Forward

By Fr. Guerric Heckel, Retreat Center Director, Mepkin Abbey
from the book Choosing Compassion: The Enneagram’s Nine Pathways

Christine has facilitated Enneagram retreats at Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery, north of Charleston, South Carolina. Choosing Compassion: The Enneagram’s Nine Pathways, invites us to reconnect with our innate capacity to feel compassion. Christine and I have talked about her love of the Enneagram and it’s my honor to tell you what I’ve learned.

“The Enneagram found me; I wasn’t looking for it. A friend sent me the book, Wisdom of the Enneagram and I recognized my Enneagram type immediately. After that, nothing was the same—the Enneagram cracked open my heart and became my life’s work.

I left my position as an Associate Professor at a Catholic University and moved to a small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Surrounded by natural beauty and silence, nature became my teacher. Trees, mountains, and streams introduced me to compassion—for all of life, including all human beings.”
- Christine King

What if the Enneagram could, like nature, help us remember our capacity for compassion? What if Christine’s practice of contemplative photography could help her identify photographs showing the healthy and less healthy qualities of each Enneagram type? Christine has done that and more! Weaving together her love of teaching, consulting, and the Enneagram, Choosing Compassion brings a very ancient spiritual practice to our times. For many, her work will shine a hopeful light, that we can feel our Essence, the core of our being, guiding us towards compassion.