"We try sometimes to be such good angels that we forget to be good human beings."
A Letter from Heaven for People Who Want to be More Human.
Francis de Sales (1567-1622) has a secret tip for those who are interested in the spiritual life. His "Introduction to the Devout Life" (1608) is a bestseller of spiritual literature. His "Treatise on the Love of God" (1616), his Sermons and Pastoral Writings qualify the "Teacher of God's Love" as a Saint (1665), as a "Doctor of the Church" (1877) and as a "Patron of Journalists" (1923). His some 20, 000 Letters, among which some to his friend, Jane de Chantal, reflect his rich knowledge of human nature and his mature competence as a spiritual director.
Not by chance do we find 34 concepts from de Sales in the collection of spiritual treasures written three thousand years ago and published by Marion KÚstenmacher, "Enneagramm der Weisheit" [English
translation of this title - "Enneagram of Wisdom"] [N.B. English books exist on this topic, e.g., The Enneagram in Love and Work, by Helen Palmer, Harper, San Francisco, 1995; Character and Neurosis, by Claudio Naranjo, Gateways, Nevada City, 1994; "Enneagram II: Advancing Spiritual Discernment, by Richard Rohr, Crossroads, New York, 1995.]
Johannes Haas, OSFS, has added a new letter, so to speak, to the many surviving letters of St. Francis de Sales. Francis de Sales, himself, discovered the "Enneagram"-with it he sees the people he encounters in his day in a new way. People today who encounter de Sales in his writing see him in a new way. As in those days, he chooses for his letter two names, in which the man or woman reading him can find themselves: "Philothea" and "Theotimus" - the man and the woman in love with God.
Dear Phileothea, Dear Theotimus,
Many would like to imagine that even here in heaven there is a library set up with the treasures of all human wisdom and science.Now, there is no such library, but there is a truly heavenly synopsis of what has developed and unfolded in the history of mankind — inexhaustible material for the praise of God. God's wisdom is seen in human wisdom. In a book about the "Enneagram of Wisdom", I discover to my amazement a great many of my words - in the midst of samples of human wisdom that come to us from across three thousand years. Words that I gave people who were seeking a Christian life four hundred years ago - in letters , in sermons and in spiritual writings. Words that now have a new meaning for me; they appear in a new light for me - in the light of the Enneagram.
In each of the nine [personality] types I encounter myself. It is no accident since I have encountered people in their colorful diversity. As varied as they were, I observed them. I desired to see and understand and encourage each of them in his or her individuality. Each person was for me as a flower in God's garden, each called to blossom.
That I am discovering myself in a book about the Enneagram makes me curious. As I was in my lifetime, I am interested in everything that teaches me to understand people. I was on the cutting edge of psychology in my day. What was even more important for me was that I got to learn about people. I got to know the landscapes of their souls, their wishes, their motivations, their longings and emotions, their heights and their depths, their backgrounds, the unplumbed depths of their souls, their searching for meaning, their grasping for God. Thereby, I also learned to know myself better - in thelandscape of my soul.
When I read about the Enneagram today a lot of things come to mind that I encountered in the past. Then, I could not yet see things in the light of the nine categories of the Enneagram. Looking back, I see them differently; I understand them on a deeper level. Light falls in a different way on what inspired me then, and on what people experience and suffer today.
The Enneagram is still new territory for me, of which I have too little experience. However, I do have an idea already about the way I would like to direct people today. I would like to give them nine wishes that they can take with them on their life's journey - to each a wish for the journey. For that purpose I will use words from my writings as provisions for their journey.
Personality Category One - The Perfectionist (World View: The World is an imperfect place. I work toward perfection.)*
* Translator's note: "Titles" and "World View" for each of the nine Personality Categories taken from "The Enneagram in Love and in Work", by Helen Palmer, Harper, San Francisco, 1995. Thease have been added to help those not yet familiar with the nine Personality Categories of the Enneagram.
You want to be better than you are. You strive to put more living into your life. Your efforts for perfection are good; they are the basis for your calling. But consider: if you want to fly to heaven, you might land on earth. You are at home in the here and now. The everyday is your way. Thus, my advice. Strive less toward the extraordinary; live rather the ordinary in an extraordinary way! Consider:
"Sometimes we strive so much to be good angles that we forget to be good human beings". "The evil of all evils for people of good will, is that they want to be what they are not able to be, and don't want to be what they could be."
My wish for you is: become the person who you are!
Personality Category Two - The Giver
(World View: People depend on my help. I am needed.)*You want to like people, to give of yourself for others, to allow them to make use of you. Your wanting to love others is natural and good; it gives your heart hands. In this you can readily recognize that love has to be a free gift, freely received and freely given. Such freely given love is related to God's Grace. "Grace" and "Gratis" have a common etymology. True love is not the love of things, not wanting to have, but rather allowing to be. You are free to be yourself, in your own presence, in the presence of others, in the presence of God. Like yourself as you are; permit yourself to love as much as you want.
"We can never love our fellow human beings too much, if that love is really rooted in our heart. The exterior expressions of love can certainly go astray, be exaggerated, and be unreasonable."
Personality Category Three - The Performer
(World View: The world values a champion. I must avoid failure.)*You want to be successful, to reach your goals, to attain respect. Your wish really has two sides. You should also look at the other side if you really want to be successful. Not everything depends on you. Whether something goes well for you depends also on others and, ultimately, on God. Therefore, keep in mind:
"It is our duty to work well, but the success of our efforts depends on God." "All that is good in us depends on God's Grace and so we must place our complete confidence in it. People, however, who are always working at a fever pitch to achieve as much as possible seem to depend more on their own initiative."
