Cherished Belonging

The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times

By: Gregory Boyle

Narrated by: Gregory Boyle

In a world increasingly marked by division and discord, beloved Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle offers a transformative vision of community and compassion—a perfect message for readers of Anne Lamott, Mary Oliver, and Richard Rohr.

Over the past thirty years, Gregory Boyle has transformed tens of thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world. The program runs on two unwavering principles: 1) We are all inherently good (no exceptions), and 2) we belong to each other (no exceptions).

Boyle believes that these two ideas allow all of us to cultivate a new way of seeing the world. Rather than the tribalism that excludes and punishes, this new narrative proposes a village that cherishes. Pooka, a former gang member, puts it plainly: “Here, love is our lens. It is how we see things.”

In Cherished Belonging, Boyle calls back to Christianity’s origins as a spiritual movement of equality, emancipation, and peace. Early Christianity was a way of life—not a set of beliefs. Boyle’s vision of community is a space for people to join together and heal one another in a new collective living, a world dedicated to kindness as a constant and radical act of defiance. As one homie, Marcus, told a classroom filled with inner-city teenagers, “If love was a place, it would be Homeboy.”

Cherished Belonging invites us to nurture the connections that are all around us and live with kindness. Boyle believes that “the answer to every question is, indeed, compassion.” Through colorful and profound stories brimming with wisdom, humor, and inspiration, we understand that love is the light inside everything.

We all belong to each other.

A book about seeing how people aren’t evil but people do evil things. We all hurt and we all fall and we all can change.

A Book for a Healthy Life

Gregory Boyle shares a perspective of life and relationships that I need in my life and feel we all need as a country and a world. Belonging in love.

The reader and the honesty

Same and a daily reminder of the community and the of connection and community. Words to comlete. The true way

My heart turned each page

this book was a textured and lavish experience of black culture and took me directly to my family and community in South Central, Los Angeles in the 40s. I absolutely highly recommend reading this book and understanding all of the characters and their distinction. This book is beautifully written, an amazing work of artistry and love.

A unique take on Christ-centered living

This is the Jesus who opened himself to everyone. Absolutely everyone. This is flesh and bones. Jesus living in the LA area. This is the body of Christ reborn out of gangland with perfect imperfect, love, figuring it out as they go. This is a view of God from the street level and it is more vibrant than just about any that I have encountered.