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Planning Prayers & Readings Review 12/23

Although the full text hasn’t been finalized yet, I do have plans for how the Saint Aelfric Customary will recommend the implementation of most of the features in the 2019 Prayer Book.  In short, I can’t tell you why these suggestions are here yet, but if you want to order your prayers accordingly, here is the weekly guide!

Planning Prayers

Sunday 12/22

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum laudamus and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A)
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Monday 12/23

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: Fourth Sunday of Advent (with the traditional readings)
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and #4 Quaerite Dominum

Tuesday 12/24

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
  • Morning Holy Communion: Votive: of the Blessed Virgin Mary (St. Mary’s Day)
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, Collect for Christmas Eve
  • Evening Holy Communion: Christmas Eve (lessons Christmas I)

Wednesday 12/25

  • Sunrise Holy Communion: Christmas Day (lessons Christmas II)
  • Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: Christmas Day (lessons Christmas III)
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Thursday 12/26

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: St. Stephen’s Day
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Friday 12/27

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: St. John’s Day
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Saturday 12/28

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: The Holy Innocents
  • Evening Prayer: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

Sunday 12/29

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: Te Deum laudamus and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: First Sunday in Christmas
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

* A Votive is a “Various Occasion” (page 733 in the BCP 2019).  The traditional appointments are Holy Trinity on Sunday, Holy Spirit on Monday, Holy Angels on Tuesday, of the Incarnation on Wednesdays, of the Holy Eucharist on Thursdays, the Holy Cross on Fridays, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturdays.

Readings Review

This week: Wisdom 1-5, Revelation 7-13, Isaiah 58-64, Luke 17-20:26
Next week: Wisdom 6-9, Revelation 14-21:14, Isaiah 65-66, Song of Songs 1-6, Luke 20:27-23:49

Special reading for Christmas Day on Wednesday morning: Isaiah 9:1-7
Special reading for Christmas Day on Wednesday evening: Luke 2:1-14
Special reading for St. Stephen’s Day on Thursday morning: Acts 6:8-7:6, 17-41, 44-60
Special reading for St. John’s Day on Friday morning: John 21:9-25
Special reading for Holy Innocents’ Day on Saturday morning: Jeremiah 31:1-17

If reading the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) at the end of this month seems like a random idea, remember that its marital love poetry is gateway to fathoming the love of God, demonstrated in his giving of himself in the person of Jesus Christ.  Even at the ontological level – looking at the very being of life – the incarnation of our Lord is a sort of marriage: between divinity and humanity united, in one flesh, one person.

The holidays come thick and fast this week: the Nativity of our Lord one day, St. Stephen the first martyr, St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, and the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem.  Each of these days interrupt the daily lectionary with a special reading (two in the case of Christmas Day) that give us special insight into their celebrations.  These special readings are also found in the Communion service(s) for their respective days, so if you neither attend a weekday communion service, nor hold antecommunion yourself, you’ll at least have one of the Eucharistic lessons in Morning Prayer.

Because of all these holidays, the regular progress through the book of Wisdom (introduced last week) is greatly slowed.

In Evening Prayer, apart from Christmas Day’s flashback to the birth of Christ, we are progressing into the passion of our Lord, and will reach his death on the Cross at the end of the week.  On one hand this is the simple result of reading through the gospels and finishing Luke at the end of the month/year.  But this also gives us the useful coincidence of hearing of the end of Jesus’ earthly life just as we’re celebrating its beginning.  This is not unlike the proximity of the Annunciation with Good Friday, where the opposite ends of our Lord’s life, again, are brought into beautiful juxtaposition.  Personally, I always encourage preachers to preach the incarnation at Christmas, and not forcibly drag everyone from the manger to the cross, but it is nice to have a daily office lectionary quietly giving us that whole-story background along the way.

(The original prayer book lectionary, in use in 1611 and 1662, as it happens, does not have this same feature.  Its NT lessons in Morning Prayer are through the gospels and Acts, so it’s finishing the book of Acts through this time; and its NT lessons in the evening are from the epistles, so 1 John through Jude are featured at this time.)

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Ember Day II

Today is the second Winter Ember Day.  There won’t be a third (tomorrow) because it’ll be St. Thomas Day instead.  If you’re an aspirant for holy orders, or a seminarian, or a deacon in transition toward the priesthood, make sure you write your bishop an Ember Day Letter to update him on your discernment and growth.

