EWTN Bookmark - 2014-2-2 - Dark Night of the Body

and welcome to a very special EWTN on location bookmark coming to you actually from the set of Sunday night prime here at ITV Studios at that Dunwoody seminary and I'm here on the set of father Apostoli show but we've changed around a little bit and our special guest is the one only dr. alice von Hildebrand and we're speaking to dr. Alice about her latest book the dark night of the body why reverence comes first in intimate relations it's always a pleasure to see you when many times we've done interviews in the studios at EWTN but you know we came to see you this time very kind of you because at my age it is not easy to take a long trip you know the delays so I'm honored thank you very very much for inviting me let me say you know I was thought of you as a lady but now you're officially a quote/unquote Dame what does it mean to be a dame and you got that award back and said you know I probably I have to get used to it and be too old to learn new tricks so I don't think I can perform well as lady I'm just going to continue to be one of being always okay at the one and only dr. Alice one hildenburg now let me ask you dr. Alice this book here is basically a collection of articles right that you wrote over what a couple of years period of time 18 months okay 18 months or so and they're basically focused again around having to do you call it the dark night of the body having to do with the theology of the body and maybe some of the discussions that came up about some of the teachings out of Christopher West was maybe promoting the night when you see believe the inspiration of the book is the following when I was 19 and he discovered a book all in defense of purity but it is vanilla plant and shortly afterwards I make his acquaintance and this book made a tremendous impression upon me at a very Catholic education that was another problem but the problem is that reading this book and study in this book I'm at a much deeper insight into the beauty of God's invention in creating male and female number one the beauty of it and simultaneously the data you know the very beginning it has to show that basically the idea of creating a male and a female of equal ontological dignity but very different in the spiritual religious psychological intellectual affecting that they complement each other then the tragedy of original sin and this is something that today we tend to forget original sin is a tremendous reality and inevitably inevitably the devil was going to attack particularly in a domain which is so sublime so beautiful and so sensual namely the relationship between man and woman now is it because of that book and because it was your husband's book that you have written on this topic on several books over the years and and that's why your focus has been kind of on that and that's why you decided to write this book now was this your idea to put the book together now it's published by Roman Catholic no no I do believe it was Roman Catholic approached me and they wanted you know therefore that or different I think it's basically the fifteen or sixteen that I continued but I mean is one who put them together and some of them never mysterious inevitably no my point is following the beauty of the complementarity of man and woman it's something magnificent when you realize that when God created Eve and Adam so you know immediately so flesh of my flesh and blood my blood if recognize that they have equal dignity and simultaneously you can truly see his response is enchantment enchantment and then he pays her a compliment of such incredible beauty that was in women under the influence of feminism forget called the mother of the living can you imagine a more glorious status that - because the mother of the living now comes original sin the devil addresses himself to eat my beloved beloved st. Augustine from F or and love and respect makes a belief a mistake when he says it turned to e because she was a weak one I think that I said so in fear and trembling because he's a giant another dwarf I believe he did it because she knew that she had a crew number one an enormous influence on Adam because women have no authority or less authority than men but an enormous influence and then number two because she was above the other living and she was a murderer from the beginning his hatred he said it's the woman and I mean this is what I see abortion which is a consequence of feminism as being the greatest victory of the devil since original see now this particular book when we kind of focus that on to this book where you talk to dark night of the bodies a bouquet of articles previously published by Catholic News Agency et cetera you say that they share a common theme to shed some modest light on the sublime Catholic teaching on the mystery the intimate sphere which you're kind of talking about those conditions are challenged by our pagan anti culture and the social recklessness it engenders let us resolve not to succumb to the temptation to meet this anti-culture halfway you see don't forget I'm quoting my husband once again because my whole intellectual information is something that I hope to him every time people spoke about our culture he got very excited and he said we live in an anti culture because all the noble things I mean culture is simply to elevate our everyday activities and bring them closer to God today we track everything down and so we've gotta really third unfortunately the transient a today is that the intimate sphere which is so crucial which is such a symbol an expression of the Uni existing has been dragged on or a level