The City, Man, Europe
XX September 1870
From the unification of Italy to a united Europe

Speech of the Grand Master Stefano Bisi

Welcome to the Vascello,
Welcome to the home of the Freemasons of Grande Oriente d’Italia.
Welcome to the garden of Fraternity.

We are many, let me say very many , this evening in Rome’s most beautiful park, so well kept with so much love and professional care by our gardeners. We are many and we are so happy, even if this participation may create some logistic problems.
We are proud of this home on the Gianicolo hill, but we are equally proud of another flagship, Casa Nathan, inaugurated last March. Casa Nathan is the home to all Brothers, beginning from the active and hard-working Masonic communion of Rome. It is a Temple of crystal and Light, just like the Vascello is a temple in the green fully respecting the beauty of Nature that surrounds us. The two homes are two pillars of Grande Oriente d’Italia, they are our past and our present, but also the future for our communion. All temples spread all over Italy, so well kept with love and passion, are pillars of Grande Oriente d’Italia.
We are here to continue a tradition, we are here to renew our pact of loyalty to the Constitution and to our values, in front of many friends who are not members of our Craft and to whom I give a warm welcome.
We are here to look ahead, to look to the future with confidence. We are aware of our glorious past, yet our eyes are turned to the future, a growing tree is not nostalgic about its roots.
Dear Brothers, dear Friends, we the Grande Oriente d’Italia are like a big tree that draws its precious lifeblood from the past, but branches and leaves are the present, strong brothers eager to grow up looking into the face of the sun. A tree that has been standing there for centuries, aware of its nobility and offering a safe shelter to those sitting under its fronds always shaken by the wind of Liberty and free thinking. A tree with thick foliage, not a bare trunk with dry branches.
The tree of Grande Oriente d’Italia has a solid trunk and many values hang as fruits from its peaks. Ideals are necessary just like water is for life of the tree, of Man, of the Universe.
A life without ideals would be as dry as desert sand and would drop the individual in the empty and bottomless shaft of indifference, worthlessness, depression, in what Freemasons call darkness. On the contrary, strong action, supported by values and noble aspirations fills life, makes it bright, makes it richer of meanings. Taking fills our hands, giving fills our hearts.
This is precisely what Freemasonry does. Freemasonry is as ancient as mankind is. Freemasonry works and operates “for the benefit and progress of humanity”, its life-giving and propulsive action identified and supported common ideals for all men in all corners of our Earth. Freedom, Equality, Fraternity, Tolerance, Solidarity, Universal Peace, Defense of Human Rights, with Dignity of every human being in the foreground. And speaking of dignity, I think of our marines. Please let’s think about our marines.
This is who Freemasons are. They are people who believe that human dignity should be put at the first place on the scale of ideals. They are people who celebrate, today, XXth September as Autumn Equinox and as Breach of Porta Pia. Today the wall we have to tear down is that of intolerance, religious fanaticism that could destroy what men of good will have built up day after day, brick after brick.
We need harmony, we need understanding.
A society is going well, is moving towards progress, is promoting the values of family, of spirit, of good, of friendship, a society is prosperous without conflicts among its members, a society starts its peaceful journey towards a better future when everyone does his duty. These words are not mine, but they were said by Giovanni Falcone, a magistrate who brutally paid with his own life the price for his work for justice. These words are more relevant than ever. How could we ignore them? Let us think about it.
I would also like to quote the words of Paolo Borsellino, another great magistrate killed by murderous hands without values. During an interview he anticipated his death and gave a great lesson in courage. He said: “There is fear in everyone, it is normal, but it is important that it is accompanied by courage. We should not leave fear overcome us, otherwise fear becomes an obstacle preventing us from moving forward. We must keep going straight ahead and have courage. So much courage”. We too, dear Brothers, must have courage in carrying out our work for the good of humanity, in a world scenario which is scary indeed and systematically give us shivers. Many crisis situations threaten human Harmony and put Reason under check.
“We need courage at a time of difficulty. Difficulties stimulate courage, courage tempers strength, strength imposes the route to destiny. This is the meaning of life”, said the philosopher Gustavo Rol.
Let’s look around. Everything is changing with dizzying rapidity. We are witnesses of unbridled globalisation, of the crisis of the economic markets, of lacerating conflicts, escalation of fundamentalism, violence on women and children, racism, the great tragedy of immigration which sees Italy and Lampedusa at the forefront from the beginning. And the crisis of ideals. The plot of social fabric is ripping apart. Maybe Humanity has never confronted, like it is happening now, so many changes at all levels, What can our stone do? The stone that we are trying to smooth, day by day, in this world that looks more and more vicious, in our cold and hasty cities where the smile on people’s faces is lost, where everything encroaches into personal and material Ego, where everyone mistrust others and turns his shoulders?

