One Good Catholic (audio)

Pat Machperson, Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Krista Tippett, OnBeing.org (Speaking of Faith) Fr. Boyle on the Calling of Delight: Gangs, Service, Kinship, Feb. 26, 2013 

"On Being" radio hostess, Krista Tippett (American Public Media)

  

A Jesuit priest famous for his gang intervention programs in Los Angeles, Father Greg Boyle makes winsome connections between service and delight, and compassion and awe. He heads Homeboy Industries, which employs former gang members in a constellation of businesses.

Fr. Boyle with former gang members (OM)

This is not work of helping, he says, but of finding kinship [which is suggested by the powerful term "homeboy"]. The point of Christian service, as he lives it, is about “our common calling to delight in one another.”
 
Catholicism, the religious arm of the Roman Empire, is founded on lofty principles. Few would argue with those ideals, yet few would be able to find them in action. However, Fr. Boyle is an embodiment of the best of the Christian message.
 

Sermon on the Mount (Carl Bloch)

"The Sermon on the Mount," one of the most beautiful parts of the Bible, is mistranslated, according to Fr. Boyle. "Blessed are the..." is actually more accurately translated, "You're in the right place if..." This inflection brings to light that it is not that we are where we aspire to go, but we are on the way. "Look before you jump," Fr. Boyle insists, "but jump!" Let us live our ideals."

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He is reputed to have once famously said: "Whatever the question, COMPASSION is almost always the answer.
 
Translating the Dalai Lama with Thupten Jinpa

The Dalai Lama's universalist message

Esoteric teachings on rebirth and consciousness, simple teachings on compassion and ethics. Geshe Thupten Jinpa is a man who finishes the Dalai Lama’s English sentences. Meet this philosopher and former Buddhist monk, now a husband and father of two daughters, and hear what happens when the ancient tradition embodied in the Dalai Lama meets modern science and life.

 

I can't remember watching something so heartbreakingly gorgeous, unswerving in its emotional sway, inspirational to the point of forcing me to wonder about my current station in life. What am I doing here? "This project isn't about making images. It's not about creating the world's largest camera. It's about doing what you love. If you had been searching your whole life for something you love, what would you be willing to sacrifice?" - Ian Ruhter (Silver & Light)