And for the rest of us, let us pray.

O God, you led your holy apostles to ordain ministers in every place: Grant that your Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, may choose suitable persons for the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and may uphold them in their work for the extension of your kingdom; through the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

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An Ember Day Hymn

The Advent Ember Days are upon us (see the link if you need a refresher on what ember days are).  A set of Ember Days comes around every three months or so, so we get to enjoy them with a different contextual emphasis each time.  In this time of year, having just heard about St. John the Baptist on the previous Sunday gives an interesting angle on the ministry: preaching the gospel, calling for repentance, baptizing, all good stuff.

But we’re in the thick of Advent, and chances are you don’t have a lot of spare time for a midweek Communion or Antecommunion service, so how about you take a page out of my book (figuratively for now) and include an appropriate hymn in your ordinary rounds of worship today?  The one appointed in this customary’s daily hymnody cycle is Pour out thy Spirit from on high.  The lyrics in the 2017 hymnal read thus:

Pour out thy Spirit from on high;
Lord, thine assembled servants bless;
Graces and gifts to each supply,
And clothe thy priests with righteousness.

Before thine altar when we stand
To teach the truth as taught by thee,
Savior, like stars in thy right hand
The angels of thy churches be.

Wisdom, and zeal, and faith impart,
Firmness with meekness from above,
To bear thy people on our heart,
And love the souls whom thou dost love;

To watch, and pray, and never faint,
By day and night strict guard to keep,
To warn the sinner, cheer the saint,
Nourish the lambs, and feed thy sheep.

Then, when our work is finished here,
We may in hope our charge resign.
When the Chief Shepherd shall appear,
O God, may they and we be thine!  Amen.

This hymn is unusual in that it’s spoken mostly from the minister’s voice.  In that sense, it’s almost not a congregational song, which is very unusual indeed.  But, knowing that a fair number of clergymen read this, I can happily commend this hymn to you as a lovely prayer indeed for our character and our work.

I’m not going to break down all the scriptural references in this hymn, but a few should be noted: “clothe thy priests with righteousness” is in Psalm 132 and the Daily Office Suffrage.  The reference to being “stars” and “angels” is from Revelation 1.  The call to faintless watching and prayer is reminiscent of Jesus’ later teachings about anticipating the Kingdom of God, echoed a bit in St. Paul’s writings, and is particularly appropriate to the Advent season.

So please, take a moment today or Friday* to sing or pray this hymn, or others like it, on behalf of your bishop(s), priests, and deacons.  We need all the prayer we can get!

 

* Ember Days usually come in threes: Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, but this year we “lose” Saturday’s Ember Day to the feast of St. Thomas.

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We’re well into Advent…

You know we’re well into Advent when O Sapientia is approaching!  Our calendar notes its beginning on December 16th, and it runs each evening through the 23rd.  For those unaware, O Sapientia is the first several “O antiphons” leading up to Christmas Eve – that is, antiphons that start with the word “O”.

An antiphon is a repeated phrase that is used both at the beginning and end of a Psalm or Canticle.  The 2019 Prayer Book only appoints antiphons for one thing: the Venite (Psalm 95) at Morning Prayer.  The classical prayer book tradition hasn’t appointed any antiphons for anything.  But in general Western tradition, you can find antiphons for everything – every psalm, every canticle, and also most introits and many graduals are constructed with antiphons.  The idea is that the psalm or canticle is book-ended with this antiphon to give it a seasonal or occasional context that may perhaps bring out a different aspect or theme or idea in the central text that you might not otherwise notice.

The O Antiphons are used with the Magnificat in Evening Prayer, and the first seven of them address Jesus by different prophetic names: Wisdom, Key of David, Root of Jesse, and so forth.  You can read more about them here.

These Antiphons begin on Monday, and count us down the final eight days until Christmas Eve.

Personally, I’ve long wished for a set of Mass Propers (Collects & lessons for a Communion service) for each of these days, but there are just too many interruptions to make it worthwhile: St. Thomas’ Day is always December 21st, the winter Ember Days land in the midst of this week, and at least one Sunday also butts in.  It’s a busy time of year, liturgically, not just culturally!

Anyway, if you want to pray the Evening Office with the O Antiphons, this Daily Office website provides for it. Have fun!

