Slides to accompany Benedictine University's Summer Reading Program 2017

2. Past Summer Reading Selections:

3. Benedictine Hallmarks
 Love of Christ and Neighbor
 Prayer
 Stability: commitment to daily life
 Conversatio: the way of formation and
transformation
 Obedience: a commitment to listening and
action
 Discipline: a way toward learning and freedom
 Humility: acceptance of the demand for realism
and accountability
 Stewardship: respect for the beauty and
goodness of creation.
 Hospitality: call to openness
 Community: call for service to the common good
and respect for the individual

4. We are Benedictine. We Serve
Because…
Hospitality, Community & love of Christ and neighbor
Rule of St. Benedict (Chp. 53) “Let all guests who arrive be received like Christ.”
We are a University
dedicated
to “scholarship and
service,
& truth and justice.”
“Here is what we seek: a compassion that
can stand in awe of at what the poor have
to carry rather than stand in judgement at
how they carry it.” Fr. Greg Boyle
The Gospel of Matthew
25:45
“What you did not
do for the least of these
ones,
you did not do for me.”

5. Options for the Poor and
Vulnerable
 https://youtu.be/c3gxBjtOzNM
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3gxBjtOzNM

6. We are Benedictine. We Serve Because…
What can you do at BenU?
S.T.E.P. (Serving Together Engaging our Purpose) to
Bacolod, