Or post a comment on our facebook page. Facebook. Com booktv. [applause] thank you very much. I did not earn the applause. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight. My name is gilbert, i will be your host for the evening. I am from bromans bookstore. Thank you for supporting independent bookstores in pasadena. [applause] a friendly reminder, we are open until christmas you can stop by anytime you do your shopping. Plenty of books on the shelves as a quick reminder if anyone can measure to turn their bones on silent so we do not have disturbances during the course of the program. Afterwards there will be a book signing. If i could just ask that everybody stay seated and that way, i can release row by row. If you want to get your book signed. Not requirement. I just want to make sure everyone knows that and i can say to make sure that anybody that is handicapped anything can get in there first and then we can do it in an orderly fashion. Thank you very much great. Gregory boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries in los angeles for the largest gang intervention rehabilitation and Reentry Program in the world. He is a native angeleno and priest from 1986 through 1992. He served as pastor of a Mission Church in boyle heights. In 1988 father greg and parish and Community Members served and what would eventually become Homeboy Industries. Which employees and transformer gang members in a range of social enterprises as well as provides Critical Services to thousands of men and women who walk the restores every year seeking a better life. Father boyle is the author 2010 New York Times bestseller, tattoos on the heart. The power of boundless compassion. Tonight we are celebrating his newest endeavor, barking to the choir. The power of radical kinship. Please join me in welcoming father gregory boyle. [applause] thank you. I know i am not in a Catholic Church because usually there is a clock of their two [laughter] i will have to rely on my watch. Two of my favorite locations on the whole planet that would be all Saints Church in vromans bookstore. [applause] the meeting of two great institutions and group of people. With book things i never do readings. I will probably tell stories from the book. And you know, then i will talk for a little bit and there is a microphone right there so we will do some questions. And then we will sign books and it will be over you know. Pretty painless. Its a privilege of my life for 30 years to have worked with gang members and to know folks like who are here. We went out to dinner where are you . You get good seats . [applause] there you are good. I want to eyeball you a lot of years coming to this event so i said lets have dinner. The day will never come when i have more courage for i am more noble or closer to god than those two gentlemen and others around here. You help me appreciate my heart. And reimagine me in the world and how to imitate the kind of god without measure and without regret. There was a homey named lewis that was the force of nature and did a lot of things that homeboy and then he would give a lot of talk and this happens and pretty soon they are in demand. And he said lewis had this experience working was very much invited to speak and so we went out to dinner and he was giving me tips on how to speak publicly. He said you know, you have to pepper your talk with selfdeprecating humor. [laughter] i said yeah, good advice this is why i think that you are here. It is not me and it is not a book. It is a longing that people have today in a special way. To imagine a world looking a little bit differently than it currently looks. Mother teresa said she suggested the problem in the world is that we forgotten how to, that we belong to each other. How do we stand against forgetting that. How do we imagine a circle of compassion and imagine nobody standing outside of the circle. How do we together, dismantle the barriers exclude and then we inch our way up to the margin. Something will happen if we go out there. Our experience is that if we stand at the margins and look under our feet, the margins get erased because we chose to stand there. Can we stand for particularity and with a group of favored folks. We stand with the poor and the powerless in the voiceless. We stand with those whose dignity has been denied. We stand with those whose burdens are more than they can bear. I went in his churches had the experience, the great privilege of being able to stand with easily despised and the readily left out. With the demonized so that the demonizing will stuff and with the disposable so that the day will come when we stop snoring people away. I think what we long for is kinship and creating a community of kinship such that dad in fact might recognize that. I think we have come to believe that no kinship, no peace. No kinship no justice. No kinship no equality. No matter how singularly focused we may well be on those worthy goals, it is our experience that they actually cannot happen unless there is some under sense that we are standing against forgetting that we belong to each other. So we go to the margins and we raise ourselves because people will accuse us of wasting our time. But the prophet jeremiah writes in his place in which you say it is a waste. There will be heard again the voice of earth and the voice of gladness. The voices of those who sing. I think that youre here tonight because you long for other voices to be heard. Not mine. But the folks at the margins. So everything depends on the kind of god that we think that we have. We are settled for a partial god. A puny god. A lesser god. When there is a god, we actually have, as opposed to the data that we have settled for. And done we actually have is spacious and expensive. And is too busy loving us have any time left to be disappointed in us. So the homies have endlessly taught me that god is everyday. Without fail. And a lot of times they teach me by way of this charming kind of mangling of the english language i always find really kind of helpful. Like i had a home girl named lisa come into my office and she wanted to introduce her man to me. And he had come to pick her up at the end of the day. She was one of our trainees. There standing in front of my desk and she says, this is my sufficient other. I said no doubt. [laughter] one of the great