Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

By Gregory Boyle

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1439153027
• ISBN13: 9781439153024
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.6" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Inspirational book that will open your eyes.

Read this for Bookclub. What a saint "G" is. So many terrific stories packed in this book. I cried many times reading them. Sometimes words can just hit you and make you feel things and this book did that.

10/10

Perspective 100% whether you have experienced gang violence firsthand or not. You’re invited into a world where you read first hand experiences of what it’s like to live in low income communities that struggle with these problems on a daily basis. Father Boyle needs all the recognition and flowers for this book.

My favorite non-fiction

I’ve given this book away to friends more than any other. For anyone trying to cultivate compassion and gain understanding around the realities of living life with the marginalized… start here.

The Beat book ever!

My granddaughter in rehab, my grandson experimenting with drug; this book is their gift. Hope, laughter, and a whole lot of tears ; with a large serving of truth on the side.

Christian love

A book filled with wonderful examples of Christian love.

Tattoos Your Heart

This book is about the lives of young men and women who, with the guidance of the author, find that there is an achievable alternative to gang life. Filled with the telling of these lives and the how they came to be, the reader is taken to the dark beginnings as oftentimes is the way for many people who find themselves in gangs, and then for the ones who are lucky enough to know themselves worthy, the light. I couldn't put this book down. It was emotionally difficult at times but the truth is always hard. My heart is tattooed now too.

A message of Love, compassion and kindness.

Easy reading and a great message of Love and Compassion.

Compelling stories of a priest called by the love of Christ to love the world.

Tattoos on the Heart is an gripping story of transformation. I drive long distances several times a month and am always looking for good audio books. The stories in Tattoos on the Heart draw the reader (listener) into them and stir empathy for the gang members whose lives are passionate, dangerous, and changing that I found myself looking forward to the next time I could listen. Fr. Gregory's stories will appeal to a wide range of listeners interested in human stories, especially stories where people are compelled to act because they are steeped in the gospel. When I finished this audio book I made a list of friends and family who I think will also love the stories and who I hope will hear about the love in Jesus Christ that has moved Fr. Gregory to be the courageous, loving, activist priest he is.