In these cities we need courageous and capable men. Brave and capable, even revolutionary as it was in the early 1900s with our brother Ernesto Nathan. He is a mayor of Rome who represents even today a true example of social activity and good administration of public affairs. It is necessary to act with reason and with heart. Cold head, warm heart.
We, as Freemasons, have the duty and the responsibility to protect, defend and transfer in the world the principles expressed in the Trinomial that we find at the Orient in our Temples; Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. We have to be confident, we have to convey confidence, we have to pass it to the others.
We must work to build a better Society, a better Civilization and a better world. We have to do it with the compass of our free thinking, as pure as air is, with the square and the straight edge. Speak with balance and act correctly. We do not have to move back in face of anything. Our Communion is sometimes criticized or exposed to the changing winds of the media and this is the only way to keep it alive and firm in front of the changing world and progress. In step with the times. This is the only way to keep resistant, indissoluble and stable our Fraternal chain.
Freemasonry has always been able to be at the forefront, to understand and anticipate events. This is what history tells. In this crucial moment of human history, we the Freemasons of Grande Oriente d’Italia, need to be true citizens of the world. We need to be courageous, just like the “boy from Europe” described in the song of my fellow citizen Gianna Nannini:

You guy of Europe
You never lose your way
You guy of Europe
You carry luck around
You guy of Europe
You never plant a flag.

Citizens of the world without ever planting a flag? Don’t we have so many symbols to promote and to be proud of? Will anybody see it as a paradox? No, this is not a paradox, an escape from reality, from real life. We were once builders of cathedrals, today we are builders of a multi-cultural citizenship, we are builders of harmony. We do not plant flags because we want to look over the horizon, we want to broaden our vision keeping strong roots, we do not have to stop because it seems we have achieved a goal.
We need to keep on determined on our route, the path of wisdom along which we find safe locations where we can exercise our Royal Art. Our temples, our workshops have known for centuries the integration among different cultures and races. With us, men of different colour and religion sit next to each other, not against each other. Everyone is free to stand up, take the floor and start a dialogue, a confrontation and grow. We always try to give the best of us to the Lodge and to Humanity. Through patient, tenacious, enlightened and laborious research.
Our Country, this Europe is searching for greater cohesiveness, a fundamental and common identity still far from being well-defined. This Europe searching for a true solidarity is entitled to hear our thoughts, our actions, our ideas, our decisions of courageous and free men. This is why that “guy from Europe” of Gianna Nannini brings many flags to be planted over his shoulder. He walks with the cockiness of his youth and dialogues with the world. He has courage and hope. He knocks at our doors because he sees in us builders of integration and equality, builders of harmony.
Just a few days ago we received an email by a young man knocking at our door, one of the many young men who see us as a school of life. “I lived and worked in Ukraine and Denmark” this guy writes to Grande Oriente d’Italia “my values allowed me to become aware of the deep, bright light that everyone has got inside. As a young man of my time I want to bring my humble contribution to a common project where men and brothers work together through the teachings of life and the trials of spirit. A project for the sake of future generations”.
Here we have, my dear brothers, a beautiful message that should make us even more aware and responsible of our great mission, of our uniqueness and universality. Let’s give and let’s keep giving this young man and all others knocking at our door an answer up to the standards of our tradition. Let’s give answers with “strength and vigour”, without giving up in front of the climate of discouragement around us. Let’s participate to the change, let’s remind ourselves that change happens if we fight for an ideal, an ideal of freedom, our inhexhaustible treasure that we have in our home and we can propose as a point of reference to Humanity. Our Lodges are small microcosms of democracy, tolerance, solidarity, like so many bell towers of this Italy, villages and men with strong, solid ideals that were not broken and need to be defended strenuously. We can build, we must build a better society, day by day, brick by brick, moment by moment, ad infinitum yet being aware that the wall inside our temples shall never be completed. Our work and our action shall never be finished.
Let’s start with small gestures. Let’s stay close to our elderly brothers, the brothers that I prefer to call the young old ones.
I will mention one for all: Mario Sacconi, from Rome, ninety years of age. A few days ago he came here, to the Vascello; he can barely walk, yet he climbed up the staircase as light and enthusiast as a boy. Let’s support the young people, they are our life and our future, let’s fight for their cultural education. Let’s give them hope and a perspective. Pablo Neruda said: Hope has two beautiful daughters, disdain and courage. Disdain for reality and courage to change it. This in what we must do, find the courage to change reality and build the future of a better Humanity.