blessings of the last few years is that i do not have to be ceo. I have a ceo named tom has to worry about cash flow and budgets. I dont have to. I can be here with you. And so, it is kind of nice. I had a homey coming to my office in the morning and he said my lady, she is in a bad mood today. And i said why . He said you know she is beginning her administration. [laughter] i said well, i just finished mine so i kind of know what shes going through. [laughter] but my favorite one happened when i was at san fernando juvenile hall. In those days it was a big jim. 500 folding chairs and gang members mainly all mostly boys, males. And one row of girls, i think. And so i was sitting in the preside as chair and i was with my goal and they had these little sheets to have the readings in english and spanish. And so i had it resting on my lap and i said im going to listen to the word proclaims. I will not read along. So i close my eyes. In the homies got up one at a time and First Reading and the guy got up to do the psalm. I have my eyes close and im listening. And theres kind of an overabundance of confidence in this guy. He gets up and says, the lord is exhausted [laughter] i said what the hell . And i look at the sheet and is said the lord is exalted [laughter] i remember thinking at the time, that is way better [laughter] i think exalted god is kind of our own invention. Because lets face it, you know, that is what we would want to be. You know, we create god in our own image. And we would want to be exalted. And i dont know, who was suspended eternity with a god who wants that were needs that . You know . And there was a you know you created god in their own image when god hates the same people that you do. [laughter] but i like the exhaustive gun. The god it extends his self and sacrifice and loving and giving and it is exhausting. But it is a good tired. You know how you say that . It is a good tired. I had the grandkids all weekend. I am pooped but it is a good tired and i think that is kind of what our god has in mind. And i think it is essential. That somehow we cannot to the god we actually have. There will always be moments when we know that we are in the presence of the god we actually have. People remember when dylann roof killed those people in that church at mother emanuel church. He gunned them down during a prayer, bible study. But everyone remembers a week or so later, the family members of the victims standing in front of him and they said, we forgive you. Everyone knew that we were in the presence of the god we actually have. But nine months later, when they sentenced him to be executed and people called it gods justice. Well then, you know that you had wandered into the vicinity of the god that we have settled for. The partial god, the lesser god. The more realistic god. We want to be anchored in the god who says the god is always greater. The god who loves us without measure and without regret. We want to be anchored there. Because we want guys dream to come true. Which is to create a community of kinship such that god might recognize us and the homies have taught me everything of value. And i am eternally grateful to them. In the last few years he taught me how to text and i find that it beats the heck out of actually talking to people. [laughter] im pretty good at it. Lol, omg and they tell me know when that is ohn, it stands for oh hell no . I have used that one quite a bit lately [laughter] you know, i cannot be alone in being vexed by this autocorrect thing. I had a home girl named bertha. She texted me on a sunday. Where are you at . And i said im about to speak to a room full of sisters. I pushed send. Autocorrect told her i was about to speak to a room full of ninjas. [laughter] which she thought was pretty darn interesting. [laughter] homies even now, before i came on its like, the hair is on fire and i just need this amount of money to pay my rent or they will cut off my lights or whatever. My car payment. So this one time a homey called me. He needed 100 to finish off his rent. And i did not have it. So i texted, things are tight. And i pushed send. Autocorrect told him, thongs are tight. He wrote back, sorry to hear that [laughter] but what about my rent . So i had to homies, older homies. They were going to go with me to speak at a high school. After our morning meeting at Homeboy Industries, got in the car at 9 oclock. We were going to doctor palm desert. Emmanuel is in a frenzy. He gets an incoming text. He reads it to himself and he chuckles. I said what is it . He says it is done. It is from snoopy back at the office. I had just seen snoopy. Snoopy gave me a big they Work Together at the time where the clock in hundreds and hundreds of gang members. It is a hard job. I would not want it. Because occasionally, gang members can be attitudinal. So i would not want that job. I said what is he saying . He says is dumb, hang on a second. Hey dog its me snoop. They got me locked up a county jail. They are charging me with being the ugliest guy in america. You have to come down right now. Show them they got the wrong guy [laughter] i nearly drove into oncoming traffic. We laughed so hard. And then i realized that they were enemies. They are from rival gangs. These tissue bullets at each other. As i remember. Now they send text messages. And theres a word for that. The word is kinship. Had to be obliterate once and for all the illusion that we are separate that there is an us and a them . All of us are called to be enlightened through witnesses to kindness and tendinitis and focus. Return people to themselves. And at homeboy we are allergic to the notion of holding the bar up asking gang members to measure instead we hold the mirror up and tell people the truth. Knowing that your truth is my truth. In my truth as a is a gang members truth. It is all the same truth. Here is the truth. You are exactly what god had in mind when god made you. And then you watch folks, especially those on the margins. As they become that truth. That they inhabit that truth. And no bullet can pierce that no prison walls can keep it out. And death cannot touch it because it is huge but part of what we are called to do when we go to the margins is to reach an and dismantled the messages of shame and disgrace that get in the way that keep people from seeing their truth. The