 Okay, pay friends. This is Dan and Stephanie Burke. You're watching behind the scenes divine intimacy radio. Today is going to be a very important day show So call your friends, you know and tell them it's happening or share this when it's done Like and share and make comments. Tell us your thoughts in the chat On EWTN's Facebook page really like to know You're gonna learn a lot and hear about the best that best of the best resources For uncovering stuff that's in your way to grow spiritually. It's huge And if you think you know what be prepared to find out what you don't know Yeah, if you think you know you're you're there's a problem. It's called delusion Right and the human person has an infinite capacity for self-delusion So what we're gonna talk about today is how to bust that problem. Yeah Before we do Stephanie wants to just quickly tell you about something that's you'll probably be interested in Okay, we're excited to let you know about a free webinar called hidden graces Rediscovering God's design for women. So listen listen listen Rediscovering God's design for women. So we are going to have this webinar on Monday, May 2nd at 7 p.m hosted by yours truly and author Layla Lawler and we're gonna be talking about her beautiful work the summa domestica and what that means and How to deal with that when sometimes our lives don't line up with the domestic I mean summa domestica Please go ahead. No, I wasn't gonna jump in I was asking you The of course, it's you have the summa theologia, which is the summation of all Things domestic the beauty of the hidden femininity authentic femininity that look like Catholic home Well, it's just true And so, you know, how do we how do we reconcile our lives with it? Which I think is gonna be a particular challenge because I've lived basically all things and so lived both ways Yes, and so I think this is gonna be a fascinating conversation with Layla a very smart wonderful woman and so I hope you will join us share it with your Girlfriends how do they how do they sign up sisters and all of that go to spiritualdirection.com forward slash events and join It is a free webinar like and share it make sure all the beautiful women in your life know about it And let's let's get together and have a great conversation target audience is women who care about how to Live a domestic church in their home their family faithful Catholic perspective on the home in the home in the family Yeah, I would say childbearing women Childbearing age I got you forward right all the way to the end to those of us who are grandmothers, right? Yeah, who now have influence influence or have daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters that we're Loving and serving on their path to the completeness of who God's calling them to be and if you want to pick up the books Before the webinar you know no don't do that because they are beyond they are sold out Oh, and they're working on it But if you attend we have a special gift And we are going to have a way that you can acquire it without getting the physical book until it comes In the physical form, but you have to be there. I would sign up Yeah, I know sign up sign up and I will tell you I mean anyone who cares But I mean late there are a handful of people in our lives that We would say if they talk whatever they're talking about you should listen. She's one of them to me Yeah, I'm really excited about those her husband. Yeah, so please join us Please join us. You're not gonna want to miss it and sign up share and check out the sign up page to see The special way that we're gonna help bless you in this spiritual direction. Yeah, that's us events Okay, we're gonna get started with the show on Routing out hidden faults as long as my fingers would stop doing things and that's okay Okay on your mark get set go This is Dan and Stephanie Burke welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of brass Your hermitage of the heart your monastery of them of the of the mind where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven To draw upon the wisdom of the saints to help us to understand how to draw near to the Lord how to uncover barriers and difficulties and spiritual growth all all all things like that and Today we have a special guest. She's been with us before we were very impressed by her before and She is our guest today because The author of this very important book has passed away and it's an amazing book I have to tell you Well, do you want to do her bio first? Go ahead? So let me introduce our guest Kristen van Uden. You didn't you didn't you didn't okay? And she is here as the author spokesman at Sophia Institute Press So our partners at Sophia. We love Sophia She received her masters in history from the College of William and Mary and her BA in history from History in Russian from st. Anselm and some college. She studies the persecution of Catholics under Communist regimes. She has been featured on a wide range wide range of media platforms Including coast-to-coast AM the Federalist and Catholic faith network So welcome Kristen glad to have you today. Good morning. Thanks so much for having me and happy Easter. Thank you You too. He has risen. He's risen indeed. So what's it like talking for a dead person? It's amazing here at Sophia. We have such a treasury of reprints from the church's vast and long history and I am blessed to be able to represent some of our wonderful dead authors Many of whom are saints in heaven. I had a book by