which is of course a tragedies pornography look if I were to say what is a set of wisdom wisdom is to dict what is the greatest danger of the day you know I mean very much this if I were to say to you I'm starting an organization to fight leprosy in New York State you're going to say well is she smart this no leprosy in New York State the danger today is pornography to quote benedict xvi the tutorial relativism pornography and abortion these are the three greatest dangers and what is pornography the death interpretation the nervous way that he wants men to look at the sexual - you know one of the great listings which is very good people and I insist by good people with good intention is to over extend something that at least once' Aristotle who usually starts from the Louis field you're going to say you know we have we can go to extremes we go too far in one direction they will go back to the other direction and the Bender's in the middle in a sense you exaggerate a truth we go to one of a very valuable contribution system my husband makes is to say it is validating certain spheres you can eat too much and become a beef you you become anorexic and in both cases you have yourself and of course the center is the balance this is not true of virtue right that's I know you make that point you know when it's something that I insist upon because it's so incredibly but it's not rusev virtue because look you take avaricious honest why is a man of Alicia's you recall the French novel lepercahn it's it's abominable you know that you sit on your gold you need a fine gold you can see that has to spend it why because it gives you satisfaction to feel that you possess order to take prodigality but probability is to spend while then you run into problems and then you say generosity is in between nonsense this is concentrated nonsense because a generous and he's generous because he responds to the call of a particular value in particular situation in response well let me ask you what you talk about the phrase holy bashfulness what do you mean oh this is I'm so that's racing because it's one of the most important piece you know English this abusive language you know it's not my mother tongue but a new believer have a preferred admiration for his beauty and it's void in its but philosophically speaking it's not a good language because if you take German or French or Spanish or Italian the distinctions that the whole thing's is in English for example shaming you use the word shame for two things that are so radically different for example your shame for example as steel and you catch me you know it'd be a shame because I've been caught or you take a have a very ugly wound with person disgusting I covered it because I'm ashamed of it or your cotton in your lap you're ashamed but you also use the word shame for fees that are mysterious that are sacred that are private in French for example or in Spanish or in Latin the word from food or a pure you der which simply means a sense for mystery that you had not because it's ugly hmm because it's sacred and it's bitumen look suppose for example that you receive a mystical grace that God touches your soul you don't go to stop and say hey you know it's a sort of mystical grace cannot imagine no exciting this you had it because it is a secret between you and God same thing when it comes to the sexual sphere it's a mystery it is a great mystery and you know from education that the time is dismal you have to make a child understand it is something beautiful but it's very very mysterious that you're supposed to keep the the job to keep secret and you understand the beauty of a Catholic education from which I have benefited your dissent is something very great you keep it hidden you keep it secret and then in the Holy Sacrament of matrimony you are permitted in front of God to unveil yourself and to give yourself to another person right well you say the whole idea what was communicated with delicacy was a sense of mystery and you say in this book that my general criticism of Christopher of Wesley's not seem to grasp the delicacy reverence privacy and sacredness of the sexual fear he also underestimates the effects of original sin on the human condition which you were talking about earlier and then you said one of the many dangers threatening us today is the widespread tendency to put the blame on others what do you mean by that well let me look Chesterton we so did naturally Witte says at the beginning of his own I haven't called the modern disease of saying that all the weakest nurse that I have due to my parents into my education you've got to realize that we I mean obviously you can say well I became addicted to pornography because my education was so puritanical it's simply because you've got to realize that pleasure has such a powerful attraction that I don't hesitate to say no as it is very solemnly one of the most difficult thing in Catholic life Oh in Christian life is to baptize intense pleasure and this is for innumerable men are defeated because it's so attractive because it's so powerful and to defeat it can only be done with grace this is one asceticism please such a role I mean I keep leading the lives of sins and amazed or sitting there that's what is practically eliminated you see I mean it is eliminating conferences you know even it's all over and we forget that the very moment you take tragic cases that you endure know of please a very famous and then suddenly the fourth why it's always right well if chosen one of the things is struck the two because one of the things you kind of talk about is and is that there seems to be