Catholic Enneagram of Personality

1. Primer on the Enneagram of Personality

2. How the Enneagram of Personality fits in well with Catholic Life

Catholics who practice spiritual growth and a “know thyself” mentality are already using the key aspects of the Enneagram of Personality.

3. The Enneagram of Personality as a tool for Catholics in their personal and spiritual growth

Your will be done

• When we understand our vices, habits, and hangups better we can work on relinquishing them to God.
• You begin to realize that your vices are not permanent, that the enemy uses our specific vices to trick and tempt us, and that life is so much better without these attachments fogging up our minds.
• The clearer our minds are, the easier it becomes to hear God’s will. Clearing out the fog by lassoing our vices allows us to better discern between our natural impulses and God’s actual words
• For example, I’ve recently learned that my attachment to fear (not trusting God will provide) has influenced the way that I pray — I have a tendency to close my mind to possibilities that God might like to use in my life, which makes it harder for me to recognize when He moves in the ways I am not expecting. By beginning to relinquish that fear, it’s becoming easier to hear God speak and see Him work.

Forgiving those who trespass against us

• When you understand why you and others behave in certain ways, it becomes easier to revisit past memories and work through forgiveness
• For example, revisiting memories with my mom helped me realize that she (as a Type 9) has a core fear of being overlooked, ignored, and seen as unimportant. Many of our arguments stemmed from her feeling like I was overlooking her, which made her angry, which set off my core fear that I was bad. I would defend myself against my fear, insisting that she was wrong, while she would continue to defend herself insisting that I was wrong. Now that I recognize this, I can more easily forgive her for past hurts, and prevent future arguments by keeping an eye out for how to better show her respect and not trigger her core fear.

Build empathy for yourself and for others

• As you learn and accept your personality type’s core struggles, you become kinder to yourself, realizing your need for God’s mercy and help in your life
• You can forgive yourself for your flaws knowing that you’re not the only one struggling with this particular issue. Every single person with your same personality type struggles or has struggled with this same flaw.
• You can offer these flaws/weaknesses to God to allow His strength to work through you. (”…My power is made perfect in weakness…” 2 Cor. 12:8)
• As you become kinder to yourself, your eyes begin to open to the core struggles of others around you. It becomes easier to empathize with your family, neighbors, coworkers, and even strangers. We can learn to see and love others like God does.
• For example, the coworker who often procrastinates might be a Type 3, with a core fear of failure, so they find it hard to begin something they are afraid might make them look bad

Lead us not into temptation — Discovering our Predominant Fault

• We all have many vices, but each personality type has a core weakness, a predominant fault. The Enneagram of Personality can help point out what people with your personality type tend to struggle with the most.
• For example, as a Type 1, my core weakness is Anger. I didn’t immediately associate with being angry because I tend to repress feelings that I think are “bad.” Instead, I would show my frustration and irritation because that didn’t seem as bad. As I learned about Types 1s, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that being constantly frustrated and irritated with others is actually the sin of Anger. Once I was able to name it as such, I recognized it everywhere my life, and I could ask the Holy Spirit for help. I am on the path of growing away from anger and towards serenity.

Untangling knots

• Our sins have created a lot of knots in our lives. Untangling them can seem overwhelming but the Holy Spirit can use our knowledge of our personality type to show us which knots to work on first.
• For example, I struggle with accepting criticism, even polite feedback. As this knot untangles, I’ve noticed improvements in many areas of my life such as my writing, cooking, creative projects, willingness to try new things, as well as a reduction in anxiety.

Offering it up

• Changing and growing into better versions of ourselves is often painful. We have to admit our faults, change our habits, rebuild relationships and so on.
• Along the way, you can offer up this personal suffering/purging for the sake of others (sinners, purgatory, etc)
• It’s a win-win! Through the struggle you grow stronger, and you have opportunities to suffer with Christ for the sake of others

Deliver us from evil — Defeating the enemy’s lies

• The enemy is a liar. He loves to deceive us and warp our understanding of ourselves and God. As we grow away from vices, and untangle knots, the Holy Spirit reveals to us lies that we have been believing.
• For example, the Holy Spirit recently revealed to me that I have been believing the lie: “I should be able to do everything by myself (including fixing myself so that God doesn’t have to).” It turns out that this is a type of Pride and the truth is “I can’t do everything on myself and God wants me to ask Him to help.” Uncovering this lie and the truth has been a big turning point in my relationship with God.

