“The fourth candle, the candle in the center of our seven, stands symbolically for comradeship.” Named after the last grand master of the Knights Templar, who sacrificed his life rather than betraying his fellow brothers, Demolay is a fraternity that gathers together young men. The fraternity works to aid the men in improving themselves and their community. It focuses around the sense of camaraderie that it’s namesake came from Jacques DeMolay was the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. He was appointed to the position after the previous Grand Master died in 1292. Jacques had been pining for the position since the year before when he put himself up as an alternative choice to the current Grand Master and called for a reformation. The Both single and team competitions are available. A person, or a team, competes against others in the performance of different rituals. My chapter competes at two different competitions, the Oklahoma State Conclave and at the National Frank Marshal Tournament of Champions. I have not gotten the opportunity to attend State Conclave. I set a chapter record of the most awards won by a first year member at Frank Marshal in 2015. I won five medals. Three of those came from first year, individual competitions. The other two were from team competitions. I placed as proficient in the Obligations to the Order which is a long list of promises that one has to memorize before they can hold office. This means that I scored higher than 50% and meant I earned a medal as well. Additionally. I placed first in that competition with a perfect score. The other individual event I placed first in was the first preceptor, filial love and scoring bonus points, earned even higher than perfect. I competed in our open level Ceremony of Light team and was the main part, and I was a secondary part in our championship level team, both of which placed first. DeMolay helps to teach the importance of community service in a number of ways. The biggest is through action. It is easy to talk about service, but the local DeMolays focus on action. Our chapter adopted a park. We saw that it was kept clean and maintained throughout the year. We held multiple meetings The club is centered around seven cardinal virtues: filial love, reverence for sacred things, courtesy, comradeship, fidelity, cleanliness, and patriotism. Every DeMolay works to instil these into their lives to become a better DeMolay, citizen, and most importantly, a better man. During one of our rituals, The Ceremony of Light (A ritual that helps to show the public what DeMolay is about) seven candles are placed around an altar in the shape of a shield. Each candle represents one of the virtues and is referred to as a “Preceptor”. In the center of the seven is Comradeship. This is to demonstrate that this is the foundational notion of the DeMolays. Each time we view that candle, we think of Jacques DeMolay and his sacrifice that led many years later to what our group is now. My time as a DeMolay has been an enriching and fulfilling experience. Overall it has left me with a sense of brotherhood that I will take with me into every part of my life. If a young man was looking to improve his life, I believe my time as a DeMolay is proof that this is the right choice for him. I have yet to see someone come out and leave unchanged by the Order of the
As the sunrises over the crisp fall horizon, followers begin to surround the sacred space in anticipation for what is about to take place. The sacred space is soon surrounded by people who are dressed in the sacred colors, some wearing necklaces of their totem, while others wear headdresses that adorn with their sacred symbol. People begin to drink, play music, and prepare a banquet feast for each other, creating a festival atmosphere in hope that today’s ritual will be a success. As the ritual gets set to begin followers begin to crowd into the sacred space, surrounded with pictures and names of those who have reached greatness. As the ritual begins, music is played in order to bring everyone together and prepare for the events that are about to unfold. It is now that the followers have a very simple focus, to aid in the success of the ritual. Those who celebrate the ritual take there places in the middle of the sacred space, with the followers surrounding them; now that the ritual has begun the celebrants begin to perform and focus on certain actions in order connect themselves with the transcendent sacred. The followers who look on begin to aid by chanting, allowing themselves to also transcend. In hopes that the ritual was a success, everyone does their part until the last second of the ritual is completed, it is only then that it can be decided if the ritual was a success and they can either celebrate or grieve by signing in their most sacred song, bonding them once again with each other.
In the Medieval Period, knights dedicated their lives to following the code of chivalry. In Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, a number of characters performed chivalrous acts to achieve the status of an ideal knight. Their characteristics of respect for women and courtesy for all, helpfulness to the weak, honor, and skill in battle made the characters King Arthur, King Pellinore, and Sir Gryfflette examples of a what knights strove to be like in Medieval society. Because of the examples ofchivalry, Le Morte d’Arthur showed what a knight desired to be, so he could improve theworld in which he lived.
Without religion or society imposing its ideals, human nature is free to pursue truth and seek the goodness in mankind while bonding in friendship. A selfless act is good, but good is not an act done for recognition. To Nathan, part of friendship is giving of oneself without receiving. The Templar shows his selflessness when Nathan offers the Templar riches for rescuing his daughter from a fire, but the Templar declines any praise with anti-Semitic insults, “Permit what, Jew?” (211).
The face of Masonry may be filled with many appealing principals, however the fraternity is deceiving Christians. They purposefully mislead people about their symbolism, beliefs, and practices. Freemasonry’s own thirty-third degree philosopher, Albert Pike, explains that the first degrees of Masonry are only the outer circle of the organization. Each Mason initiate is purposefully misled and only some of the symbols are shown to him. The only Masons that truly understand are the Masons who hold positions in the highest degrees. (819) He also states, “Masonry… conceals its secrets from all except… the elect, and uses false explanations and interpretations… to mislead those who deserve only ...
