Gregory Boyle

Father Gregory Boyle’s sparkling parables about kinship and the sacredness of life are drawn from twenty years working with gangs in LA. How do you fight despair and learn to meet the world with a loving heart? How do you overcome shame? Stay faithful in spite of failure? No matter where people live or what their circumstances may be, everyone needs boundless, restorative love. Gorgeous and uplifting, Tattoos on the Heart amply demonstrates the impact unconditional love can have on your life. As a pastor working in a neighborhood with the highest concentration of murderous gang activity in Los Angeles, Gregory Boyle created an organization to provide jobs, job training, and encouragement so that young people could work together and learn the mutual respect that comes from collaboration. Tattoos on the Heart is a breathtaking series of parables distilled from his twenty years in the barrio. Arranged by theme and filled with sparkling humor and glowing generosity, these essays offer a stirring look at how full our lives could be if we could find the joy in loving others and in being loved unconditionally. From giant, tattooed Cesar, shopping at JCPenney fresh out of prison, we learn how to feel worthy of God’s love. From ten-year-old Lula we learn the importance of being known and acknowledged. From Pedro we understand the kind of patience necessary to rescue someone from the darkness. In each chapter we benefit from Boyle’s wonderful, hard-earned wisdom. Inspired by faith but applicable to anyone trying to be good, these personal, unflinching stories are full of surprising revelations and observations of the community in which Boyle works and of the many lives he has helped save. Erudite, down-to-earth, and utterly heartening, these essays about universal kinship and redemption are moving examples of the power of unconditional love in difficult times and the importance of fighting despair. With Gregory Boyle’s guidance, we can recognize our own wounds in the broken lives and daunting struggles of the men and women in these parables and learn to find joy in all of the people around us. Tattoos on the Heart reminds us that no life is less valuable than another.

The Power of Boundless Compassion

Tattoos on the Heart

A Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries traces his experiences of working with gangs in Los Angeles for three decades, sharing what his efforts have taught him about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of radical kinship.

The Power of Radical Kinship

Barking to the Choir

Gregory Boyle, the beloved Jesuit priest and author of the inspirational bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart and Barking to the Choir, returns with a call to witness the transformative power of tenderness, rooted in his lifetime of experience counseling gang members in Los Angeles. Over the past thirty years, Gregory Boyle has transformed thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest and most successful gang-intervention program in the world. Boyle’s new book, The Whole Language, follows the acclaimed bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart, hailed as an “astounding literary and spiritual feat” (Publishers Weekly) that is “destined to become a classic of both urban reportage and contemporary spirituality” (Los Angeles Times), and Barking to the Choir, deemed “a beautiful and important and soul-transporting book” by Elizabeth Gilbert and declared by Ann Patchett to be “a book that shows what the platitudes of faith look like when they’re put into action.” In a community struggling to overcome systemic poverty and violence, The Whole Language shows how those at Homeboy Industries fight despair and remain generous, hopeful, and tender. When Saul was thirteen years old, he killed his abusive stepfather in self-defense; after spending twenty-three years in juvenile and adult jail, he enters the Homeboy Industries training and healing programs and embraces their mission. Declaring, “I’ve decided to grow up to be somebody I always needed as a child,” Saul shows tenderness toward the young men in his former shoes, treating them all like his sons and helping them to find their way. Before coming to Homeboy Industries, a young man named Abel was shot thirty-three times, landing him in a coma for six months followed by a year and a half recuperating in the hospital. He now travels on speaking tours with Boyle and gives guided tours around the Homeboy offices. One day a new trainee joins Abel as a shadow, and Abel recognizes him as the young man who had put him in a coma. “You give good tours,” the trainee tells Abel. They both have embarked on a path to wholeness. Boyle’s moving stories challenge our ideas about God and about people, providing a window into a world filled with fellowship, compassion, and fewer barriers. Bursting with encouragement, humor, and hope, The Whole Language invites us to treat others—and ourselves—with acceptance and tenderness.

The Power of Extravagant Tenderness

The Whole Language

Een motiverend en hoopvol boek dat je uitdaagt altijd te blijven geloven in het goede. In Tattoos op mijn hart vertelt Jezuïet Gregory Boyle over zijn ervaringen met het werken met rivaliserende bendes in Los Angeles. Het zijn verhalen van vriendschap en vergeving, maar ook van rouw en verdriet. Boyles geloof inspireert hem om verder te kijken dan de tattoos en het stoere uiterlijk van de gangleden. Van de zwaar getatoeëerde Cesar kun je leren hoe diep Gods liefde gaat. De jonge Pipi laat zien hoe belangrijk het is dat je gezien en erkend wordt en Lulu leert dat geduld belangrijk is om je doelen te bereiken.

Een priester werkt met jeugdbendes in Los Angeles

Tattoos op mijn hart

¿Cómo luchar contra la desesperanza e interactuar con el mundo con un corazón bondadoso? ¿Cómo superar la vergüenza y tener fe a pesar del fracaso? Sin importar en dónde vivamos o cuáles sean nuestras circunstancias, todos necesitamos un amor ilimitado y restaurador. Magnífico y reconfortante, Tatuajes en el corazón demuestra ampliamente el impacto que puede tener el amor incondicional en nuestras vidas. En su condición de párroco que trabaja en el vecindario con la mayor concentración de actividad pandillera y criminal en Los Ángeles, Gregory Boyle ha creado una organización para ofrecer empleos, capacitación laboral y estímulos para que los jóvenes puedan trabajar juntos y aprender el respeto mutuo proveniente de la colaboración. Tatuajes en el corazón es una impresionante serie de parábolas producto de sus experiencias con personas del barrio durante las dos últimas décadas. Clasificados por temas y llenos de humor fresco y generosidad abundante, estos ensayos nos ofrecen una visión conmovedora sobre la forma tan plena en que podemos vivir nuestras vidas si encontramos la alegría en amar a los demás y en ser amados incondicionalmente. De César, el joven enorme y lleno de tatuajes haciendo compras en JCPenney recién salido de la prisión, aprendemos a sentirnos dignos del amor de Dios. De Lula, el chico de diez años, aprendemos la importancia de ser conocidos y aceptados. De Pedro, entendemos el tipo de paciencia necesaria para rescatar a alguien de la oscuridad. En cada capítulo recibimos el regalo de la sabiduría maravillosa y duramente lograda por Boyle. Estos ensayos eruditos, realistas y completamente alentadores que discurren sobre la hermandad y la redención, son ejemplos reconfortantes del poder que tiene el amor incondicional en los tiempos difíciles y de la importancia absoluta de luchar contra la desesperanza. Gracias a la orientación de Gregory Boyle, podemos reconocer nuestras propias heridas en las vidas fracturadas y en las luchas descomunales de los hombres y las mujeres que figuran en estas parábolas, para aprender a encontrar la alegría en todas las personas que hay a nuestro alrededor. Tatuajes en el corazón nos hace recordar que ninguna vida vale menos que otra.

Gregory Boyle

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