Strengthening relationships, especially marriage

• By learning about my personality type and that of my husband’s, our marriage has improved immensely. We are both sensitive and emotional people, and our feelings would boomerang off of each other. If my husband is feeling melancholy, I used to worry it was my fault. This would trigger my core fear of being bad, which would ruin my mood. Now I know that his Type is prone to melancholy and it can even be a good thing, I can give him the space to work through it without feeling responsible. This lightens my mood, which makes it easier for him to resurface from his mood.

4. The Enneagram of Personality Is Not…

• is not an excuse for sin or bad behavior. It points out what each type most tends to struggle with, which helps us know where to look to begin uprooting the issue.
• is not an ancient tool. The only thing in common with anything from the past is the shape of the symbol, which is simply 9 points (ennea = 9, gram = symbol), much like a hexagram is a 6 pointed symbol. While a lot of info out there tries to trace the Enneagram back to Sufism, and even Christianity, it’s clear that the way we use the modern Enneagram of Personality is based on the work of Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo from the 1970s. They drew on ancient sources like the Vices and Virtues because they saw how they fit well with each personality type. But there’s really nothing to attach it to anything older than the 1970s.
• is not the only personality typing system out there. The Catholic Temperaments, Myers-Briggs, DISC, and many other tools are all useful ways of understanding the types of people in the world. I personally prefer the Enneagram because it explains why we behave the specific ways that we do, and shows specifically what a better version of ourselves can look like.
• is not a religion. There are no prayers, no incantations, no fortune-telling, no associating with spirits or anything of the sort. It is simply a tool to help you understand your God-given personality better, and how to grow into the person God wants you to be.
• is not New Age. It’s just psychology. Some people will rope it in as New Age, and some people will intentionally use it that way. But if we ask the Holy Spirit to teach us through this particular tool, He will.

5. God in the Enneagram of Personality

• I believe God, when He creates each of us, assigns us one of these 9 personality types as a way of giving us a little piece of Himself to carry into the world. When we learn about that piece and grow in it, we bring glory to God.
• God, Himself, is the perfect version of all 9 of these types.
• When we learn about, appreciate, and observe these characteristics in others, we can see a reflection of God’s character. This both builds our love for God, and our love and empathy for others.

How each personality type reflects characteristics of God

Types	God’s Characteristics
1 - The Reformer	Perfection, love of goodness, hatred of evil
2 - The Helper	Generosity, helpfulness, empathy, kindness
3 - The Achiever	Encourager, determination, perseverance
4 - The Individualist	Creativity, emotional depth, love of beauty, authenticity
5 - The Investigator	Wisdom, knowledge, love of truth
6 - The Loyalist	Loyalty, faithfulness, courage
7 - The Enthusiast	Fun, positivity, joy, abundance
8 - The Challenger	Love of justice, protector, strength
9 - The Peacemaker	Love of peace, harmony, oneness

6. My personal opinion

• While we may not understand the purpose of the original enneagram symbol, it’s very clear to me that God purposed the 9 personality types to fit perfectly on the symbol, including their connections to each other. By this I mean, how the wings, paths, and main types all affect each other.
• God uniquely wired us all. He lets us use the Enneagram of Personality to understand our unique wiring, understand each other’s wiring, and as a guide for how to grow out of vices and into virtues.
• As long as we ask and allow the Holy Spirit to enlighten us along the way, there is no danger in learning from the Enneagram of Personality.

7. Good resources for further reading

Catholic Guide to the 4 Temperaments

Predominant Fault — Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.

Your Enneagram Coach — well-respected Gospel-centered Enneagram teaching

Catholic Spiritual Tradition and the Enneagram — “how the Enneagram compares, coincides with, or further illuminates a Catholic approach to spirituality”

Viewpoint - Bishops’ New Worry: the enneagram — “So if the Benedictines, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Jesuits, clergy and thousands of pious laity have profited from this study, who is it that is worrying the bishops about the suitability? …. The bishops’ document contains the answer. The bishops are out of date.”

Know Thyself - St. Theresa of Avila — “with self-knowledge, you are made truly humble”