Tupelo Masonic Lodge No. 318 F.&A.M. - TupeloMason®

This site stands just and upright as a Blue Lodge, chartered on Jan 21, 1869 to provide our Brethren of Free and Accepted Masonry, with information on activities, functions, and news, pertaining to Tupelo Masonic Lodge No. 318 F&AM, topics as they relate to Freemasonry, as well as updates from The Grand Lodge of Mississippi. "Free & Accepted Masonry... The Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man". ©2011 All Rights Reserved TupeloMason® - http://masonic-lodge-318.kk5.org

Showing posts with label Senior Deacon- Fraternal Ties. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Bro John Paul Gomez, Senior Deacon, Doric Lodge No. 316 A.F.& A.M. - FraternalTies

The following article was submitted to our blog, TupeloMason, at our request by a brother in Canada, which designed the official seal, (pictured above), for Tupelo Masonic Lodge No. 318 F&AM, which has been implemented on all of our various social networking sites to include TupeloMason on Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, Shutterfly, MySpace, and LinkedIn. You are invited to join us ony any of these forums that you personally utilize.

We would like for you to personally get to know the brother that is responsible for this remarkable work and hope that you will take the time to show your appreciation by saying, "Thank You!".

You have probably seen the comical photgraph attached below, "What others think I do...", floating around the internet and I must take the liberty to personally introduce you to the designer, himself.

On behalf of Tupelo Masonic Lodge No. 318 F&AM, we would like to express our sincere regards to Bro Gomez and Fraternal Ties for his hard work and attention to detail.

Fraternally,
TupeloMason

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John Paul Gomez, Senior Deacon, Doric Lodge No. 316 A.F.& A.M.

First of all I would like to thank Bro. Arnie Cade for giving me the wonderful opportunity to be featured in Tupelo Masonic Lodge No. 318 blog. I have never written an article about myself before so please bear with me if this is going to be a somewhat of a boring piece.

My Masonic journey began in my early teens when I joined the International Order of DeMolay in the Philippines. I moved to Toronto, Canada in 2004 and it was here in this country that adopted me where I became a Freemason. I was Initiated into the Craft at Doric Lodge No. 316 A.F. & A.M., Thornhill, Canada on June 26, 2008. I was Passed on November 11, 2008, and Raised on April 29, 2009.

There where two of us who got Initiated on the same day. He was also a DeMolay and also hails from the Philippines. As far as I know, we are the first Filipinos to ever join Doric Lodge No. 316. As somebody who comes from a country with a long history of colonial rule, the idea of intermingling with people outside of my ethnic group caused me anxiety. And so I was very nervous when I first stepped in the Lodge for the ceremony of my Initiation. This feeling of tension immediately dissolved when I realized that though no one there are Filipinos but the two us- the members, officers, and visitors present all came from different parts of the world, have different cultures, different backgrounds, different belief system, etc, etc. On that same day, I experienced the warmth of Brotherhood and laughed at myself for feeling anxious in the first place.

I used to work as a computer specialist for Fidelity Investments but lost my job when the company decided to outsource the services that my department provides. I then worked as a web coordinator for a big retail clothing company based here in Canada but I resigned after a few months due to personal reasons. I am now happy with my position as a stay-at-home dad for my lovely wife Rechelle and wonderful kids- Chienna (11yrs old) and Jachin (2yrs old). To supplement our family income, I design and sell Masonic neckties on my website http://www.fraternalties.com/. What I earn from that website is not enough to equal what an average worker earns in a month and for that I am eternally grateful to my hardworking wife for maintaining a regular job. I also maintain a blog on that same website where I regularly post my Masonic artworks such as this one below.

This piece is composed of a number of sacred geometry and Masonic imagery. The Greek encryption when translated reads "Let none ignorant of geometry enter here."- words inscribed by Plato above the entrance to his famous school. Two of the biggest graphic elements in this artwork are the Flower of Life and the wings of Ahura Mazda- considered by the earliest civilizations in West Asia as the god of wisdom, intelligence, and harmony. Furthermore, the word Ahura means light and Mazda means wisdom. The other graphic elements that you can see here are the working tools, the sun and the moon, the pillars, the ashlars, the five platonic solids, the point within a circle, sprig of acacia, crossbones, Square and Compasses, the pentagram and the pig pen cypher- all important symbols in their own right but to discuss each of them here would take several pages. But if you want to discuss, please follow this link https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150976159720344&l=9222f108cc.

Not all of my work deal with serious stuff. I also enjoy the tongue-in-cheek approach when producing art. One of my creations have gone viral within minutes of uploading it.

The positive feedback from the Brethren and the public alike are very encouraging and have given me a new found love in mixed media arts. When speaking in person, I sometimes experience difficulty in explaining my complete thought. But Freemasonry and art have helped me to reach out and connect to people around the globe and be understood. For that I am forever thankful.

Sincerely & Fraternally,

John Paul Gomez
Senior Deacon, Doric Lodge No. 316 A.F & A.M.

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"One man is equivalent to all Creation, One man is a world in miniature."

~ Albert Pike