Greg Boyle

Young people can change and grow. Every parent knows that. ”

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. ”

I would hope that government officials have a healthy respect for the complexity of the gang problem. They should never lose sight of the fact that there are human beings involved. There is no single solution. ”

Delegations from all over the world visit Homeboy Industries and scratch their heads as we tell them of our difficulty in placing our people in jobs after their time with us. Americans' seeming refusal to believe in a person's ability to redeem himself strikes these folks as foreign indeed. ”

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. ”

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. ”

Our best selves tell us that 'there but for the grace of God... ' and that, in the end, there is no distance, really, between us and them. It is just us. Our best and noble hope is to imitate the God we believe in. The God who has abundant room in God's grief and heart for us all. ”

I'm not going to be here forever. I don't plan on going anywhere, but I don't know anybody for whom death is an exception. ”

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

As much as I dislike the suggestion of single solutions to complex problems, jobs are as close as we will get to a single, effective answer to the enormous problem of gangs. ”