the idea that pornography not Puritanism is the cancer destroying our society and a lot of times it seems to be that you know we we absolve these things or make them okay because we don't want to be puritanical or Manichaean and you said that Dietrich was also would also have recognized the red herring of modern current anism and you're saying clearly and I think later in the book you said which which would God see is more sinful pornography or Puritanism well I mean cancer for society look and know people who are small children how do you protect them from these abominable images and images of such a power of the human mind and once you have it's very difficult to get rid of it no I think you another thing and I'm so glad that the Indian can you refer to it one of the great great dangers is to misinterpret Christian teaching you know suppose you take center consensus in the future Aurore him the leader isn't love clear the error killed but love the sinner no you take someone who is a pornographer you do someone obliviously miss you have enough actually knew very little about it in such also all right look you have to pray for him the man has been corrupted by this and is caught in it and we have to feel sorry and hope that at the moment of death is going to say I'm sorry you see but when it comes to pornography there's nothing that can be redeemed in the mistake that he makes is to believe that we have to look for the good back of everything is true for persons but this is nothing good behind pornography it's nothing but evil it's definition it's not created by God whatever God created was good but this is of created by God it is an invention of the devil and we have to fight against well page 75 you said when Christ said that those who scandalizes little ones should have a millstone around their neck did our Savior forget to look for the good behind the evil but he's in good back of it you know one of the most fearful words in the gospel because it got spilled but intoxicant it is a good news the good news God came a savers on the other hand also speaks about eternal punishment the most fearful words in the gospel it would have been better for this man not to have been born it is so hot reading that you figure saying but my goodness I wish it was still alive so that I could try to say to him from goodness sake ham you said no one I was five years old I go to Catholic schools and then and come from a little pamphlet from Ferris from the slums of Paris and a police were speaking to the children above the betrayal of Judas and he said and in his despair he hanged himself and never forgot this dead silence and a little kid from the slums of Paris traces and further why didn't hang himself on Kresnik tears in my ass and I still do today it's one of the most beautiful things that shows that a child soul is open to God why did she hang himself on Kresnik so you say here we live in a world where confusion reigned supreme Christ has warned us that at the end of time men will be so perplexed that even the elect might be seduced and this is attended with this is what Karen would usually give you the privilege to meet recently for one full hour and at the end when the lady said we have entered the portal empty because there is confusion I mean good people unite us big european good people because i confuse because all these distinctions are not properly made well you know you know you kind of relate to EWTN here on this particular page you know I remember Mother Angelica talking about this as well the idea that compassion has today often been hijacked with the help of some sociological scientists a technique has now been developed it actually claims it's practically impossible to commit a mortal sin compassion for the sinner but no compassion for the scene the scene is a slap in the face of Tracy T and today I mean as I said probably lack of proper philosophical formation and you know let me repeat whatever work I have done modest as it was I have to get always modest no it doesn't hurt does it no you take we take my husband you know his love for truth his incredible talent for making the proper distinctions I mean you know and then on his deathbed saying to me when he confide that they should be questioned saying if you find a single world not in agreement with the teaching of the church tear it up these are things that gave me a feeling of awe and love and admiration and so every time I'm sure give a talk if you have to give him credit right now page 74 you were kind of alluding to this early on in the interview the devil always Apes God we should speak today about diabolical Trinity relativism abortion and pornography and I mean abortion is a fruit of feminism you know right no probably it's going to be made less I think because it's about them there's a step down you know feminism feminism is one of the creators they just existing today I tell you something the moment that a woman claims that she has of learned to become a priest because she's just as good as men in this very moment I feel some sort of iteration of the devil because you know what the mission of women is it is to be the mother of priests just as Mary was a mother of the one who said life itself and her mission was to give Mother through the priests we see only priests because there's only one priest which is Christ and I simply say one thing is certain this is a grand Jews magnificent mission of women to give birth to priests no look st. Peter tells us in his second epistle something which is not very cheerful at the end of time the world will be blown up in nothing will remain but the sin ashes of