st. Robert Bellarmine doctor of the church the other day that I was discussing So it's wonderful to be able to be a representative of their tried and true wisdom and proven wisdom Often times comes with an imprimatur from the ages of the church's history. So I am very blessed I've always been a book where I'm in a reader and to be able to read for a living and discuss books It's kind of a dream come true, especially when they're Catholic books. Yeah, that's awesome So the subject today it's rooting out hidden faults, which is the title of this book and the subtitle is How to how how the particular examin conquers sin, but before we do that I want to preface it with this So there are three phases in the interior life the purgative illuminative and unitive and that's just been long held by the doctors of the church is a good way of Describing what you would describe similarly or comparatively, you know toddler adolescents young adult adult it's it's the phases of growth spiritually that occur the first phase is Incredibly difficult to get out of and most Catholics are in it and that's called the purgative way The reason most Catholics are in it. They're twofold One is they don't get past habitual sin mortal and venial and they don't know how to do that and that's we've talked about this a lot in the show the second is They they don't have good self-awareness and this is not an accusation that's made with specificity it's a universal accusation of all of us and Many have heard me say over and over the human person has an infinite capacity for self-delusion We judge ourselves on what we aspire to be rather than what we are and we give ourselves credit for good Intentions whether we achieve them or not so this try this, you know this trifold if you will or try part eight Unholy unholy try hard to own unholy trinity, right is what keeps us from progressing spiritually I would I would dare say Most the vast majority of people and I would even put myself in this category Don't know themselves well enough to make spiritual progress without external input It's why you need to be involved in a community like a possibly VA or married or in a religious community or something and certainly under spiritual direction Certainly under spiritual direction because this is a huge huge problem for people to get past and you know, I'll give you two examples Teresa of Avila and St. Catherine of Siena both doctors of the church begin their most important treatisees on the spiritual life That both of them wrote Respectively Catherine was the dialogues with the god the father speaking through her and st. Teresa of Avila's Interior castle both begin with saying Self-knowledge is absolutely vital. So as you enter in and you're trying to learn and trying to grow if you don't have it You're lost What do you think is it that important? Oh Undoubtedly, yeah, undoubtedly and that's what I love about this book as I was reviewing it and reading it so many constellations because everything Everything in it helps us figure out who we are who we really are a great questions great Examines that help us say okay. Who am I really? How do I affect? Not only myself But others around me and is it towards God away from God am I you know am I do I build up? Do I break down? You know, what is what is going on with my behaviors and How I see the world and my self-perception and how does that affect things? Primarily my relationship with God, right? This is damage sesame Burk. You're listening to divine intimacy radio We're talking about how to root out hidden faults things that we don't see great texts published by Sophie Institute Press Kristen You know it's interesting to me and I you're you're a lot younger than we are and I don't know, you know, what I see in the younger Catholic world is a Is a renewed reverence for tradition. Are you seeing the same thing? Yes, that actually resonates with me very well particularly I discovered the traditional Latin mass about a year and a half ago and it has completely rejuvenated my spiritual life and the way I live my life and as part of that so much of it was just filling the gaps in catechesis that I had maybe missed growing up as a cradle Catholic and Delving into the church's history and tradition and some of these older tried-and-true works Such as this one which was originally published in 1952 that had just been forgotten and had been something I had not come across being raised as a Catholic and having even attended Catholic schools So I do believe that the youth have this this hunger for tradition and authenticity We often hear about oh how can the church appeal to young people and my answer to that is just by being the church We don't want to be pandered to we want to see truth and beauty and move towards it as the soul would move towards God So that is certainly a pattern that I have noticed as well So well said so the book is published in 52, which is of course before the Second Vatican Council a lot of disruption after the council We won't talk about any issues there, but just in terms of the truth The of the Catholic experience after the council is what is what I would describe as it a Minimizing sin Minimizing piety and holiness and I think what this book does And is it brings you a pre-conciliar Mentality of understanding what sin is I mean we do have a great book published by Sophia after the council as well that does the same Does a lot of good too, which is the seven deadly sins by Kevin boast and I and I actually