Tattoos on the Heart

A good friend recommended I read Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle and I'm so glad I did. I don't typically read gang-related books (maybe I just don't come across them often?), but this one was really good.

Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit Priest and founder of Homeboy Industries -- a nonprofit that comes along side men and women who want to leave their gang-life and provides services like tattoo removal and job placement. They've started a number of businesses for the purpose of employing them too which is really neat.

He shares personal stories and thoughts about his work and what he has seen in the decades of loving the unlovable. There were so many times I wanted to underline the sentence I had just read but it being a library (and me reading it at the gym) didn't give much opportunity to log the quotes I loved.

I think my biggest take-away from the book as a whole was that we are called to love everyone. No matter how different they might be from us. Every single person has value and worth. And when people see their value/worth for the first time it can bring about a lot of change. Writing that seems easy enough but doing it is really entirely different.

Boyle gives a lot of really great stories as examples of how he shows love to gang members in LA. There are many changed lives because of the work he does. His stories are also covered in heartbreak as well given the demographic he works with (oh so many funerals).

Of course there are theological thoughts he shares that I don't quite agree with and I'm unclear if he actually gets to share Jesus with his "homies" as he calls them so they are given an opportunity to receive salvation; I have no doubt in my mind that they see Jesus in the work of Father Boyle though and feel the love of God coming through him.

Reading the book revealed to me my own boundaries I have around myself and others and how I withhold compassion, love and even forgiveness -- and as his subtitle indicates, boundless compassion is powerful. So powerful.

A good friend recommended I read Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle and I'm so glad I did. I don't typically read gang-related books (maybe I just don't come across them often?), but this one was really good.

Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit Priest and founder of Homeboy Industries -- a nonprofit that comes along side men and women who want to leave their gang-life and provides services like tattoo removal and job placement. They've started a number of businesses for the purpose of employing them too which is really neat.

He shares personal stories and thoughts about his work and what he has seen in the decades of loving the unlovable. There were so many times I wanted to underline the sentence I had just read but it being a library (and me reading it at the gym) didn't give much opportunity to log the quotes I loved.

I think my biggest take-away from the book as a whole was that we are called to love everyone. No matter how different they might be from us. Every single person has value and worth. And when people see their value/worth for the first time it can bring about a lot of change. Writing that seems easy enough but doing it is really entirely different.

Boyle gives a lot of really great stories as examples of how he shows love to gang members in LA. There are many changed lives because of the work he does. His stories are also covered in heartbreak as well given the demographic he works with (oh so many funerals).

Of course there are theological thoughts he shares that I don't quite agree with and I'm unclear if he actually gets to share Jesus with his "homies" as he calls them so they are given an opportunity to receive salvation; I have no doubt in my mind that they see Jesus in the work of Father Boyle though and feel the love of God coming through him.

Reading the book revealed to me my own boundaries I have around myself and others and how I withhold compassion, love and even forgiveness -- and as his subtitle indicates, boundless compassion is powerful. So powerful.