Cardinals Praise Dan Montgomery's "God and Your Personality" Book

A Catholic classic in integrating spirituality and depth psychology, the newly revised and expanded  GOD AND YOUR PERSONALITY is now available in both print and e-book versions on Amazon.

God and Your Personality

God wants you to be the best version of "you" in Christ. This means God wants you to develop a whole, integrated, mature personality that reflects all your talents, capabilities, and dreams—while conforming to the image of Christ. Unfortunately, a lot of us fail to follow the Holy Spirit's guidance in actualizing this calling. We fall short of God's purpose for our lives. We get trapped in other people's ideas, our own self-imposed limits and fears.

God and Your Personality is your key to break through those barriers and become the beloved son or daughter of God that you were born to be. Writing with compassion and empathy, but also with a firm grasp of personality problems, Theologian-Psychologist Dan Montgomery gives you a handbook that will enable you to find your own "true north" by utilizing the cutting-edge techniques of Compass Therapy and the Self Compass.

Through learning to steer your life with the Compass points of Love, Assertion, Weakness, and Strength (the LAWS of personality health), you can find a freedom to become the "you" that God calls you to be.

University of Notre Dame 

“I am fascinated by the Self Compass. The growth orientation of the Compass Model offers a transformation mindset that benefits any reader. Well done.” — Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D., Professor of Developmental and Moral Psychology 

Paul Cardinal Poupard, The Vatican 

“God & Your Personality is no New Age influenced waffle clouded in a mystique of blurb, but a useful tool for all those who seek to address personality issues and quench their innate spiritual thirst with the living-water which truly satisfies. Well done!”

Secretary of the Vatican Council for the Evangelization of Peoples

“This book is easy to understand and yet contains a profound understanding of the underlying elements of the human personality. It will surely be of much help to anyone who wishes to deepen their knowledge of the relationship between psychological and spiritual wholeness.” — Archbishop Robert Sarah

Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Manila 

“God & Your Personality is a noble accomplishment and a gift to individuals who seek wholeness and holiness.”

Erdo Cardinal Peter, Budapest

“God & Your Personality is a fine achievement and wonderful contribution to the healing ministry.”

Stephen Cardinal Kim, Seoul

“I am now reading God & Your Personality and find it very enlightening.”

Roger Cardinal Mahony, Los Angeles

“The Catholic tradition has long affirmed the value of the human sciences in leading us to a deeper understanding of the human person in relation to God and others. Dr. Montgomery’s work, drawing as it does from the riches of psychological investigation and insight, will prove most helpful for those striving to grow and develop in the Christian life.”

Let God and Your Personality be your means 
of healing grace today!

New Catholic Personality Book Praised by Cardinals!

A Catholic classic in integrating spirituality and depth psychology, the newly revised and expanded  GOD AND YOUR PERSONALITY is now available in both print and e-book versions on Amazon.

God and Your Personality

God wants you to be the best version of "you" in Christ. This means God wants you to develop a whole, integrated, mature personality that reflects all your talents, capabilities, and dreams—while conforming to the image of Christ. Unfortunately, a lot of us fail to follow the Holy Spirit's guidance in actualizing this calling. We fall short of God's purpose for our lives. We get trapped in other people's ideas, our own self-imposed limits and fears.

God and Your Personality is your key to break through those barriers and become the beloved son or daughter of God that you were born to be. Writing with compassion and empathy, but also with a firm grasp of personality problems, Theologian-Psychologist Dan Montgomery gives you a handbook that will enable you to find your own "true north" by utilizing the cutting-edge techniques of Compass Therapy and the Self Compass.

Through learning to steer your life with the Compass points of Love, Assertion, Weakness, and Strength (the LAWS of personality health), you can find a freedom to become the "you" that God calls you to be.

University of Notre Dame 

“I am fascinated by the Self Compass. The growth orientation of the Compass Model offers a transformation mindset that benefits any reader. Well done.” — Darcia Narvaez, Ph.D., Professor of Developmental and Moral Psychology 

Paul Cardinal Poupard, The Vatican 

“God & Your Personality is no New Age influenced waffle clouded in a mystique of blurb, but a useful tool for all those who seek to address personality issues and quench their innate spiritual thirst with the living-water which truly satisfies. Well done!”

Secretary of the Vatican Council for the Evangelization of Peoples

“This book is easy to understand and yet contains a profound understanding of the underlying elements of the human personality. It will surely be of much help to anyone who wishes to deepen their knowledge of the relationship between psychological and spiritual wholeness.” — Archbishop Robert Sarah

Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Manila 

“God & Your Personality is a noble accomplishment and a gift to individuals who seek wholeness and holiness.”

Erdo Cardinal Peter, Budapest

“God & Your Personality is a fine achievement and wonderful contribution to the healing ministry.”

Stephen Cardinal Kim, Seoul

“I am now reading God & Your Personality and find it very enlightening.”

Roger Cardinal Mahony, Los Angeles

“The Catholic tradition has long affirmed the value of the human sciences in leading us to a deeper understanding of the human person in relation to God and others. Dr. Montgomery’s work, drawing as it does from the riches of psychological investigation and insight, will prove most helpful for those striving to grow and develop in the Christian life.”

Let God and Your Personality be your means 
of healing grace today!

The Strength of Human Weakness

In America and most parts of the world, Strength is admired and cultivated as a way of striving for achievement and building self-confidence.

Weakness is an experience that nobody likes and everyone shuns.