Roma, Villa Il Vascello, 20th September 2014

Grand Lodge 2014
With Outspread Wings Towards the Future
A Certain Idea To Build Our Tomorrow
Address of the Most Worshipful Grand Master Bro. Gustavo Raffi

Authorities,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Brethren,

This is, in fact, my last opportunity to share with you all as the Grand Master. Therefore, I hope that my speech spreads a charge of optimism, positivity, dynamism, openness and transparency which, I hope, I have helped to consolidate within our Institution during the years as Grand Master.

I wish that my last consideration embraces all the good that has been done and presents it at least in summary. However, one speech cannot contain everything and words alone cannot convey everything I want. I hope that the memory of facts speaks for what the words cannot say.

We cannot resign ourselves to live passively in a historical reality that strongly requires our contribution that we – and perhaps we are the only ones – can give to Italy. We cannot condemn ourselves to be complicit in a logic of metallic superficiality, or to be unwitting actors thrown into a situation where the only shared value seems to be related to the spread between Italian Treasury Bills and German Bunds, while other forms of spread are growing out of proportion, which are unfortunately far more problematic: differences in culture, well-being, and access to knowledge.

We cannot share, with our inertia, a vision which excludes completely the human dimension that escapes the senses, i.e. the dimension of our esoteric research. We cannot share a world that is not designed by a Great Architect according to a perspective and teleological order, i.e. an end, a project of freedom and happiness to build.

The deep values in our hearts – as well as the idea of the human being, which according to Kant is understood as the end of history and not as its mere instrument, the same values that we insist to keep in our mind – do not allow us to sit back and do nothing. This is asked to us by our history and our past. The contribution given by Freemasonry to the Italian society is, in fact, so deeply rooted in the best parts of the history of our country that our identity is imposing us to act.

Our values must be clear; our contribution must always appear equally transparent. It is of no use to the human assembly, and it would be of very little use even for each of us, if we conceived Masonic life as contained in self-referential circuits, which speak only to themselves.

The world is changing at a speed which was totally unimaginable a few years ago. This ‘liquid’ world – as Zigmunt Baumann used to define it – is radically transforming all “rigid” structures deposited by the sea of the past on the shores of the present. Just look back inside the walls that separate Italy from the Vatican to realize that something is changing. We observe with interest and respect how this Pope is accelerating the time of epoch-making changes within the horizon of systems that are traditionally reluctant to accept the ferment of innovation. His influence is reflected and reverberates far beyond the borders of vestries.

But it’s also up to us! It’s up to us to sail through this liquid reality. It is also up to us to deal with the changing contemporary world, with the claim, which is never betrayed, that we are always contemporary of posterity. Will we be able to carry the work of our lodges through this liquid time? This art, but also a vision of the world, has been entrusted to each of us by Freemasonry.

We can be optimistic. Very optimistic! Because the future of man is first of all built by human hands. The construction of our future will be what we, Freemasons, have built in our freedom, stone by stone. Can we lack confidence in ourselves? Can we possibly not give us hope?

The only time that really belongs to us is, in fact, the future. Giordano Bruno wrote this, and that truth has not been stopped by the prison in Castel Sant’Angelo, because thinking is like an eagle in the wind.
So, we can do one thing, and one only. We must stop complaining of difficulties, stop looking angrily to the obstacles that are in front of us, stop doubting of ourselves. Setting sail and navigating with confidence to the future, whatever it brings, is what our identity as Italians and Freemasons calls us to do.

Fifteen years have passed; fifteen years of difficulty, in which we have tried to disrupt an old way of thinking about Freemasonry, which is not ancient and traditional, but a way of thinking that has completely escaped the showdown in history. A kind of Freemasonry that is incapable of being an ethical Agency, unfit to grasp the ferment from civil society, and inadequate and lacking in conceptual means to compete with the young people and their instances, appeared as a superfluous entity doomed to an unstoppable decline, as if it were a beautiful Egyptian mummy, probably very exotic and perhaps even esoteric, but substantially incapable of opening to the future.

