2010 Signature Scholarships are Here!

2010 Signature Scholarships Are Here !

The 2010 Signature Scholarships application booklets are now available from Minnesota Masonic Charties. These scholarships are available to all Minnesota graduating high school seniors with or without fraternal affiliation and are awarded to students who demostrate academic and personal achievement, as well as community participation or services and overall excellence. Five recipients are awarded the Signature Scholarships each year. Signature Scholarships are $5000 each, renewable for four years up to $20,000.

The Signature Scholarships are named after five individuals who are strongly identified with the state of Minnesota through personal achievement or public service and who personally committed to the values of Masonry in their private lives:

• James J. Hill
• Hubert H. Humphrey
• The Mayo Brothers
• Harold Stassen
• Laura Ingalls Wilder

For more information about MMC Scholarships program to download an application,

click here or call 952-948-6004 to request that one be sent to you.

Know of a worthy student who might qualify? Please pass the application along.

Deadline for submission is February 12,2010

The Masons of Minnesota have a long tradition of commitment to the next generation, Minnesota Masonic Charties provided $356,000 in scholarships in 2008-2009.

The Masons of Minnesota thru Minnesota Masonic Charties makes the dream of college a reality.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgivings to you all. If you have a few moments please read on.

This was painted by one of my favorite artists Norman Rockwell. I grew up seeing his art on Calendars, magazines and all types of memorialbilia. I have recently have been learning so much more about how great of an American artist he truely was.

Norman Rockwell heard President Franklin D Roosevelt speech to congress on January 6, 1941

. He was so moved and inspired that he created a series of four painting called The Four Freedoms. This painting of a multi generational family gathered at the table. They are together, happy and about to enjoy a feast. They are living in the moment .They are unencumbered by want or fear.

Just a little time before this picture was painted our country was in the deep depths of the great depression and europe was at war and we were just months from the attack on Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt said" True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. "Necessitous men are not free men. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff dictators are made of."

Norman Rockwell painted this idealistic hopful picture when the past was dark and the future looked even darker. This painting is the third of a series of four paintings and its called "Freedom of Want."

For a outstanding study guide of the Four freedoms I suggest you click here and read the four part series by Mary Lea-Cox of the Carnegie Council. I have it arranged so it starts with Freedom of Want a Study guide to the Four Freedoms"

I hope during this time of Thanksgiving that you are healthly and have safe travels and most importantly a joyful feast and Freedom from Want.

The Masonic Trowel

The Trowel in operative Masonry is used to spread the cement which unites the building into one common mass. Its symbolic use is to spread the cement of brotherly love and affection which unites into one great Fraternity all members of the Masonic family, wheresoever dispersed around the world.

The Tun Tavern

The Tun Tavern is known as the birth place of the United States Marine Corp. It happened on November 10,1775 the Contiental Congress commissioned Samuel Nicholes to raise two Battalions of Marines.....the rest is history.

Interesting side notes. -In 1732 the tavern was also the location of ST. Johns Lodge #1

-The Tavern burned down in 1781

- The orginianl location is in Philadelphia occuppied by Interstate 95

- The Marine Corp Museum in Quantico Virginia hosts a Tun Tavern
they offer a lunch menu with alcoholic beverages and bread pudding


SEMPER FI

THATS OOO RAHHHH TO YOU MY FRIENDS

Veterans Day 2009

One November 11, 2009 at 1100 hrs please join me in a moment to say a prayer for our men and women in uniform:

Lord God, Almighty Father, creator of mankind and author of peace: As we are ever mindful of the cost paid for the liberty we possess, we ask you to bless the members of our armed forces.

Give them courage, hope and strength.

May they ever experience your firm support, gentle love and compassionate healing.

Be their power and protector, leading them from darkness to light.

To you be all glory and praise now and forever.

Amen.

I have heard the saying that is so true -- that a Veteran is someone who at one point in his-her life, wrote a blank check payable to the Unites States of America for an amount of "Up to and including my life."

Below is an image I think proves just that...........an image I find diffcult to get out of my mind

This is Mary, mourning her dead fiancee who is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Her fiancee was a soldier in the US Army Special Forces, who was killed by an IED explosion in Iraq last year. This is Mary's first visit to the grave since the funeral.

Our Country was born in blood. Our freedom is maintained by the blood of our Service Members. Today let us thank those who serve and pray for their safe return.

Let us also remember and support the families of those who serve.