The Whole Language

Beloved Jesuit priest and author of the inspirational bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart and Barking to the Choir returns with a call to witness the transformative power of tenderness, rooted in his lifetime of experience counseling gang members in Los Angeles. Over the past thirty years, Gregory Boyle has transformed thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest and most successful gang-intervention program in the world. Now, following his acclaimed bestsellers Tattoos on the Heart, destined to become a classic of both urban reportage and contemporary spirituality (Los Angeles Times), and Barking to the Choir, deemed a beautiful and important and soul-transporting book by Elizabeth Gilbert comes The Whole Language, a book that filled my cup with hope (The Jesuit Review). In a community struggling to overcome systemic poverty and violence, The Whole Language shows how those at Homeboy Industries fight despair and remain generous, hopeful, and tender. When Saul was thirteen years old, he killed his abusive stepfather in self-defense, after spending twenty-three years in juvenile and adult jail, he enters the Homeboy Industries training and healing programs and embraces their mission. Declaring, I've decided to grow up to be somebody I always needed as a child, Saul shows tenderness toward the young.