Seven takes before the Triduum

Jen won't be doing her quick takes Friday thing this week because of Good Friday, so here's a Quick Takes Wednesday:

1) Why write my own profound Good Friday post when I can rip off someone else's? Jen, whose blog I enjoy very much, had a question when she first started looking into Christianity:

"Why did He need to die for my sins? I mean it sounds great that He loves me so much that He'd be willing to give His life, but why exactly was that necessary?"

She's tackled the question in different ways and now this guest post offers a beautiful reflection that had never occurred to me before.

2) If I say something to someone, and my listener doesn't quite hear it and says, "What?", I repeat what I said, but slower and louder. That is the normal, sane, non-stupid thing to do.

I mention this because in my life I have encountered a shocking number of people who, if I say "What?", will repeat what they said at exactly the same speed and volume as before, sometimes three times in a row. What are they thinking? Are they too embarrassed to speak clearly? If it was too slurred or quiet to be understood the first time, don't you think we might have the same problem the second time?

I get all fussy when people aren't logical.

(That's illogical of me.)

3) My roommate and some other friends spent last weekend up at St. Stephen's in Sacramento, the FSSP church that would surely be our official hangout if it weren't seven hours away. I couldn't go this time, so I took the opportunity to use my roommate's toothbrush, eat her food, wear her clothes, and conduct this little test to see whether she reads my blog.

4) Someone proofread a speech by Winston Churchill, and informed the great man that he'd ended a sentence with a preposition and needed to change it. Replied the Prime Minister: "That is precisely the sort of pedantic nonsense up with which I will not put."

Which reminds me of this story: a young boy was settling into bed while his father went downstairs to fetch a book for a bedtime story. But the book the father brought up was not the story the son had wanted to hear. He demanded to know, "What did you bring the book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?"

That sentence ends in five-- count 'em-- five prepositions.

5) I had actually succeeded in forgetting that tax day is a week from today. The awful truth just broke in on me when H&R Block spammed my email about it.

6) William Hazlitt makes a distinction: "He is a hypocrite who professes what he does not believe; not he who does not practice all he wishes or approves."

7) Two years ago yesterday I was received into the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil. I am still thrilled about it. :)