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Understanding the Revelation

As promised yesterday, we’re taking a look now at that strange book at the end of the Bible: Revelation.  The Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John, or the “Apocalypse”, for short, is a unique book in the Bible, especially compared to the rest of the New Testament.  Only brief half-chapter snippets of the first three Gospels come close to the style and tone that is found throughout this book.  Revelation is often the centerpiece in popular end-times debates and theories, and people sometimes take their own interpretation and perspective for granted, assuming that “if you just read the book, you’ll see what I mean.”

Since we will be spending most of the rest of December reading this book, I’m inviting you to take thirty minutes out of your day to refresh your familiarity with the style, content, and purpose of this book, with a nod to the major interpretive approaches that are taken up.

Of course, now I realize that I’ve doubled this entry.  I wrote this up last week already.  Oh well, sorry.  Now you get a second shot at it if you missed it last week.

For further reading:
* https://leorningcniht.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/how-to-read-revelation-literally/
* https://leorningcniht.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/10-thoughts-about-revelation/
* https://leorningcniht.wordpress.com/2018/09/25/the-bible-is-apocalyptic/
Subject Index:
* 00:00 Revelation/Apocalypse
* 02:46 Signs, Metaphors, and the Literal Sense
* 07:17 Examples: seven lamps, lamb that was slain, city dressed as a bride
* 12:58 Interpretive Approaches: preterist, historicist, futurist, spiritualist
* 20:18 The 1,000 Years: pre-millennial, post-millennial, amillennial
* 30:30 Concluding Summary
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The Blessing at Communion

The last part of the Communion service in the classical prayer books is the Blessing.  Specifically, this one (albeit with the 2019 wording)…

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you, and remain with you always.  Amen.

Once this blessing is pronounced, people can get up and go.

Except, in the modern order, we now have an extra Dismissal that follows, and usually music as well.  But until the 1970’s (or perhaps the arrival of something like the Anglican Missal?) the Blessing marked the end of the liturgy.

I have heard it argued that the priest offering a Blessing at this point is redundant – what greater blessing could be conferred than receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord?  But there are a couple different answers.

First of all, ending a worship service with a blessing is biblical.  It is the Old Testament pattern – even though the sacrifice of animals and their oblation in the Temple and the eating of the meat was the “high point” of the Old Covenant liturgy, the priest was still to bless the people after.  It is the New Testament pattern too, in a way: St. Paul ended each of his epistles with a blessing of some sort.  It is a little ironic, though, that the blessing we use is not explicitly used as a blessing by St. Paul (cf. Philippians 4:7 – it was actually the Epistle reading a couple Sundays ago).

Secondly, the specific content of this blessing is appropriate.  In a general sense, the argument against a blessing after receiving Holy Communion does sound logical, but this objection is undermined by what this blessing calls for: that the people would be kept in the knowledge and love of God.  It is a blessing of perseverance – may the people, who have just celebrated their unity with and in Christ, always remain so.

Third, and finally, it is analogous to the Prayer of Humble Access.  If you reduce the meaning of this blessing to some sort of generic blessing, then yeah it’s lame.  Same deal with the Prayer of Humble Access: if you reduce the meaning of that prayer to some sort of generic confession, then it’s redundant and silly too.  But both of these prayers, although bearing similarities to other prayers and “functions” within the service, bring new and different lights to the table (or, from the Table in this instance).

Now, all that having been said… the 2019 Prayer Book states that

The Bishop, when present, or the Priest, gives this or an alternative blessing

But what is an “alternative blessing”?  None is supplied.  In the classical prayer books this choice didn’t exist: that blessing was the blessing.  But there is another blessing in the old prayer book tradition – the Burial Office ends with a different blessing, also found at the end of the Committal in the 2019 Prayer Book:

The God of peace, who brought again the from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight…

Notice in both blessings that these are not (strictly-speaking) prayers.  “May God ___” is a prayer, but these are more like statements (or perhaps subjunctive verbs, if I remember my grammar correctly): “God… make you perfect” and “the peace of God… keep your hearts and minds.”  Blessings are “speech-acts”, like when a minister declares a man and a woman husband and wife, or baptizes somebody.  However sacerdotal you may or may not choose to view these “sacramental rites”, the reality is that these are special acts of the Church through her ordained ministers.  Pentecostalism, especially in its Prosperity Gospel extreme versions, has yielded an unhealthy practice that is creeping into evangelicalism: “declarations” in the name of Jesus for one or another sort of blessing.  This practice is essentially usurping the special role of the ordained clergy, popularizing it for all Christians, and reducing its gravity and import often to crass hopes and dreams for health and wealth.  Be very careful what you do, or permit, along these lines in your ministry context.