principal suffering of the poor heard in this place once. I used to set the principal suffering of the poor is shame and disgrace. And so, we listen to the acts of the apostles. And we recognize an odd sentence in there that it somehow is the gauge of health in any community at all when it simply says and awe came upon everyone. That is the measure of our health as a Community Mill will reside in our ability to stand and awe of what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at how they carry it. So, i give a lot of talks and i get invited and some years ago i was invited to speak to 600 social workers. In richmond virginia. And i said yes because i say yes to lots of stuff. And i knew it was an all day service 95. I figured, maybe do an opening keynote or maybe i will speak at lunch. Maybe i will speak at the end. I bought my ticket and a beat before i was to fly, i pulled out the letter and to my horror, i discover that i am to be the only speaker all day from nine until five [laughter] i said oh, hell no so i called to homies, andre and josc. Trainees, gang members in our 18 month training program. And i sit them down and i said look, you are flying with me at the end of the week to richmond, virginia. I would like you to get up and tell your stories. Take your time. [laughter] because we have a long day to fill i had never heard this story before. Josc gets up first and 25 years old at the time. And a training in the 18 month program. Gang member, tattooed felon, parolee. He was finishing up his 18 months as a very valued member of our Substance Abuse team. A man in his own recovery. Now, he was helping younger homies with their addiction issues. So he had, he was imprisoned for a long time but he also had a long stretch of time as a homeless man and an even longer stretch as a heroin addict. So he gets up in front of 600 social workers. And he says, i guess you could say my mom and me, we didnt get along so good. I think i was six when she looked at me and said, why dont you just kill yourself . You are such a burden to me. Well, 600 social workers gasped. And he says it said, it sounds worser in spanish we all laughed. He said when i was nine she walking up to an orphanage and knocks on the door. When the guy comes to the door she said, i found this kid. And she left me there. For 90 days. Until my grandmother could get out of where she had dumped me and my grandmother rescued me. My mother beat me every single day of my Elementary School years. With things that you could imagine. And a lot of things you could not. Every day, my back was bloodied and scarred. In fact, i had to wear three tshirts to school every day. The first tshirt, because the blood would seep through. The second tshirt, you can still see it. Finally, the third tshirt you did not see any blood. The kids at school would make fun of me. It is 100 degrees why are you wearing three tshirts . And then he stopped speaking. So overwhelmed with emotion. He seemed to be staring at a piece of his story. That only he could see. And when he could regain his speech, he said through tears, i wore three tshirts well into my adult years because i was ashamed of my wounds. I did not want anybody to see them. But now i welcome my wounds. I run my fingers over my scars. My wounds are my friends. After all, how can i help heal the wounded if i do not welcome my own wounds . And awe came upon everyone. The measure of our compassion lies not in our service of those on the march, but only in our willingness to see ourselves in kinship with them. The homies have taught me if you do not walk in your own wounds, you may well be tempted to despise the wounded. I am bearing burying his mother this saturday. So, we do not go to the margins. To make a difference. We go so that the folks at the margins make us different. And pretty soon, we cease to care if anyone accuses us of wasting our time. We are in this place of which you say it is a waste. There will be heard again the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness. The voices of those who sing. I think you came here tonight because you long for guards came come true. That we be a community of kinship. Such that god might recognize. Thank you. [applause] they said and a half hour and i said i think we will do questions and go ahead. We are going to have some time for a few questions. We have a lot of people to get through for the signing portion. I would like to take about five people who can line up here and have for rays hands if you have questions. If you would like to come up. Raise your hand, i can choose you. Are you coming up, sir . Maam. All right. Sir, yes. Thank you very much. Im a teacher at the la unified school system. I work with a lot of the kids that you speak about. Could you maybe talk a little about how you keep your balance . Because undoubtedly, the work you do, wears you out. Even you try the best that you can. Im curious to know what you do to keep yourself going when you get beaten down by the stories you have to hear . Yet. I think in tattoos on the heart there is a story about the kid who has a dream. I will not tell the story but part of this was a room that has no light. No windows, no illuminated exit sign. Pitch black. He knows i am there. We are not speaking. Suddenly in the darkness, i pull out a flashlight and i am is steadily at the light switch on the wall. And he tells me as he interprets the dream i know that i am the only one that can turn the light switch on. I am grateful that you have a flashlight and he follows the beam of light to the light switch. When he gets to the light switch, he takes a deep breath. Now he is sobbing in the telling of this he flips the light switch on. The room is flooded with light. And he says with a voice that has this kind of sense of remarkable discovery, he says, the light is better than darkness. That dream changed my life. I went from burnout to never again. That was in my first six or eight years of doing this work. And i never tried to turn a light switch on for anybody again. I knew that it was enough to own a flashlight and to know where to aim it. And that is important. The reason of going to the margins and making a difference should be questioned because that is about me. If i go to the margins, i just want to make a difference. I think saving lives is for the coast guard. I