Personality Category Four - The Romantic
(World View: Something is missing. Others have it. I have been abandoned.)*You long to be different from others. You want to be beautiful/handsome for yourself and others. You remind me of Narcissus.
"According to the legend Narcissus was such a proud young man that he was not willing to bestow his love on anyone. When he finally looked at himself in a clear pool he was enthralled by his own beauty. When we look at our reflection we appear reversed - the head below and the feet above".
I wish that you could learn to see yourself as God sees you. In a different way than you see yourself. You should love yourself as you are, because that is the way you are loved by God.
"A person experiences himself in the disintegration of his being in the most different way. But he should accept himself as he is, because he knows he is loved by God. God doesn't just come up with some kind of abstract image of us.
Personality Category Five - The Observer
(World View: The world is invasive. I need privacy to think and to refuel my energies.)*You want to know what happens outside the door of your house. Your house is full of treasures that you have assembled. You have lots of things, but do you have very much? Having a lot of things does not mean being important. I will give you something to think about.
"By merely thinking about how things should be done
many people amount to nothing. The perfection of our soul consists in union with God, which we don't attain with lots of knowing, but rather with lots of doing ".To people like you I gladly give some easily remembered words to think about:
"Accomplishing a lot brings one to perfection, but not knowing a lot."
Naturally, by accomplishing a lot I mean doing things with much love; that is, living filled with love.
Personality Category Six - The Trooper
(World View: The world is a threatening place. I question authority.)*You fulfill your duty and you do it gladly. You do your work and it does good by you. You have your place and you experience the world from it. You are like a sailor on a ship who trusts his captain.
"The seaman looks on the open sea in order to determine his direction, but more by looking up to the heavens than upon the sea on which he is traveling. So will God work with you, in you and for you and your work will bring you joy."
Such trust in God changes your concerns about tomorrow.
"Whoever wants to serve God is not concerned about tomorrow. He does faithfully what God wants of him today, tomorrow he will do what God wants of him, and the day after also."
Personality Category Seven - The Epicure
(World View: The world is full of opportunity and options. I look forward to the future.)*You were "born under a lucky star." Rather happy than sad, rather above board and open than below board and holdings things within. For me you are like a sunflower sunning itself in the sun, or like a butterfly fluttering from blossom to blossom. I rejoice with you, but would like to write into your autograph book:
"Bloom where you were planted. One single work done calmly and conscientiously is worth more than many done with much rushing and being upset." "God doesn't take joy in the number of things weaccomplish, but in the love with which we work."
There are not just rosy days to experience, life can also blossom in painful experiences.
"In the last analysis, what is the difference whether God speaks to us from thorns or from blossoms?"
Personality Category Eight - The Boss
(World View: The world is an unjust place. I defend the innocent.)*You feel strong and communicate that strength to others - outwardly. I ask you, if your self-certain look is not a mask? Behind it, you are the way you are, weak. You can be that way and say to yourself:
"I want to be weak rather than strong in God's eyes, because although he takes the strong into his hands, he takes the weak into his arms."
For the people you have to deal with, I give this advice:
"Reprimands for failings must be done quietly and peacefully: nothing tames the raging elephant better than the sight of a lamb, and nothing breaks the force of a shot better than soft wool."
Personality Category Nine - The Mediator
(World View: The world won't value my efforts. Stay comfortable. Keep the peace.)*You like to live in the present. You want to be happy today. What disturbs you, you prefer to put off to tomorrow. I know people like you. We say:
"Tomorrow, I'll get started on improving myself and we pamper ourselves in this way and shy away from what could stir us out of our supposed peace, out of a peace that is really nothing other than apathy and laziness."
In this you are in good company. Even outstanding people were once people like you.
" The lazy person thinks about it and thinks about it and
sounds like St. Augustine before his conversion, I would like to wait ‘just a little more', then I will make my conversion. But the Holy Spirit suffers no putting off. He wants a swift acceptance of His inspirations."
In the Holy Spirit I wish you some holy anxiety. It can be a source of healing for you. And I wish you a holy composure in which you can confidently say:
"It is all the same for me whatever sauce God put me in according to His will, so long as I can serve Him."
Dear Philotheas and Theotimuses,
Above you have nine examples from letters as I wrote in my day. Nine samples of what I would like to write today to people from A to Z, from the Personality Categories one to nine, among whom are people like you. Wherever you settle down, wherever you are at home, I want to place the following in your heart.
"Praise the Lord with the face he has given you."
In His presence you may be as you are, and become what you can become. You don't have to become a super person. You can just be a human being:
"God doesn't say, 'Give me an angel's heart', but ‘Give me your heart.' It is your own heart that He wants. Give it to Him as it is. He wants nothing more than what we are and what we have. "
I greet you "from heart to heart." With you I am on the road to becoming more of a human being.
???????Francis de Sales
This letter is written to encourage you to discover Francis de Sales.
If you have further interest you can get more details from the "Ghost Writer" of this letter, Fr. Johannes Haas, KIM-Zentrale, Weningstrasse 35, , D-85053 Ingolstadt, Germany or from Rev. Alexander Pocetto, OSFS ATP0@email.allencol.edu
* Translator's note: "Titles" and "World View" for each of the nine Personality Categories taken from "The Enneagram in Love and in Work", by Helen P almer, Harper, San Francisco, 1995. These have been added to help those not yet familiar with the nine Personality Categories of the Enneagram.