine and see our name along with a bevy of other Sonic podcasts and I will include that information for everyone to check out when they have the opportunity this is the third installment of my little series on Blue Lodge catechism
Instructors catechism instructors for entrant apprentice fellowcraft and Master Mason and this one is on the masterm Mason degree with brother Mark Smith former past Master at my blue Lodge Mount Ararat as well as a 32nd degree Scottish Wright Mason and before I forget he is also the instructor at my
Blue Lodge for those working in the officer line to move up to worful master one day so brother Mark is a very busy brother indeed as with the previous two episodes similar questions in this podcast as the others but Mark gives his own perspective on the Master Mason
Degree and catechism and really shows an emotional tie in with what the Master Mason degree and catechism means to him as well as you can really learn from anyone at any age what something in the work might mean I’m going to stop talking you know how much I love to do
Introductions sit back relax and listen to my conversation with brother Mark Smith to me this stuff is uh it’s I don’t want to say it’s simple but it’s it’s um it’s kind of like I can only like relate it to like when I’m at work right
Everybody’s like oh my God what did you do like I did my job well you got a trip to Hawaii yeah I didn’t know we were having to contest I just did my job yeah and it’s the same thing with this stuff I just do what I’m
Supposed to do and I just stay in the course and and in time you get where you know you want to be well the the other reason I picked you too is your your perspective is pretty unique in that you you are a past Master uh you’re the
Current instructor for the Master Mason degree catechism and you’re you also instruct our blue Lodge line for the exemplification process so with all of that how do you fit all that experience into the Master Mason catechism teaching well so for me what I try to do with the catechism instruction
Specifically I I guess I kind of do it with the third degree stuff as well for the the instruction for the Masters to me to learn something to memorize something that’s a chore so you try to take the chore out of it to me what you need to do is
You express all right so you go through initially what you’re going to cover once you cover it delve into it you explain it you tear it apart what does it mean then you put it back together you rebuild it as a a structure that they can then now they have the understanding
Of what it is what it means it’s easier to remember the words so that’s when we get into the memorization part and yeah there’s a lot of just memorization but when you understand what it’s talking about it helps you remember it so you can recall it it’s not about getting
Through the test one time this is something that they need to know for the rest of their lives right they may be you know 30 when they learn it and at 50 or 60 they may move to a different town and retire you know they’re going to go
Into a different Lodge at that point or they may travel you know they may start traveling later on want to go you they may go to Europe I remember when I went to Pennsylvania I was a past master I had learned you know so much uh and I was
Very sharp with it back then I’m not as sharp today as I was then right Pennsylvania um with Ryan Thomas another past Master he wasn’t a past Master at that point I don’t think but we went together and they took me into their ATI room to examine me because I’d never
Been to that Lodge before didn’t know anybody there this was after Jim Davidson had passed so you know usually you go anywhere with Jim Davidson you just get a pass because you know he knew everybody right right they they’re taking me in the back of the exam me I’m
Answering the question Bo boom and then they got to the Gramma Sonic word and I was like he didn’t say that and the term that he used wasn’t any term that I’ve ever heard of but I knew what he I I thought to myself I think I know what
He’s asking for so then I gave him the appropriate response and I I was let in into the lodge it was like I was so unsure and I’m thinking to myself how would some new guy right come up to Pennsylvania and actually be able to get in Lodge if they didn’t understand what
That meant right and it took me it was a little bit of a stretch even for me at that point in time anyway getting back to your question it was so I like to to you know I like to have conversation about what it means you know Express to
Them have them Express to me what they think means and once they learn that then we can get into the memorization part of it after talking to Dan I kind of figured out how you get into certain things based on your personality whether you know it or not and and with that you
Know I learned that the Entered Apprentice catechism is really the in introduction to everything it’s it’s it’s the walk through the door fellowcraft in my opinion is a bit more esoteric in the lesson and you know especially between the the the battle and the pillars um and Master Mason
Teaching to me is is a bit more of the lab has a bit more of the labor symbolism of masonry tied to it what what do you feel is the primary teaching of the Master Mason catechism is it the the job your main job as a as a mason or
Is it or more well to me it’s a culmination of everything that came before it okay it’s it’s it’s part of the first it’s part of the second and it has its own new lessons but to me the Third degre is essentially a whole moral guide book
That you can say this is the this is the compass this is the the lessons that teach you how to structure your life and your moral character not only you know inside Lodge but when you’re out of the world like with anybody that you relate to this if
You use this moral structure that we put together here in the third degree it’s a guide right it teaches a lot of different things but to me if you put it all together just look at it as one big picture it’s a guide on how to live your
Life that’s the biggest thing for me mization thing but I’d like to break it down and teach each part explain what it means and then work on remembering the answers then I explain how all the parts fit together so I break it down then we teach it then we kind of put it
Back together there’s a lot of catechism isn’t just learning uh the the memorization it’s about getting to know each other it’s about creating relationships it’s about um helping somebody be a better person right so when you fit those parts back together again you might walk through some of the
Same things you might hear them say something different but without reciting directly from the catechism what’s your favorite part of the Master Mason catechism and how do you how do you tie that in Daily with your life list I’m start for a second because I was wondering about