One last note about the option for different blessings at the end of the Communion service.  I strongly suspect that the main reason the 2019 rubric permits an “alternative blessing” is to authorize the Seasonal Blessings that have been provided in supplemental books such as Book of Occasional Services and Common Prayer (2000).  If you are so inclined, you can peruse those materials for a variety of blessings – probably finding a unique one for every Sunday of the year.  Although modern liturgy trends seem to prefer such variety, classic Prayer Book wisdom does not support this, so I would advise priests not to deviate from the standard Prayer Book blessing very often.  Maybe grab a “solemn blessing” for Christmas Day and Easter Day; maybe use another blessing from the Bible or pre-existing tradition on other special and rare occasions; otherwise, be sure to use the standard historic blessing virtually all year.

If it’s always changing, it’ll never stick in the people’s minds, and go in one ear and out the other.  And, given the fact that the standard blessing is for our hearts and minds to kept, that would be sadly ironic indeed.

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Planning Prayers & Readings Review 12/2

Planning Prayers

Although the full text hasn’t been finalized yet, I do have plans for how the Saint Aelfric Customary will recommend the implementation of most of the features in the 2019 Prayer Book.  In short, I can’t tell you why these suggestions are here yet, but if you want to order your prayers accordingly, here is the weekly guide!

Sunday 12/1

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: First Sunday of Advent (Year A)
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and #4 Quaerite Dominum

Monday 12/2

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: First Sunday of Advent (with the traditional readings)
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and #4 Quaerite Dominum

Tuesday 12/3

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: Votive: Ascension Day
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and #4 Quaerite Dominum

Wednesday 12/4

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: St. John of Damascus or Votive*
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and #4 Quaerite Dominum

Thursday 12/5

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: St. Clement of Alexandria
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and #4 Quaerite Dominum

Friday 12/6

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: St. Nicholas
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and #4 Quaerite Dominum

Saturday 12/7

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: St. Ambrose of Milan
  • Evening Prayer: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, Collect for Advent 2

Sunday 12/8

  • Morning Prayer Canticles: #1 Magna et mirabilia and Benedictus
  • Holy Communion: Second Sunday of Advent (Year A)
  • Evening Prayer Canticles: Magnificat and Nunc dimittis

* A Votive is a “Various Occasion” (page 733 in the BCP 2019).  The traditional appointments are Holy Trinity on Sunday, Holy Spirit on Monday, Holy Angels on Tuesday, of the Incarnation on Wednesdays, of the Holy Eucharist on Thursdays, the Holy Cross on Fridays, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturdays.

Readings Review

Last week: Ecclus. (Sirach) 2-11, Acts 21-23, Isaiah 37-43, Luke 6:20-9:17
This week: Ecclus. (Sirach) 14,17,18,21,34,38-39, Acts 24-28, Isaiah 44-50, Luke 9:18-12:34

This week, as you can see, is where the “skipping” through the book of Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) really takes off.  Last week it was sort jumping every other chapter some days, but now we really rocket through, just grabbing a few highlight chapters on the way to the ever-popular final quarter of the book which we’ll read in the second week of Advent, for the most part.  If you want to explore what this new daily lectionary has omitted, feel free to make use of this Customary’s supplementary Midday Prayer Lectionary.  It will get you caught up on all the missed chapters of this book just in time for Christmas.

The Gospel of Luke, meanwhile, gives us its middle chapters this week.  And important turning point in the book is shortly after the Transfiguration – in 9:51 Luke narrates:

When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

This “turning of his face” is just just a symbolic act on Jesus’ part, but also a literary marker: from this point on, we should take extra care to read every story and saying with an eye on the Cross.  Jesus already had predicted his death a couple times before this point, but it is after this point that we should start asking ourselves “what does this parable mean in light of the Cross?” or “how does this event prepare me, the reader, for hearing about the death of Christ?”  Here are a few things coming up in Luke that may find a more clear meaning if you put it next to the Cross:

  • “Do you want us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?” (9:54)
  • “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (9:62)
  • “Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” (10:3)
  • The story of Mary and Martha (10:38-42)
  • “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; but when one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil.” (11:21-22)
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The First Feast

Happy Saint Andrew’s Day!