think they're great companions, but This book doesn't have some of the post-conciliar baggage of watering down sin Which is why I think it has the edge and the power that it does. I don't know Steph Does that ring true to you as you were? Yeah, and I mean for anybody out there who who would listen to this and kind of bristle and go Okay, you know what where are we going with this and do I really need to read a book? That's old and then it's pre-conciliate, you know all this Let's just get down to the brass tacks of this the beauty of how can we possibly? Grow in virtue if we don't know where our faults are right if we don't understand where Where we are lacking and what is a barrier between what is ultimately our goal, which is union with God Mm-hmm, you know our in this life in this life and our heart needs to be long Completely to God no barriers. So what sin is is a barrier. Yeah, it is a barrier between us and God It's a way that we basically something in our soul our heart or our mind is It does not belong to him. Mm-hmm. It belongs to the enemy It's being used in a way that is contrary to our true design. Yeah, right? So we want to be holy We we don't want any of those barriers. I love the term an Uncontrocepted heart. Mm-hmm, right. We want an Uncontrocepted heart life mind spirit body soul no barriers no barriers to God Nothing that we're holding back completely vulnerable completely open to him so that he can so fill us and so animate us That we become the creatures that he created us to be not not some, you know inauthentic You know Invitation caricature caricature, right? So Kristen The this book promotes something called a particular examin What's the difference between a particular examin and a typical examination of conscience? So a particular examin is one that seeks to help the penitent root out what is known as their predominant fault So it's organized rather than around the Ten Commandments instead around the Seven Deadly Sins Yeah, and the Seven Deadly Sins are so insidious because often they can manifest almost as personality traits or As parts of the character because they've become so entrenched So we all know somebody who we say oh he just has a temper or he has anger issues Instead of actually thinking wait a second Maybe that comes from a sin of anger as a predominant fault rather than an immutable Character trait that we just have to chalk up to Inevitability and not try to change and we see this with oh so-and-so is stuck up with pride or you can do this with All of them like they're they're stingy with avarice So these are things that often are difficult to pin down to something that is Confessible as well because with the Ten Commandments It's quite easy to go through them and to note a clear violation of each and to note whether or not that violation was mortal or venial So there the more legalistic way that the Ten Commandments are set up make that preparation for confession quite easy and Oftentimes doesn't require the level of introspection that a deeper examine would this instead this examine includes for each Predominant fall each deadly sin this very comprehensive list of questions that include things that may or may not actually be sins Themselves, but that point to that sin as your deeper root of your problems. So something like It will get into the different types of pride But am I suspicious slash distrustful that in and of itself is not necessarily a sin, right? You wouldn't confess I am distrustful in the confessional But when you use that to sort of assess yourself or psychoanalyze yourself You can come to a greater picture of in this case the pride of timidity may be being at the root of your sins so the author really emphasizes that we should not only when we do an examination of consciousness be seeking to Stop mortally sinning and stop being really sitting but also to figure out What are those barriers between us and God and us in allowing grace to fully flow through our souls? And so this book in its way in the way that it's organized. You can do it over the span of your entire life I had never done an examine like this before and rather than doing it at the end of each day It's something that you can take in larger time bugs as well to yeah In which one is your predominant fault and I guarantee if you read it and if you go through the questions You will identify your predominant fault and of course Goes into that but you will not walk away from this not knowing sorry to cut you off But we got to go to break we come back from the break What I think we want to do is talk about predominant fault so people understand what we're talking about so we'll be right back So I think that was 13 prior 14. No, it was 13 13 13 something Yeah, so we'll go we got a stick hard to 12 5. Okay last one Okay, and your markets that go this is Dan and Stephanie Burke welcome back to divine intimacy radio with Kristen Ben-Yudin talking about rooting out hidden faults and How do we get past barriers to our spiritual growth and and even a whole year healthier life? One thing I mentioned before the break I wanted to talk about it is what is a predominant fault a lot of people have never heard that language before so Just regard synonyms, they may have heard like roots in or dominant defect or whatever I use roots in in my book Navigating the interior life that has a great little Quiz right in it that can help you identify what your roots in is according to to pride sensual and Sensuality and