GRANDE LOJA NACIONAL PORTUGUESA, Maçonaria Regular em Portugal.

Most Worshipful President of the Confederation of the United Grand Lodges in Europe,

Most Worshipful Grand Masters, Worshipful Brothers and Delegates, 

Invited Grand Dignitaries,

Sovereign Grand Comendador of the Supreme Council of Portugal of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,

Grand Officials of the Portuguese National Grand Lodge, 

My Brothers of French and Spanish Nationality , that are helping to get the study of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite deeper,

Worshipful Masters and Brothers in all  ranks and qualities,

Two years ago, at Lisbon, with strong colors, in the presence of large  hundreds of Masons, remembering an impressionist picture, I took charge as Grand-Master of the Portuguese National Grand Lodge. Since then there was a profan time for joy, for the birth of a new mandate and now we can see some sadness. There is a profan time for everything, even for the terminus of this mandate.

But is there a Masonic time to a mandate of a Grand Master in Traditional Masonry? 

We are not masters of time or the collective memory. The achievements ocurred till nowdays at the Portuguese National Grand Lodge are, at the present time, a distant image. They are the simple fulfillment of a duty.

We know that, in profan terms, work in favor of Masonry. We build Lodges, initiate laymen, hundreds of laymen, we decorate phisycal spaces. We reiterate a keyword: We believe in Effort.

We fulfilled our goals. The Traditional Masonry is spread from the North to the South of Portugal. We grew up. We ripened. We developed Masonry with quality. We did Freemasonry with seriousness and, recently, we commemorate one more anniversary.

As Masons we have fulfilled our duty.   

We defended the Constitution of the Portuguese National Grand Lodge . We honor our promises with the freemasons. We respect the Freemasonry in other Countries. We supported all the projects in which we became involved. We contributed to a national and international identity. We transmitted the visibility of the Portuguese National Grand Lodge with the usual ways of public media: newspapers, magazines, books, official site in the Internet, congresses, radios and televisions, as much as necessary to our Institution, but quickly resting in the usual practice of the discretion.  By the presence of the brothers freemasons of other countries in this magnificent Assembly and through the messages received of whole world, we can realize that we are in fact happy for the quality of our guests and of our relationships. These gestures bring us the biggest confidence. In fact, we are importat for the quality of our friends and brothers, whether in Portugal, or abroad. We promoted the efficiency in the administrative and financial areas. We were loyal to the history, to the confidence, always informing about the works and results of the handed mission. Of honorableness and of honor. 

As Masons we have fulfilled our duty.  

Today, receiving from you the spirit that a mason should be to be able to gather, the one of being substituted by new strength, I will be going to retire myself to, subsequently, give continuity to the Masonic spirit: to keep on working, in any function, to the service of the Real Art.

As Masons we have fulfilled our duty.  

I should, certainly, at this moment, deeply thank to the brothers Master Masons who accompanied me. To all of them and to the team that I had the honor to mentor in the goals that were proposed to me by the Grand Council. I always tried to listen to, to meditate on and to act. I shared. I don´t know if I always did it with efficiency. But I always did it with the best thoughts and the best intentions. I knew how to preserve myself and I also will preserve secrets. I learnt with all but I also instructed. I hope I have done both well. 

As a Mason I presume to be fulfilling my duty. 

Let us now leave the memories. Let me do away with the eloquent words. What for are they? - The words of the freemasons, for the next day, will have to keep on being protected by the silence. Leave the philosophical movements, the political and artistic schools, the economical systems, the scientific theories do there job. I appeal to your reflection, to the study of the rituals, to a Masonic deepness that fuses the body with the spirit. Do not disperse yourselves. We are an Order of harmony that proclaims the existence of a creator principle with the name of Grand Architect of the Universe.

Oppositely to other Obedience’s, the Portuguese National Grand Lodge is loyal to this concept,  based on there texts and ritual practice. This symbol of bigger strength joins together, shines, in the Indo-European spirit. Something that gives the Light. But this connotation can be confused with institutionalized beliefs. We should not apply this concept stating the existence of the essence of a personal God, who commands us for the good and for the evil, but in the knowledge of the attributes of a principle. An iniciatic principle which is not just spiritual. Neither ideological, but it needs ritualistic methodologies.  

This moment is a moment for this methodology in order to be able to hand over the continuity of the regenerative principle.

Lets put in charge the M.:W.:G.:M.: of the Portuguese National Grand Lodge. 

Brother Grand Secretary. Brethren in your ranks and qualities, 

Who was chosen among us to give continuity to the work as the Grand Master of Portuguese National Grand Lodge for the mandate 2008 - 2010? 

Álvaro Carva, M.´.I.´.