 
However, when people seek Strength at the expense of avoiding any sense of Weakness, they become entitled, inflated, and even cocky about how strong they are. I believe the Bible wants to correct this human error by teaching that "pride goes before the fall."

The truth is that we are all weak under our facade of strength. We all get sick, have accidents, are thrown into panic by sudden adversity, are vulnerable to various addictions, and haunted by the uncertainty that we may not have enough (money, friends, health, or even life) the day after tomorrow.

So Christ teaches us to rely on him day to day, and not worry about tomorrow.

Yes, we can make reasonable, tentative plans. And yes, we can exercise a certain amount of control in governing our circumstances. But we must not do it obsessively, at all costs.

We remain humbly open to discovering and doing God's will, even when we find this inconvenient and uncomfortable.

God often asks us to accept temporary adversity, vulnerability, and uncertainty—precisely so that our self-willed Strength does not become our god.

Compass Therapy and the Self Compass show how Weakness is one of the four universal compass points of personality, and offers as much positive value to mental and spiritual health as do Love, Strength, and Assertion.

But how do you experience Weakness gracefully, especially when it hurts? First, realize that God came among us as a fully human person—Jesus. He experienced human weakness through the things he suffered. He didn't own a home, had no spending money, was sometimes popular and sometimes despised, had some loyal friends and some who betrayed him, and experienced moments of anxiety, grief, and terror, the same as we do. For these reasons Jesus Christ is a humble and empathetic Savior.

You come to terms with Weakness by knowing that you can't do life by yourself. You lean on God and others to help you out. You accept your losses and move forward into Strength. You surrender to occasional waves of anxiety and uncertainty, while still keeping your eyes on the Lord, who strengthens you through Weakness. And you develop the virtue of humility and empathy for those who still suffer.

God makes a way for you when there is no way. 

For more about how faith calms fear and heals anxiety, read  

Faith Beyond Church Walls:  Finding Freedom in Christ

Use the Self Compass to Help Stop Panic Attacks!

Panic attacks are among the most overwhelming feelings you'll ever experience. You feel like your entire personality has been ripped to shreds. Like you are falling head-long into an abyss with no bottom. Like you can hardly breathe and are being crushed by overwhelming forces. In short, you feel like you are dying.

Take heart, though. The Self Compass can help make your personality panic-proof.

Let's see how this works by using the Self Compass of Love, Assertion, Weakness, and Strength —the LAWS of personality—to give you the balance you need to become psychologically and spiritually resilient in the face of full-blown panic. That is, able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult circumstances.

On the Love compass point, remember that God loves you. That friends love you. That you are learning to love yourself. The best way to experience love that counters anxiety is to simply define yourself as a worthwhile human being, with your fair share of strengths and weaknesses. Ask God to help you love yourself as He does. Here is where I rely on the Love God shows me through his Son Jesus Christ. I accept deeply without conditions that Jesus loves me and will see me through anything I face, including occasional feelings of intense anxiety.

On the Assertion compass point, get angry at being a victim of fear. Anger is as active emotion that counters anxiety, which is a passive feeling. Get angry that you shake in your boots, that life seems to have you by the throat, that the devil in on your shoulder. Get angry enough to say, "No, I won't roll over and become terrified by life! I won't let my existence deteriorate into mindless fear! I won't live by fear instead of faith!" The Assertion compass point mobilizes resourcefulness for creative coping. Most of all, it helps you call upon God with conviction and active expectancy, trusting that "underneath are the everlasting arms."

On the Weakness compass point, realize that even the strongest people at times feel anxious and overwhelmed. Life is difficult. Nobody gets a free ride. Even our faith is tested by God. But that's okay. You can make it with just a mustard seed of faith. Given time, even snails and tortoises reach their destinations. And you are a person made in the image of God! Isn't it fascinating that when God became incarnate to live and walk among us, he didn't display overbearing strength, but identified with our weaknesses by himself becoming weak. Jesus had a panic attack in the Garden of Gethsemane, immediately prior to his humiliation and crucifixion. He showed us that it is only human to sometimes feel frightened, helpless, and alone. In times like this, you can say to yourself, "I'm scared right now, but this too will pass." "I'm feeling terribly alone, so I need to confide in someone." "There's growth in the valley." "Please help me, Lord!"

On the Strength compass point, visualize in your mind the blessings you've known, the relationships you treasure, the potentials you've yet to actualize. Look beyond current anxieties to the growth curve of lifelong learning, where you, like Jesus, are made wiser and stronger through the things that you suffer. Picture the child who has a panic attack after falling down and skinning her knee, seeing blood for the first time. There is terror in that moment! But the loving parent offers consolation in the form of a band-aide and a reassuring hug, helping the pain to stop hurting. Just so does our Heavenly Father look out for us, bringing the Holy Spirit to sooth our pain and heal our panic. "There's a better day coming," says the Lord within us, "and I will guide you toward it!"

You overcome panic attacks by accepting that occasional anxiety is part of the human condition, known even by Jesus (Weakness), by sharing your fears with those who care about you, including your Heavenly Father (Love), by taking steps to face and work through the obstacles that are scaring you (Assertion), and by accepting that you are a child of God through the will of the Father, by the grace of Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit (Strength).

How do I know? I've been the victim of numerous panic attacks and bouts of anxiety in the course of life. I have learned to trust my Self Compass in Christ. It is because of this that I am able to write these words of encouragement to you! I've been there and I've come out on the other side.