Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

For twenty years, Gregory Boyle has run Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world. In Tattoos on the Heart, he distills his experience working in the ghetto into a breathtaking series of parables inspired by faith.

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 gentle, hard-earned wisdom.

These essays about universal kinship and redemption are moving examples of the power of unconditional love and the importance of fighting despair. Gorgeous and uplifting, Tattoos on the Heart reminds us that no life is less valuable than another.

• Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship
• Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship
• See, Judge, Act: Catholic Social Teaching and Service Learning, Revised Edition
• G-Dog
• Horse Sense for People
• The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and "Women's Work" (Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality)
• Integral Christianity: The Spirit's Call to Evolve
• G-Dog and the Homeboys: Father Greg Boyle and the Gangs of East Los Angeles
• The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life
• I'll Quit Tomorrow: A Practical Guide to Alcoholism Treatment