Landing within a week of the beginning of Advent and the new church year, having this as the first major saints day of the year is quite fitting: Andrew was the first one called by Jesus to follow him (or at least, the named among the first two that followed Jesus).  The point is, he was quick to follow Jesus, and the Collect highlights this fact:

Almighty God, who gave such grace to your apostle Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by your holy Word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Feel free to check out last year’s two posts for more insights into the observance and celebration of this holy day.

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Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all have an enjoyable day ahead of you.

Most merciful Father, we humbly thank you for all your gifts so freely bestowed upon us: for life and health and safety, for strength to work and leisure to rest, for all that is beautiful in creation and in human life; but above all we thank you for our spiritual mercies in Christ Jesus our Lord; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

The 2019 Prayer Book appoints the following lessons and psalm for the Communion service today:

  • Deuteronomy 8
  • Psalm 65:1-8(9-14)
  • James 1:17-27
  • Matthew 6:25-33

I can even give you a tiny sermon outline I used a couple years ago with these propers.

How to Give Thanks like a Christian

Introduction: The Collect sets the stage and previews where we’re going.

Step One: Deuteronomy 8 is a sermon, warning us against thanklessness.

Step Two: Psalm 65 is an example of giving thanks.

Step Three: James 1 makes us look inside ourselves, at how thankfulness should change us.

Step Four: Matthew 6 proclaims the Gospel: God cares for you!  You are free to pursue him without worry or fear.

Take-away: Return to the Collect; pray it heartily!

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Harvest Home (but which one?)

Perhaps my favorite Thanksgiving hymn is Come, ye thankful people, come, also known in other books as Harvest Home.  Typically when dealing with hymns and songs on this blog, I stay away from the most popular entries, since people are more likely to have learned something about them already.  But this one… well, let’s just go for it and we’ll see what happens.

This is a great Thanksgiving Hymn, picking up immediately on one of the key origins for this holiday: the end of the harvest season.  Hence the first stanza:

Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest-home;
All is safely gathered in
‘Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest-home.

Pretty straight forward, yes?  God is the creator and supplier of all things, that time of year draws to its close, so let’s go worship and thank him.  Simple.  Almost too simple.  But the second stanza is where things start to transform:

All the world is God’s own field,
Fruit unto his praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown,
Unto joy or sorrow grown;
First the blade and then the ear,
Then then full corn shall appear;
Grant, O harvest Lord, that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.

Suddenly, while keeping the same imagery, the theological meaning has completely changed!  Now the field is God’s creation, the purpose of creation is praise him, wheat and tares grow together in the church, and we are called (planted) to bear the fruit of praise and thanksgiving.  Several parables and teachings of Jesus can be seen here, both distinctly and discreetly, and whether you follow either the 2019 prayer book or the traditional prayer book Sunday lectionary, themes like these have become prominent in recent weeks.

But we’re not done yet; stanza 3 takes it to another level:

For the Lord our God shall come,
And shall take his harvest home,
From his field shall in that day
All offences purge away,
Give his angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast,
But the fruitful ears to store
In his garner evermore.

Woah.  The return of Christ!  Judgement day!  The angelic harvest of the church… again the same parables alluded to, but now with a distinctly Advent theme.  This song can singlehandedly transition the worshiper from late Trinity to Advent!  The 4th and final stanza turns this into a prayer:

Even so, Lord, quickly come
To thy final harvest-home;
Gather thou thy people in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified,
In thy presence to abide;
Come with all thine angels, come;
Raise the glorious harvest-home.  Amen.

“Come, Lord Jesus” is the prayer at the end of the book of Revelation, and a key theme of the season of Advent (indeed, it is the Acclamation at the beginning of the modern Communion liturgy.)

It helps a great deal that Thanksgiving Day normally lands three days before the beginning of Advent, like it does this year.  Occasionally Thanksgiving is early enough that there’s still one Sunday left before Advent, but however it works in a given year, this hymn is a fantastic end-of-the-year song to sing.  There are a handful of Thanksgiving songs that I really like, and even more available in most hymnals, so I kind of feel bad appointing it every year at the expense of the others… but you know what?  I think this one’s worth it.