The history of Freemasonry, however, is based on the ability to promote research, first individual, spiritual, and knowledge research, to compete with the harshest climate in the light of a continued thinking on the content of things. Then, it is not up to us to give clear answers or supplant the role of political parties, or associations, or churches. We have another task, which is quite different and special, which is to promote dialogue and critical thinking, to defend and spread a model of free and open society, able to pass beyond the veil of Maya, rejecting conformism, also and especially mental conformism. Saying that these have been years of rediscovered Masonic pride perhaps seems too much, but certainly we wanted to give thousands of our brethren the full sense of belonging, which we can be publicly proud of, totally rejecting the image of a petty confraternity devoted to handling metals, made of little men busy in small business, a reject of other social organisations. Freemasonry, indeed, is not a clearing house and a coterie, but a real and ideal Temple where free Men search for shared truths through dialogue.

The road was certainly long and full of difficulties, resistances, and errors. But ‘Those who do nothing, make no mistakes’! If we had not tried to open windows and doors that had been kept closed for years, to remove cobwebs and open chains and latches, today we would be not only next to no one, but we would have kept or – even worse – attracted only a civil and moral rearguard of our country, while instead a new generation of young or even very young men is looking for opportunities of free exchange, free analysis and discussion in Masonic Temples. They seek – and hopefully find – a more exciting context than the country normally offers.

Was it the spring of Freemasonry? Historians will draw conclusions of our present and our recent past. Surely we have not been sitting on our hands; we have not repeated ancient procedures; we have not settled for second-best. Our institution was previously regarded as unworthy of citizenship, distrusted and kept at a safe distance, whereas it is now, without fear of contradiction, one the liveliest and most transparent and active entities in Italy. The history of Freemasonry thinking and institutions has become again a serious subject of academic debate. Universities organise seminars and conferences on Masonic themes, and books on these topics are included in the catalogues of extremely prestigious publishers; and Masonic thinking is not only found on bulletins of esoteric cliques or in shoddy journalism.

The most important Authorities of national institutions, the representatives of the Italian State, the highest offices of the European Parliament and the European Union have honoured us with their consideration and invited us to participate in meetings of international importance. While it is true that for some of us – less and less, fortunately – a medal or an embellishment is worth more than this, we have turned the corner and put emphasis on other contents and so on very different priorities, opening the way to further, new and unexpected interlocutors.

The journey has been long and certainly remains bitter for so many things that should have been and could have been accomplished, but we are comforted by the fact that the new organisation given to the life of Italian Freemasonry consolidates a renewed image of a transparent protagonist of social life, as a circuit that does not fear dialogue and discussion, as an instrument of civilization and defence of the most important values in the Italian Constitution and the Declaration of Human Rights. This passage must not be taken for granted and has opened up perspectives of enormous responsibility. Being an ethical agency and a moral point of reference charges the Grande Oriente d’Italia with responsibilities it was used to only in the heroic periods when our Nation-State was formed. We have gone back to the glorious days and so, paradoxically, to innovate we had to take up the habits of healthiest and most prestigious tradition. You see: tradition and innovation are often just words.

Sometimes, to innovate we keep what was already there. On the contrary, we intended to refer to the best past time, to real splendour, and we jumped into the vortex of modernity. In the future, we will draw the necessary conclusions, but certainly those who arrive – and I extend my affectionate greetings to the new Grand Master, dear Brother Stefano Bisi – find today a healthy environment and a wide and varied social body, which is without a doubt more capable, at least in its main core, to meet the challenges we have undertaken and can no longer avoid. These challenges – we repeat – are all rooted in the ethical dimension of civil commitment. We have been able to open the doors of the Temple to the richness of the content and ethical responsibility, and we were not alone anymore, even if our work is just beginning, and we have to climb many other steps in order to consolidate what has been achieved. But the direction to follow is clear: secularism, transparency, solidarity, spirituality, and freedom of thought and research.

Let me return once again on a theme that I have repeated on several occasions. We worry so much about education and research, cultural heritage, in short about tangible and intangible cultural heritage of which we speak, unfortunately, very little, because we want to see Italy in a perspective of sustainable growth, where economic development does not coincide with unequal wealth of the few over the many, with a collective numbness made of spiritual mortification, which is the prelude to a factory of subjects resigned to decline who are not able to exercise critical thinking skills and self-criticism. A healthy outlook is based instead on a careful construction of values, which helps individuals to rediscover their being citizens and at the same time allows maturing the Nation and European identity with it.

