Ritual???????

Some say that my teaching is nonsense. Others call it lofty but impractical. But to those who have looked inside themselves, this nonsense makes perfect sense. And to those who put it into practice, this loftiness has roots that go deep. I have just three things to teach: Virtue, Diligence, and Brotherly Love. These three are your greatest treasures. Virtuous in actions and in your thoughts, you return to the source of your being. Diligence in all things puts you at peace with your accomplishments. Love toward those about you enables you to reconcile all beings in the world.

The Ritual is one of the prime components of a fraternity. It is the embodiment of the core values of the organization. If an organization lives by its core values it will be successful. This requires an unfettered belief and allegiance by the members who sacrifice some personal freedom to embrace the tenets of the many.

Who, then, becomes the guardian of the Ritual. It is the membership who holds absolute sway over the protection and direction of this guiding document. It is the membership who is responsible for seeing that it conform to contemporary mores. What happens when this trust is violated and changes are made and propagated by a single individual or small group of individuals without the approval of the many? Look at our Ritual. Not only have we forsaken it, we have allowed it to be altered without the consensus of the many. Do we care? It seems not. Stay tuned, dear readers, for this is only the beginning of a discourse on how we, as an organization, have forsaken our roots and how our guiding document has been adulterated by the few without the approval of the many. More to come.

I am Il Doge, the harbinger of truth.