all the works of men and machines and the resin gone what is going to remain every child to whom a woman has given birth because he's an immortal soul even that is not glorious I do not know what is and you know my last word truly the following the relationship between man and woman is so magnificent that in order for me to relate positively to the other sex which has been present to me in my life you have to understand the beauty of your own sex and what you do you have the key to the other six let me ask you are you playing Cassandra when it comes to criticizing West's perspective in the sense of being a duelist that seems to be the problem you know the very opposite you know I simply am convinced that there are so many talents and education my goodness and which are at this gift of addressing people I mean in which them over immediately so many talents and also many possibilities I don't think that yourself proper philosophical formation and it doesn't realize at certain office formulations are open to misunderstandings what would you say to people just say he well he's just trying to reach different people who maybe haven't been at least he gets their attention that gets him to think about it you're talking to the wrong person I spent 37 years of my life in a place where from day one my colleagues made me understand that I didn't belong I did not become a secular University I belonged in a small Catholic College in the Midwest that's what I belonged no the amazing thing is the number of students who found their way to the church why because I did not use their language I did not so down on the level that was very very different from what you know the catalysis presented us in has taught me wonders in Belgium I tried to appeal to worse deepest in every human soul but people don't even know that there's something so deep and so beautiful in them and through your language in your presentation if you awaken this in them in 1 2 3 they discovered that there is truth and the moment and discover true they discovered that is one says the truth is that why I and beginning of the book you you kind of refer to your husband you say between procreation and copulation d-trix on abyss separating persons incarnated into a body and animals you see that that's the distinction that's happened in a lot of cases here that we've lost sight of the difference between copulation and procreation I mean of course you see one thing is the amazing thing about marriage is the fruitfulness of love I mean I mean this is my husband linked love to procreation very deeply do you know do you know that it was the first Catholics in 1930 to oppose the Lambeth conference first one it was it was the first one in 68 to write a booklet to perturb it and effective money VT he so that's so profound that you see love has to be fruitful it is fruitful but it's very innocent but please listen it's not only biological appropriation you take this isn't my book man and woman and divine invention the relationship between seeds when both of them were either consecrated virgin and the fruitfulness of a lot between Saint Francis of Sales and central processor shelter their noble so that they want why because love is free food but it's not all about eternity they need marriage no getting married it's all but what remains is the fruitfulness of love will you say here that the great task of a truly Christian education is to baptize pleasure baptized pleasure well I mean you know that's a that's my formulation etherion please it must be purified because this region I mean look the fruit of the tree was very appealing had it been an all rotten through nobody would have taken it that it took so beautiful and appreci and juicy and therefore it must be attractive and you see the tragedy is that God meant certain things to be pleasurable but the very moment that pleasure became so main motivation I mean it's a great task in marriage to Baptist pleasure you know in the sense that both of the spell the good of the spool the closest to God has precedence over and of course it is given to God but nevertheless we have got to realize and it should not be the primary motivation which is very difficult for father nature just before we go why did you dedicate this book to His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke right why did you dedicate it to Cardinal Burke this particular girl because of her many blessings in my life and I hope that on my deathbed one of my last words is going to say thank you and one of this was meeting Cardinal Burke nine years ago we've been in close contact he has been a tremendous help for me and I mean one thing is certain I'm dedicating this book to him because of a very very healthy attitude he's one of the great men in the church let us turn gold for him very good unless thank God for you as well dr. von Hildebrand always great to see you spend time we're out of time as we always are when we get talking about things of your interest the dark night of the body alice von Hildebrand why reverence comes first in intimate relations published by Roman Catholic books available through the EWTN religious catalogue thank you for joining us on a special on location EWTN bookmark zina

Channel: EWTN

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Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television, Eternal Word Television Network (Organization), Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand, book, author, writer, novel, library

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Length: 26min 30sec (1590 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 04 2014