Although Freemasonry of the Grande Oriente d’Italia is a masculine institution, we cannot fail to note the puzzling phenomenon of dramatic increase of violence against women every day. At the same time, we have a duty, as we are men, to emphasize that the action of prevention, education, and maturation should be done especially on boys and men, especially those educated in a western Latin sexual conceit context, who believe they are authorised to exercise their rights of supremacy, sometimes to death.

This even more disturbing phenomenon has deep, larger, and bloodier roots in the Third World fundamentalism. Our idea of Freemasonry is also this, i.e. an educational community that looks to the real problems and considers the central role of women as a part of esoteric training, in order to safeguard the dignity and legality against the growing barbaric phenomena to which we are opposed.

As you can see, rooted in apparently ancient forms, anchored to a tradition that has existed for almost three centuries, Freemasons still have their say, because they have rediscovered the sense of an ancient colour that from time to time becomes a new colour of the future.

The tree of our tradition certainly has very strong roots, planted in the ground of a past that I hope I have helped to make known to most people during the years I have been Grand Master. The trunk of our Masonic adventure radiates in the present, here, alive even now in all of us as we are united by an ideal bond of brotherhood.

In a sense, I am leaving the trunk to go back to the roots. But it’s up to you, indeed, all of us together, to ensure that this tree is able to project itself with its youngest leaves in the sky of the future to create space for new light and bring abundant fruits for a society that wants truth and more serene perspectives.

Grand Lodge 2014
Address of the Most Worshipful Grand Master Bro. Stefano Bisi

Dear Brethren,

First of all I thank you. Brethren do not thank each other, as I have been taught by older Masons. But I want to thank you. So I thank those who came from far away for these days and this day in particular, which I will remember forever. I feel the burden and, at the same time, the lightness of this assignment that you have entrusted me and before so many Brethren and foreign Delegations. I feel this burden, as I come from a small town, my beloved Siena, and have been elected to be the head of a community that has had the chance to have a great Grand Master, Brother Gustavo Raffi. I feel the lightness because I know I have all of you on my side. During the last few days, I have felt your warm support and affection, which will help me in this journey. This will help me to sail into the future, along with all of you.
The navigation of everyone, of every Lodge, and the entire Masonic Community starts from a safe haven, which is our tradition, which is not an obstacle to the progress of humanity and indeed promotes change for the dignity of man. “The tradition – in fact – is not the worship of ashes, but the worship of fire.” The roots of each of us are crucial, we must never forget them; they can become a strength to fly into the future. We are reminded about this by a singer my compatriot, Gianna Nannini, when she says that “roots are not chains.” I have never forgotten where I was born, where I received my education, my elementary school in the countryside where the teacher taught me our national anthem ‘Fratelli d’Italia’, and my first Brethren, Dino and Franco, who welcomed me in my first Lodge. Each of us lives with memories. No one wants to cancel the past here. Our memories give us the strength to go on.
And we move forward, we do not go back. We know where to go. Tradition guides us, but we cannot go back, which means that we cannot go back to 20 or 30 years ago when we were forced to hide and flee. We have opened and have found the pride of belonging to Freemasonry. The port from which we start our journey today is safe. The port is used to bring together ideas and energy and organize always new journeys. The port will be for docking of vessels of different origin, but a port of reception is not enough, as we must create the conditions to facilitate the restart of all towards their journey, according to their needs and resources. The appropriate ways to navigate are our values, but also getting together, and talking with our Brethren, and looking each other in the eyes is sometimes worth a thousand words.
We need to be sure about the desire and the strength of sailors, as Seneca wrote that “There is no favourable wind for those who do not know where to go.” We need the help and expertise of all, but to leave, to be able to sail, we need to paddle in harmony. I therefore appeal to the support of ALL Brethren. We work together to navigate well and to avoid standing still or stranding somewhere! People who push against cannot think that there are no other oarsmen, and the end result can only be to stand still or sink and lose the good things that we have done. Let us stay together! Let us have mutual trust, dear sailors. Again with reference to the language of the sea, the Italian singer Rino Gaetano sang “Who swims alone drowns for three.” Rino Gaetano was a Calabrian minstrel a bit out of the box. Calabria is sometimes misquoted because of alleged ties between Freemasonry and the ‘ndrangheta, i.e. the local organised crime. We must stop to identify this region with the ‘ndrangheta. We must stop to identify Sicily with mafia, and Freemasonry with mafia. We must stop to identify Campania with camorra, and Freemasonry with camorra. Let us oppose this!
Dear Brethren, together we can direct us toward common goals and shared ports. What matters is what unites us and not what divides us, and if we fail to reach the same port, certainly that stretch of sea journey together will have made us stronger.
Bob Kennedy suggests and warns “The future does not belong to those who are satisfied… It will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and courage… The future will belong to those who understand that wisdom can only arise from the clash of conflicting ideas, from the passionate expression of deep and adverse beliefs.” Bob Kennedy reminds us that the true man is a remarkable and unique balance of Passion, Reason, and Courage.

