Review Of Father Gregory Boyle's Tattoos On The Heart

Tattoos on the Heart, published in 2010, is a best selling book written by Father Gregory Boyle, an American Jesuit priest best known for founding Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention/rehabilitation program in the world. The book is not a collection of stories with one ultimate message, but rather a sectioned book with all sorts of themes, which is very similar to the Bible. And being that he is a Jesuit priest, it makes sense. Father Boyle has won countless awards, most notably the California Peace Prize and UND’s Laetare Medal for his contributions to gang rehabilitation. The Los Angeles-based organization, Homeboy Industries, is a sanctuary-like program for both formerly incarcerated and gang-affiliated individuals. Homeboy

In this story two rival gang members find themselves both working at Homeboy silkscreens, at first they refuse to communicate with each other because of a personal issue and Father Boyle fears they may have problems but they both agree that they would work together. After a few months of working together, Travieso finds himself trapped in an alley where he was beaten by an enemy gang and his head was stomped so harshly that he was declared brain dead upon arrival. The night after Travieso's death, Father Boyle gets a call and it's from Clever, Clever goes on to express his great sadness for what has happened to Travieso, even though they were enemies at one point after working together they had become friends. Clever offered his blood and this “sucked the breathable air out of the atmosphere” according to Father Boyle. This story stuck out to me because while Clever and Travieso were enemies, all it took to change was getting to know each other in an environment that promoted kinship and compassion, that was the only difference between an enemy and a friend. I think this message goes along very well with Matthew 5:44 “Love your

I was away from all of my friends and family and I felt I had no one to talk to, but that is when one of the midshipmen (Naval Academy Students) noticed a change in my demeanor and decided to talk to me about it, his name was Tyler Weeks. At first I was hesitant to tell him but I couldn't go through this alone so I told him about the situation and after he had heard everything I had to say he did three things, first he began to sympathize, he told me that he was very sorry for my loss and that it wasn't something that anyone my age should have to go through, hearing this made me feel a little better about the situation but it didn't stop there. Secondly he empathized telling me how his special needs sister was bullied just earlier that year and it led her to an attempt on her own life and so he understood the fear and pain that comes with suicide, and suddenly I didn’t feel alone, however nothing would move me as much as him walking me to my dorm and talking with me until I felt better because he cared enough about a 16 year old kid he had known for a few days to do that and it has stuck with me ever