Tattoos on the Heart
Books | Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs
4.3
(222)
Greg Boyle
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.
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Author
Greg Boyle
Pages
240
Publisher
Simon and Schuster
Published Date
2011-02-08
ISBN
1439153159 9781439153154
Community ReviewsSee all
"Amazing inspirational read! "
Mandy Herreid
"I stayed up tonight to finish this one. This book will weigh you down with sorrow while at the same time lifting you with hope. There is amazing power to be felt when one attains kinship with "the other," and Father Gregory has definitely done this.<br/><br/>Tattoos on the Heart is a memoir of Father Gregory Boyle's time spent serving the communities in the projects of East LA and in several prisons and juvenile detention centers and camps. He sees these homies as equals or perhaps as his betters, as he works tirelessly to get them to see the worth of their souls. He gives them love and compassion they wouldn't find elsewhere, and he doesn't judge, not in the way the world does. This book doesn't go into a lot of detail about the organization he founded, Homeboy Industries, but it does talk about the difference this organization made in the lives of everyone involved.<br/><br/>Reading true stories like this gives me hope in our world.<br/><br/>(Trigger warnings: some gang violence mentioned, not graphic; some profanity when quoting gang members.)"
Jennifer D
"Easy read with real depth. I will be reading this again. "
summer deloach
"Full of inspiration and hard truths of gang life in the city. I have read it twice and still think about it. Boyle makes you realize that love and grace should always come first"
Katie Brauer