Passion is love for people, things, ideas, and man has always had to overcome the challenge of using his passions and not to be used by them. At the same time, man must not stifle passions until they are cancelled. Passions are like the wind in the sails: a journey cannot start without the wind. We have a great desire to travel, which means doing what we say and think. Reason is the tool that allows us to assess the reality of the present and past, things done and undone. Reason allows us to do a summary to learn from, in order to be able to design and plan the next steps. It is like a navigation plan and the use of all human and technological tools to proceed well in the navigation.
Finally Courage, which is a bit the result of Passion and Reason. Courage means knowing how to deal with the others, with diversity and adversity, with the right and appropriate methods to every circumstance, in an attempt to overcome the obstacles and draw strength from oppositions. However, dear Brethren, we shall not exaggerate in the oppositions; we shall avoid any wishful thinking that follows a stream and respect the ideas and rules. Courage is therefore the result of the wind that pushes, and tools that are used to exploit the force. Courage is what brings the rudder in the right direction by adapting to favourable or adverse forces.
We want to go on, trying to be pragmatic, trying to give strength to the things that are already good and trying to change things that can be improved through fraternal methods and cooperation with all, without arrogance and preconceptions, to improve ourselves and humankind.
Humankind, indeed, “My brother, you look at the world but the world is not like you”, says the Italian singer Ivano Fossati. It is true that the world is not like us, but what can we do to improve it? We polish the rough stone but, once it is smooth, do we put it on our grave when we pass to the Eternal Orient or do we allocate it to the world?
We should sail in this stretch of sea together in our thoughts and reflections, but also in our actions, in the works that are needed in our Communion and out of it, in the ship and in the sea. If we are all together sailors of desire, we can better deal with the difficulties inside and outside of the boat. We can tackle the rough seas hit by conflicting winds or the total absence of good and bad winds. We may find bias and slander, or laziness, boredom, the desire not to travel. Obstacles are not only coming from outside, but also from the same sailors, in some cases, because man is a “crooked timber, a mixture of Good and Evil” as Kant asserted. In other cases, in the search of the ideal and utopian harbour, discouragement and scepticism may occur. It will be difficult in all these cases to keep sailing, and only with the help of others, who truly believe in themselves and in Brethren, it will be possible to proceed, rowing hard, looking for better climates and taking advantage of the difficulties encountered to deal with ever new ones, driven by Utopia, but also by small daily achievements. Then, we can navigate with the stars above us and clear waters full of fish below us, as well as in murky waters and overcast sky. And even when the wind is good and the sea is right and we sail expediently, the important thing is not to get distracted, not to pretend, not to let go, because the sea can change in an instant.
For this reason, I wish that our Communion sails well, towards shared ports with shared routes, meeting and sailing with other ships, with appropriate means, without wasting resources to be used in times of real need. I want our Communion to sail through the work of everyone, without exception, looking into the face of our past and our present and planning the future trip, by looking at all sailing Brethren in the eyes, as some of them are sometimes in the boat or are about to get off the boat with no consideration or help from anyone. And then we can sail on new and old seas with new and old means.
Dear Brethren, our navigation comes from afar, from a glorious history. Freemasonry is like a big, beautiful book, but the most beautiful page is still to be written. Let us write it all together. – See more at: http://www.grandeoriente.it/allocuzioni/annual-communication-2014-of-the-m-w-grand-master-bro-stefano-bisi/annual-communication-2014-of-the-m-w-grand-master-bro-stefano-bisi-1.aspx#sthash.ydOlo2FR.dpuf