vanity. Yeah, it's a so The reason I did it that way instead of against the Seven Deadly Sins is because it's introductory, you know, it's It's it's inter it's to get people moving right direction at a saint John the evangelist in his epistles divided up sins in that category and so historically in the church There's been that category, but then pre-dawn then what has been most normative later on was the Seven Deadly Sins Let's talk about What is a Dominant fault or a predominant defect? Kristen, what what what do you have on your plate there that describes that? Sure, the predominant defect or predominant fault is the sin towards which you gravitate the most that Ultimately is the root of all of your other sins And so someone pride as one of the more common predominant faults as father-mackle hone Diagnoses it here, which makes sense because we know of course pride is the first sin and and the chief of the sins of the deadly sins Particularly so this fall is something that you return to again and again it often is the cause of recidivism and confessions where The the person will confess the same sin again and again without making the clear amendment to change or With making the clear amendment to change but then the sin manifesting itself in another way So it often comes from a root wound or a root tendency But it is the sin that is your greatest struggle in this life The one that Satan exploits the most when he's trying to keep you away from God and the one that's hardest to throw off That's really well said. Yeah, and and we'll suffer that until the end of our life Till our last breath. Yeah, you never really get rid of your predominant right, but we fight valiantly against it, right? Yeah, it is possible. I will say this Teresa Vabila reveals that it is possible Well, and of course the spiritual doctors of the church It is possible to not to get to a point where you are not Daily weekly monthly Subjected to or falling to your predominant sin. Yeah, so it's but it's But it is something that what you'll always have to be aware of right right, so it gives us hope But we know that it'll it's always there. So we so in order to Not get complacent and just think oh well things are kind of quiet. I don't have to worry about this We need to be always aware that we will we will battle that to the end no matter how well we're doing So what are some sneaky ways that the seven deadly sins manifest? I love, you know this question because it's important because we need to understand well if I go to Daily Mass I'm going to confession, you know at least once a month and and You know, I'm I don't kick puppies and I don't flip off people when I'm driving I'm doing pretty good, you know, what are some of the sneaky ways that that these sins can show up in our lives? I Think these sins often manifest as attitudes or dispositions of the soul and so many of them are sins against charity and In the antidotes to these sins when when father Macklehorn speaks of the virtues He says that oftentimes combating sin is as much what you do not do as what you do So with sins of anger and avarice and envy sometimes biting back that nasty word or that judgmental thought Which is seen as an inaction or as a negative action on that spectrum is Often the way that you combat that sin and is the way that you gain Perfection in that area of your life So I think we often make excuses for these types of sins because we they they often don't elevate themselves to the point of mortally sinning they are how we think of our personality but it is quite encouraging to identify them as sins because That means that they are not something that you are enslaved by but rather something that you can overcome through grace instead of just throwing up your hands and saying that I Just happen to be you know, you can you can pick any Prideful or whatever it is you can say no that that is something that does not come from me That is something that is sin that comes from original sin and my fallen nature But as such it has been redeemed and as a Catholic I can request the grace of God to help me overcome this and That is freeing really in a way because you you know that while you will live with the temptation towards the defect as part of your Personality the acting on it is something that can be changed and you there There is no reason that you have to sin once you've identified it as sin. You can conquer it Yeah, I think what's what's really powerful to because you know, we can sin in thought word indeed, right? So deed is we've carried it through word You know in essence we're carrying it through because it's coming out in some way But even in thought when we think about you know I may get angry at something and be irritable about it I may act on it But even if you go back to the thought of the anger the pride and the judgments that that's in that should Make us aware that there's something in us that needs to be rooted out, right? then that we that the Lord is calling us to such perfection that Through his grace and his grace alone if we seek it and ask for it as you mentioned that he can purify that in us So in something like, you know, this particular examine We can examine our thoughts Examine the root of where it's coming from down to the minutiae of the beginning thought, right? Where our eyes are cast where our thoughts go and ask our Lord to purify that Through the intercession of our lady most certainly because she is the purest one and and say help me help me Stop me