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This advent, we will be reading and discussing Fr. Greg Boyle's book - Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times. We will meet on Wednesday evenings 11/12, 11/19, 12/3, 12/10, and 12/17.
If you would like to join us but can't make it in person, we would love to help make that happen! Zoom links will be provided for those who are unable to join in person, just let us know that you are interested.
Book Summary:
"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."
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
2507 1/2 East Main Street, Urbana, IL, United States, Illinois 61801
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
