PRAYER AT THE INITIATION OF A CANDIDATE.
As Masons, we are taught never to commence any great or important undertaking, without first invoking the blessing of Deity. At the initiation of a candidate it is, therefore, usual to make use of the following
PRAYER.[1]
Vouchsafe thine aid, Almighty Father of the Universe, to this our present convention, and grant that this candidate for Masonry may dedicate and devote his life to thy service, and become a true and faithful brother among us. Endue him with a competency of thy divine wisdom, that by the secrets of our art he may be better enabled to display the beauties of godliness to the honor of thy holy name. So mote it be.—Amen.
THE RITE OF CIRCUMAMBULATION.
The rite of Circumambulation, derived from the Latin verb "circumambulare," to walk around anything, is the name given to that observance in all the religious ceremonies of antiquity, which consisted in a procession around an altar or some other sacred object.
Thus, in Greece, the priests and the people, when engaged in their sacrificial rites, always walked three times around the altar while singing a sacred hymn. Macrobius tells us that this ceremony had a reference to the motion of the heavenly bodies, which, according to the ancient poets and philosophers, produced
- ↑ This prayer is found in Preston, upon whose authority I have restored the word "godliness" instead of "virtuousness" used by Webb, or "holiness" adopted by Cross. The prayer, but in a very different form, is, however much older than Preston, who borrowed, abridged, and altered the much longer formula which had been used previous to his day. It is said that the prayer at initiation was a ceremony in use among the "Ancient" or "York Masons," but omitted by the "Moderns."
