The Living Cross

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Judy Gordon

“Well done is better than well said.” Benjamin Franklin

Job’s Daughters have a closing ceremony. It is quite a moving experience.  If you have not seen it, you are missing out. If you have ever seen the movie “Titanic”, the orchestra plays “Nearer my God to thee” as the boat is sinking. These young ladies are not sinking; these wonderful daughters perform the living cross and sing “Nearer My God to Thee”. There is a special ceremony that coincides with the ceremony, it’s called the Cross Talk.

The International Order of Job's Daughters is an organization created for the purpose of banding together young women who believe in God and the teachings of the Holy Bible. Jobs Daughters was founded on the Book of Job with special emphasis on the 42nd Chapter, 15th Verse where we read, "In all the land were no women found so fair As the daughters of Job, and their Father gave them inheritance among their brethren.”.

 The story of Job, as found in our Ritual, can only be given in a closed meeting. However, one very impressive and important part of the closing ceremony, the forming of the living cross, may be given in an open meeting or by special request.

Some of you may be seeing the formation of the living cross by our officers for the first time. As you observe this very solemn and beautiful ceremony, you must realize that a great deal of thought and care has gone into the positioning of the officers within the cross.

The Honored Queen is at the foot or base of the cross. You might think that she is there as a place of honor, but I would rather believe she is there in humbleness to her officers and as a sign of her willingness to accept her lot - whatever it may be - and to share with the Daughters over whom she presides in their joy as well as in their sorrow.

 The Chaplain is at the center of the cross. She is there near the place Jesus' heart was as he hung on the cross.

 At the ends of the arms of the cross are the Junior and Senior Princesses representing the hands of our Blessed Savior. The purple of the three capes represents the blood, which flowed from his hands and feet as they were nailed to that cross.

 Standing outside and behind the cross are the two Custodians. They serve not only as custodians over the property of the Bethel, but also as custodians of the living cross.

 (The Daughters sing the Amen. They rise and begin to exit, bowing to the Honored Queen while the following is spoken)

 As the Daughters exit the cross, they approach the Honored Queen, nod and turn to the right or left. The design made on the floor of the Bethel Is that of a large open Holy Bible. "And in all the land were no women found so fair as the Daughters of Job, and their Father gave them inheritance among their brethren.

This completes our ceremony…

Post by Judy Gordon.

~JAG

Judy Gordon is very active in Job's Daughters. She's the Past Honored Queen, and Past Bethel Guardian of Bethel No. 55, Pekin (IL). She received the Cryptic Masons Masonic Youth Leadership Award along with her husband, Ray Gordon in July 2007. She's also Past Matron of the Morton Chapter No. 974 (IL) of the Order of the Eastern Star and Historian of the Emblem Club No. 424 of Pekin (IL). Judy is the recipient of the Degree of Royal Purple (2012) and elected to the Grand Line Illinois Job's Daughters (2015-16). Boaz joined the family in September 2013 and grandmother of 3 wonderful grandsons.