This question when I when I read it and I was like it says what’s my favorite part of the masturbation degree so if I can if if that’s the question I’m answering I’ve already got a pre thought well yeah let’s yeah what’s your what’s your favorite portion of the degree of
The Master Mason degree it it is the part in in the degree where you have to pray for yourself it might seem to everybody to be a very small part but to me that part it’s like becoming a man it it’s like the symbolism behind it it shows
You that you’re a man that you have to buckle down you have to endure what’s coming by yourself where and that’s what we have to do in life we have to endure difficult things by ourselves through life and we have a obviously have a wonderful organization of men and a
Fraternity uh of Brothers and friends and so many great people that I’ve met in masonry but when I’m doing my thing every day I have to endure it myself there’s nobody coming to save me okay the third degree really is to me it’s the most emotional that that it just really CLS
Happ so you’re by yourself is what I was saying you have to do it yourself but you’re never alone because you have God so it teaches you to rely on God and that’s the biggest teaching to me of the masteration to that point where you have to
Pray it’s it’s so symbolic to me for what this degree stands for it’s your relationship with him that helps you get through you need a minute if you want me to do this without sing stuffed up probably so you’ve had the luxury of teaching a large class and a and I’m sure some
Small classes was was was my class the largest one you’ve had remind me how many guys we had nine yeah thear and at one point you you definitely had to call in the big guns with uh brother Jim Reinhardt to whip us into shape we were we were a
Little shaky at getting close to the end yeah I we needed a couple extra days of of training in there for sure yeah a large I like a class I like a class of about four five that really is probably my favorite uh and I don’t know if
That’s because I came through with five other guys you know six kind of like top but it’s the reason for me is when you’re breaking down the understanding of what’s going on you get collaboration you get thoughts from if you’re one one with it right it’s going to feel like an exam it
Can it can feel like an exam so when you have a group of men and you’re talking about you know what something means you’ll get thoughts different thoughts and once somebody start starts talking others follow in and give their own thoughts so it aids in the discussion it helps people have a broader
Understanding of the meaning of each given thing and for that reason I do like to have last than than less uh so it’s easier to to you know expound on a given topic it’s not just all me telling somebody what it’s all about right it’s them by sharing and expressing what they
Believe it means what it meant to them and I learned things that way too uh my last class had a young man who was 18 years old and I pointed at something and like this is something that I’ve never understood and he said I think it means
This and you know what I think he’s right so to me it’s like I learned something from an 18-year-old man yeah and from everybody and hopefully they learn from me right I’m doing the instruction I enjoy it because it’s uh it brings me closer to everybody in L I
Want to Happ I enjoy that part the social aspect of the fraternity as well as the moral lessons but you know um a smaller class you know that’s good for some people too but I I do prefer to have a few men in there and it can be a
Little bit more difficult having a larger class because of the schedules sure meet together on the same day you know having everybody there some classes everybody’s there every time other very spotty and when it’s spotty that becomes difficult to make sure that everybody you know knows everything it
Would seem to me too that it ALS also could make it difficult to know where everybody’s head is especially you know when you start to see patterns with things I mean there there have obviously been people over the years that have that have checked out never showed back
Up or were considerate enough to make a call and say hey man I can’t I can’t keep up with this but people create patterns and they’re and they’re they’re easy to see sometimes for sure I do want to ask do how real quick how did you learn your
Catechism you know we did not have cyer books when I came through um okay that so that’s going to be the question that I I I want to ask you because you’ve you’ve taught with a cipher book and you learned mouth to ear advantages and disadvantages so mouth to ear to me is
The best way to learn okay was the best way for me personally to learn it’s not the best way for everybody to learn and I understand that I do tell the brothers when they come to their first class and they have their book out I said put it away
It’s not about the book in here to me the book is a tool that they can use to practice when they’re not um you know in class right so you learn it and you’re like you go through it you’ve got the tool and you say oh I don’t remember
That word I don’t remember this phrase I don’t remember this whatever and you can reuse that tool to so that you can continue when I was going through you know I had to call this is one preparing for the master uh for the lectures I don’t know which one necessarily
Probably all three for that matter but I I remember I was like got that word I forgot that phrase what’s this next part and i’ call one of my well porn Brethren and they would give me a word or they would tell me the thought that I
Needed to know to get through so I could continue practicing on my own I think that it’s a tool that can be used to help but I don’t like to have it open class I really have become a firm believer in the work picks you in as much as you pick the work your personality will draw you to the things that you want to do nine times out of 10 I am really starting to feel that way it just makes
Logical sense so with that thank you very much to brother Mark Smith for his Insight on the Master Mason catechism and thank you very much for listening to The Tyler Place podcast the official podcast of the Scottish right of Freemasonry Southern jurisdiction mother Supreme Council of the world check us
Out on Facebook at facebook.com/ Scottish Freemasonry the official website of the Scottish right of Freemasonry Southern jurisdiction Scottish right.org you can also check out our YouTube page youtube.com Scottish rmons I am your host Matt Bowers 32nd degree Scottish Wright Mason and again we are in feedspot.com ‘s top 20 Masonic podcasts
Until next time thanks for listening here at the Tyler’s place Podcast
source