before I even get there before my thoughts go there, right and purify this in me You know one thing that well before I do that. This is Dan Stephanie Burke with Divine Intimacy Radio. You're listening to Kristen van Uden as guests rooting out hidden faults But one thing that you've alluded to Kristen a few times that I think is worth teasing out and that is I'll give you an example once I was teaching a class on Disseminative spirits at the Abola Institute and what and st. Ignatius calls us to choose Patience and the person was shocked because they she had never thought of patience is something she thought of I'm either patient or Patient but never thought I need to choose to be patient And I think one of the one of the great diseases of our time and especially Among the younger generation though We're just as messed up the older we get but is this our emotions are what we are, right? If I feel like a man and I'm a girl Biologically, I'm a man, you know Is that does this book help to unravel that sickness in in the younger generation? I guess any generation Absolutely, and I like how you point out how the virtues and the vices operate similarly in this way because We are predisposed towards certain virtues just as we're predisposed towards certain faults or vices as well So for some humility comes much more easily than for others and we see this in the saints how Certain saints had particular virtues highlighted in their lives, but that does not mean that you are stuck and say okay I've picked my virtue prudence. I should not work on the other ones No, we are called of course to grow in perfection and all of the virtues not just the ones that come easily to us And so oftentimes you'll I'll see people taking as Appendance or as a spiritual practice cultivating the virtue at which they are the worst at this moment as a way to to grow in all of the other virtues and The way that I understand growing in virtue. It's it's a rising tide moves all ships or however that little Phrase goes and so if you are aiming towards a virtue and Aren't necessarily neglecting the others you will likely grow in the others Just absolutely downwardly spiral towards vice if you're particularly focused on one sin All of your other morality will sink along with it Absolutely true, you know, I want to tell folks who are sitting here going I love this I'm gonna buy the book and you should rooting out hidden faults before the show Stephanie said this ought to be required Reading in a possibly VA community And I think she's probably right But I do have a course on how to take this kind of knowledge a free one and put it into practice and it's about it's called how to Develop a plan of love. I think it's what it's called and it's out at a possibly VA dot org a POS to li vi ae dot org You pick up a book like this the question then becomes how do I live it? And so what we do is we help you to create a what's traditionally been called a rule of life We call it a plan of love so that every single day You're waking up and you're asking yourself the question Or every evening whatever it is How did I do against this predominant defect and its manifestations? And and then you learn your to know yourself you adjust you you know You see patterns that you would never see before because I think Kristen One of the biggest issues of Getting free I like the first step of getting free is one I guess knowing you're deluded But I think too it's becoming aware of its manifestations. Is that it's that makes sense? Definitely, and not only do these manifestations pollute your own soul But father Macklehorn also discusses how they drag down the entire church Every sin has a ripple effect on the church as the mystical body of Christ So he speaks of this in regards to pride Especially when he uses the example of the Pharisees and their pride which was clearly their predominant fault He says holiness suffers just as a whole For many who are not judges of true and false piety see this false type and decide that they do not want to be good So if you see a false very vain Person pretending to be a Catholic and then you say that's what Catholicism is as as a potential convert for example You may not be attracted to the church So this this predominant fault not only will damage your own soul But is something that in an act of charity towards others and towards our Lord, of course Whom else in the fence and towards the church as a whole must be rooted out So I this is this has been a great show Kristen. I wish we had more time Rooting out hidden faults how the particular Examined conquer sin. I'd also recommend the seven deadly sins by dr. Kevin boast and then my own work navigating the interior life If you start with navigating the interior life, you'll get a good Initial questionnaire to kind of get somewhere in the proximity We have the free course out at a possibly va.org Sophia and stupress is doing some of the best work in the church today If you are ever wondering I need a good book on X. I would strongly recommend you head out Sophia's stupress and of course always you can find books from any publisher at EWTN's religious catalog and They're always vetted by theologians and always very reliable and faithful. So with that, thanks for being with us, Kristen Yes, thanks Okay, until next time may the God of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole and entire Spirit soul and body irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen Amen. Good job, Kristen George