PDF Tattoos on the Heart The Power of Boundless Compassion Gregory Boyle 9781439153024 Books

Product details Hardcover 240 pages Publisher Free Press; First Edition edition (March 9, 2010) Language English ISBN-10 1439153027

Tattoos on the Heart The Power of Boundless Compassion Gregory Boyle 9781439153024 Books Reviews

• Delivered on promised date and excellent quality.
• What an unbelievable story! I remember visiting Father Boyle about 20 years ago with a class. He seemed kind and gentle but he also seemed tired. So I after that visit, I didn't think about his ministry much.
  
  I came across the book when I saw it featured in a bookstore and decided to give it a try.
  
  I had stopped reading for the past decade or two. It has been mostly Netflix and Kdrama.
  I would start books and then never get past page 30.
  
  This wasn't just a book you coudln't put down. It's a book that grabbed a hold of you and shook you to your core.
  
  What a hero! What a man of God! What guts! What complete abandon!
  
  No wonder he looked exhausted (when I saw him 20 years ago).
  
  I was reminded of apostle Paul's paradoxical statement about his life and ministry 2 Cor 6
  "We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything."
  
  Another reason why I feel such a deep sense of respect and admiration for Father G is that after my senior year in college, I went and worked in the inner city of Camden, New Jersey for 6 weeks and it was one of the toughest times of my life.
  
  We worked with kids and teenagers in one of the most gang/crime/drug infested parts of the country.
  
  I felt so overwhelmed and helpless. It was affecting me emotionally and physically.
  
  Such a ministry is not done casually - it doesn't happen unless you give yourself completely to the community and put your life on the line.
  And it's not something you do in your own strength and wisdom.
  
  Father Greg is often on the news and he does get some publicity - but not enough. Compare what he does to the billions of dollars spent on the war against drugs, against gangs, against crime.
  
  He is a one man war on gang/crime/drugs. And he's winning because his weapon is the love of Christ incarnated daily in his life.
• To justify my answer, I have worked for the past 7 years in a maximum security "correctional" facility for adjudicated adolescent males. There are many similarities between the events Father Boyle describes and those I am involved with. Corrections does not work...correction for these youth has becoming a training ground for gangs, crime and promotion to the "big boy jails and Penitentaries". Father Boyle's book is the most profound and relevant literature I have found on helping troubled, at-risk youth positively develop and become participating members of society. His subtitle "The Power of Boundless Compassion" leads into an incredible dialog and primer for positively accomplishing good changes in the lives of these youth. It is heartwarming and more than encouraging to read, study and digest this book. Father Boyle's approach and methods, if taken to heart and sincerely utilized, would vastly improve the lives of many young men and women while enriching our society and economy. This book has impacted me on a huge scale and has vastly improved my abilities to interact with and provide a much better environment for the growth and development of our troubled youth. this book has helped me to be more compassionate and, in doing so, is impacting the life of others.
• Father Greg, or G-dog, as he is called, started Homeboy Industries in the roughest gang- capitol area of Los Angeles. A gang intervention program of this magnitude is not for the weak-kneed or for someone that thinks "I'll come and serve because I am better than they are"....This program for gang intervention and Father Boyle gets to the root or these individuals and families because he lives among them, he serves alongside the gangs and he loves them as Jesus intends us to love others.
  
  Don't read this book if you are offended by colorful language, for G-dog tells it like it is. And he lets his gang members do the same. You will learn about the different gangs and their interactions, yet will know no names. G-dog doesn't give any individual gang the glory...he treats them all equally. As I finished this book, I knew I would have a hard time living among the gangs, but God has called us all to different parts of the body. G-dog gets involved in so many lives, from before birth as he tells of a young girl gang-raped and pregnant, to handling over 150 funerals of gang members, many of which he has known since childhood. Thank you, Father Boyle, for serving where God prepared you to serve.
  
  The book is written from over 30 years of working among the gangs through Homeboy Industries. The stories abound with courage, faith and with laughter. You'll find yourself laughing out loud and wiping your eyes, either with amusement or hurt for a fellow human. The name of the book came from a gang-member..."G-dog,,,I'm gonna tattoo that on my heart." Reading this book left a tattoo on my heart also!
• I'm not sure I've ever highlighted more passages than I did as I read this book. I have and I will be encouraging everyone I know to read Tattoos on the Heart. It was spiritual without being religious. The stories shared to reinforce the focus of any chapter were perfectly paired. It is a book I will to again and again. The entire book explicates Namaste - the divine in me recognizes and bows to the divine in you; I honor the sacredness - the love, light, truth, peace in you. And no, it is not a too-lengthy way of saying Namaste. I wished it had more chapters.