Twelve Who Ruled by R.R. Palmer is a book that was written with a very meticulous amount of detail. The story covers the reign of terror in France from 1793-1794. Palmer takes the Committee of Safety and individually explains each member along with their role in the Reign of Terror. The book was originally published in 1941 by the Princeton University Press, however, in 1989, a new preface was added, leading to a reprinting of the story. The purpose of Palmer’s book was to discover what led to the extreme outbreak of violence during the Reign of Terror. He sheds light on the killings, paranoia, and the well known guillotine.
Philippe Petit changed numerous peoples’ thoughts about the Twin Towers when he performed his high wire walk between them in 1974. Before Philippe Petit walked the high wire between the Twin Towers in 1974, people weren’t certain how they felt about the construction of the World Trade Center. After Philippe performed, people began to warm up to the idea of the towers. Philippe Petit walked the high wire between the Twin Towers on August 7, 1974. This event prompted Andrew McMahon to write the song “Platform Fire” about this event for his band, Jack’s Mannequin. This song was not a hit for the band; however, fans of Jack’s Mannequin seem to have a special place in their heart for it.
For my twelve hours of community service I went to the Boys & Girls club in Erie, Pennsylvania. While at the Boys and Girls club I had noticed a variety of different things in regards to the population
"The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies." Secret Teachings of All Ages: , Part Three. N.p., 30 June 2007. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
...ors, which raise doubt and suspicion about the goal of this fraternity. “They describe the rituals as a shared experience which binds the members together. The use of drama, allegory, and symbolism impresses the principles and teaching more strongly in the mind of each candidate than if they were simply accepted in the group.”Moreover Freemasons have codes, passwords, jargon, and clues to identify and communicate with each other everywhere, about everything. For instance the: “foot to foot” handshake asks another mason to go and help another brother. The “breast to breast” tell you to keep your secrets. “Hand to back “knows as help your fallen brother, and “mouth to ear” means whisper good council. All these clues and codes may appear odd to a non mason but to masons these codes are a way of life.
Our “Known World” consists of 19 kingdoms, with over 30,000 members residing in countries around the world. Members, dressed in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, attend events which feature tournaments, royal courts, feasts, dancing, various classes & workshops, and more. For more information, see the Society’s web site a
Community service is something that I have always engaged. In college, I worked with chemically dependent children as both a caretaker and a mentor. After I graduated, I taught at-risk children in a community youth outreach program. To remain involved and aware of the focus of my studies during my first year of law school, I volunteered at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center teaching youth their basic legal rights. Essentially, we strove to empower kids by providing practical information about the legal system and to help them develop more favora...
Lancelot, Bors, and Perceval all strive to become more like Galahad, and the author effectively uses these characters to teach his readers lessons about spiritual chivalry and personal salvation. The author provides each of these knights with a series of monks and hermits who counsel and guide him in the ways of spiritual chivalry, for only the most pure Christian knights have any hope of finding the Grail. The adventures of Perceval are very straightforward and easy to interpret, so he provides readers with a suitable introduction to spiritual chivalry and the importance of virginity, asceticism, and complete faith in God. The author faces Bors with more complicated challenges and visions than anything Perceval must handle; since the author tells Bors' adventures after Perceval's, readers should be more prepared to interpret their meaning and significance with regard to spiritual chivalry and personal salvation. The advice Lancelot receives from his series of monks and hermits shows readers the importance of confession and penance, but the author makes it clear that readers should not emulate Lancelot's life of sin ...
“To whom much is given, much is expected.” This quote exemplifies my own personal philosophy on community service. Service is the greatest gift one can return to their community. When an individual takes their personal time and effort to help others in need, it helps progress not only the community they live in, but multiple communities ; ultimately promoting unity and teamwork. People gather together to work towards a common goal: building the people and organizations they are directly and indirectly affected by so that the next generation will be stronger than the previous one. Community service is but is not limited to monetary and material donations, housing reinforcement, neighborhood clean ups. It is as simple as holding a toy drive for
Raising community awareness to students will teach them the importance of being involved in the community. Students being able to give back to the community will prepare them for their journey to being a positive role model or servant leader.
Community service has now grown to be a way of bringing a community together. There is something important about doing good for others. Every community wants the people within it to be disciplined and work for change. Community service becomes easily assessable for it is the one of the best ways to teach a sense concern and sympathy to other individuals. Participating in community service, allows children and adolescents to become aware of good values and morals. Implemented values such as humility, gratitude, trustworthiness, genuineness and respect are some of the most vital virtues that one can obtain from helping the community. The importance of community service ultimately relies on how the provider distinguishes it. The more time individuals give doing community labor, the more