Again after the Candidate's admission the Ceremony begins with a prayer; a prayer which is a marvel of succinct but comprehensive statement, covering in a single sentence the whole process of transforming the unenlightened man into an initiated intelligent co-operator with the Great Architect in the work of Spiritual Masonry. It divides that process into three distinct stages, corresponding with our three Degrees a beginning, a middle period of continued effort, and a completion. Its petition is that the work (1) begun in the Divine name maybe (2) carried on to the Divine glory, and finally (3) perfected (or established) in conformity with Divine precepts. (Possibly the prayer is based on one of similar brevity and comprehensiveness the Church Collect which speaks of all our works begun, continued, and ended in Thee").
The terms of this prayer make it abundantly
clear that the process of becoming a Mason is a work, not merely
a ceremony; that that work is a sacred work, not a social compliment
or personal privilege; and that the object of that work from beginning
to end is not the Candidate's personal aggrandizement, but to
augment the glory of God by transmuting so much lead into gold,
so much unconsciousness into living intelligent energy. Therefore
(as in the former Degree) it is less the prayer of the Candidate
than of the Lodge, into more advanced fellowship with which he
is in process of becoming spiritually incorporated. It is meant
to be the earnest supplication of the whole Craft that its value
as a spiritual'' force may be enlarged by the Candidate's accession
to it.
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