Greg Boyle Quotes & Sayings

There is no 'them' and 'us.' There is only us. — Greg Boyle

I'm the priest who has been mistaken for an ATM machine. — Greg Boyle

I think not everything that works helps, and not everything that helps works. — Greg Boyle

People have to see that there is a high degree of complexity about belonging to a gang. It's a symptom, not a problem. — Greg Boyle

Young people can change and grow. Every parent knows that. — Greg Boyle

The arms of God reach to embrace, and somehow you feel yourself just outside God's fingertips. — Greg Boyle

The margins don't get erased by simply insisting that the powers-that-be erase them. — Greg Boyle

People have started to see that 'smart on crime' rather than 'tough on crime' makes sense. — Greg Boyle

The employer is not going to choose the gang member who's just been released from prison: they're going to choose the person with the skills. — Greg Boyle

Gangs are bastions of conditional love, and one of the ways to counteract it is to offer community, which will always trump gang, and that's what happens at Homeboy Industries. — Greg Boyle

I always have a funny story at communion time that underscores that no one is perfect, and that communion is not for perfect people but for hungry people. — Greg Boyle

Does God feel like that same-sex marriage could happen? I don't think anybody who has a connection to God and God's understanding and depth of compassion who's gonna say 'no.' — Greg Boyle

I work with gang members, and I feel a kind of affinity and gift, even. But who would've thunk it, you know? I mean, I didn't anticipate it. — Greg Boyle

We need the disruption of categories that lead us to abandon the difficult, the disagreeable, and the least likely to go very far. — Greg Boyle

I wouldn't trade my life for anybody's. — Greg Boyle

Kids are different from adults. They are not as developed as far as brain science, controlling impulses, and maturity, and fall prey to all kinds of pressures. — Greg Boyle

Ours is a God who waits. So who are we not to? — Greg Boyle

My church is in the detention facilities where I preside and celebrate the Eucharist. To me that's the church. That's the people of God. — Greg Boyle

Don't forget, you are the hero of your own story. — Greg Boyle

You are exactly what God had in mind when he made you. — Greg Boyle

I kinda don't do guilt. I gave it up for Lent years ago. — Greg Boyle

Most employers just aren't willing to look beyond the dumbest or worst thing someone has done. — Greg Boyle

The business of second chances is everybody's business. — Greg Boyle

W a gang member, and especially in a Latino gang, gets jumped in, and then he's given a name, and he has that name forever, but it's not so much the name as being called by name. — Greg Boyle

All politics are local, and so in church. — Greg Boyle

If there is a fundamental challenge within these stories, it is simply to change our lurking suspicion that some lives matter less than other lives. — Greg Boyle

I don't save people. God saves people. I can point them in the right direction. I can say, 'There's that door. I think if you walked through it, you'd be happier than you are.' — Greg Boyle

Even gang members imagine a future that doesn't include gangs. — Greg Boyle

In Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world, we have 1,100 gangs and 120,000 gang members so it is a daunting, complex social dilemma. — Greg Boyle

When the vastness of God meets the restriction of our own humanity, words can't hold it. The best we can do is find the moments that rhyme with this expansive heart of God. — Greg Boyle

The poor evangelize you about what's important and what is the Gospel, and that that's where the joy is. — Greg Boyle

I think that any program that's born from below rather than on high is going to survive. — Greg Boyle

I'm not opposed to success. — Greg Boyle

Homeboy Bakery is an alternative to kids who have found themselves, regrettably, in gangs and want to redirect their lives. — Greg Boyle

Homeboy Industries has chosen to stand with the 'demonized' so that the demonizing will stop; it stands with the 'disposable' so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away. — Greg Boyle

At its best, an injunction creates a kind of vigilant heat that moves kids toward the light. — Greg Boyle

Close both eyes see with the other one. Then we are no longer saddled by the burden of our persistent judgments our ceaseless withholding our constant exclusion. Our sphere has widened and we find ourselves quite unexpectedly in a new expansive location in a place of endless acceptance and infinite love. — Greg Boyle

The Church should say, 'I'm frightened that women will be ordained;' that's honest, say that. But don't say, 'It's a grave sin,' because that's nonsense. — Greg Boyle

You are so much more than the worst thing you've ever done. — Greg Boyle

I have never seen a hopeful person join a gang. — Greg Boyle

We ought not to demonize a single gang member, and we ought not to romanticize a single gang. — Greg Boyle

The desire of God's heart is immeasurably larger than our imaginations can conjure. — Greg Boyle

Businesses have come and gone at Homeboy Industries. We have had starts and stops, but anything worth doing is worth failing at. We started Homeboy Plumbing. That didn't go so well. Who knew? People didn't want gang members in their homes. I just didn't see that coming. — Greg Boyle

I feel called to be faithful. — Greg Boyle

Redemption is possible, and it is the measure of a civilized society. — Greg Boyle

God seems to be an unwilling participant in our efforts to pigeonhole Him. — Greg Boyle

Jesus did not only serve the needs of the people, but truly hoped that the people and Jesus would be one. — Greg Boyle

You stand with the least likely to succeed until success is succeeded by something more valuable: kinship. You stand with the belligerent, the surly and the badly behaved until bad behavior is recognized for the language it is: the vocabulary of the deeply wounded and of those whose burdens are more than they can bear. — Greg Boyle

You don't really get Jesus saying very often there'll be pie in the sky when you die. He's really talking about now and today, and it's supposed to be like that. You're supposed to delight in what's right in front of you. — Greg Boyle

I know two L.A.s. Half my life was around the house my folks had for 46 years at 3rd and Norton. The other half was in Boyle Heights on the Eastside, working with gang members. — Greg Boyle

The wrong idea has taken root in the world. And the idea is this: there just might be lives out there that matter less than other lives. — Greg Boyle

I want to be prophetic and take stands and stand with those on the margins, and I want to laugh as much as I can. — Greg Boyle

If you are paying attention, then the day is going to be pretty joyful, and a lot of delight will fill it. — Greg Boyle

We lose our right to be surprised that California has the highest recidivism rate in the country if we refuse to hire folks who have taken responsibility for their crimes and have done their time. — Greg Boyle