Tattoos on the Heart

Tattoos on the Heart: An Invitation to Belovedness
Mondays October 7 – November 25, 6:30 – 8 p.m.

Join Dean Katz on Monday evenings in October and November to explore our identity as God’s beloved and what that means for our lives. The primary text guiding the series will be Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Father Gregory Boyle, SJ. Each session will include discussion of Father Boyle’s reflections from his ministry to gang members paired with a study of scriptural passages referenced in the book.

Tattoos on the Heart is the first of Father Boyle’s books that reflect on nearly 40 years of ministry to gang members in Los Angeles. Over that time, thousands of gang members have passed through Homeboy Industries, the organization Father Boyle founded under the premise that “nothing stops a bullet like a job.” The experiences he shares in Tattoos on the Heart powerfully illustrate the redemptive capacity of the Gospel truth that God loves each and every one of us in the same way that God loved Jesus as a beloved child, in whom God is well pleased.

Father Boyle invites us to stop and examine what the truth of our belovedness means for how we feel about ourselves, and how we relate to others in their own state of belovedness. He issues that invitation with tenderness, good humor and authenticity, challenging us to accept the reality that there is no such thing as us versus them. There is only us.
That truth has never been as powerful or as challenging as it is for this moment in our country and our world. This series is designed to be a space to turn to for tenderness, compassion and laughter to be cultivated as gifts to be passed along to our families, workplaces and neighborhoods.