9 O'Clock Toast

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James Ross, Mojito in Hand!
We don't have a 9 O'Clock Toast in my Mother Lodge. It used to hugely irritate my predecessor as Provincial Secretary when we gave the Toast "Absent Brethren" at the end of the Tyler's Toast 😉.

During the current crisis, the 9 O'Clock Toast to "Absent Brethren" has taken on a huge significance to the whole organisation, especially on a Saturday Evening. I was delighted to be asked to propose the Toast at the Saint Padarn Quiz-Olation on Thursday 21st May 2020. Here's a nice little toast I adapted from something I found on the internet.

Nine O'Clock Toast

At nine o'clock we greet you - no matter where we stand
We may be merely out of town, or in some far off land
With melting hearts and brim-full eyes we'll steal a moment's leisure
To call our distant greeting "Brother may I have the pleasure?"

For we are bound together by a great eternal link
To drink from that Masonic cup from which we all may drink
Accept, Masonic Brethren, whose fellowship we treasure
That old Masonic challenge "Brother, may I have the pleasure"

Brethren, shall we pause a while, and be of one accord
to note those who are missing from this, our festive board?
Shall we think of absent brethren, and take this draught of wine,
and hope that they do likewise, at the very stroke of nine?



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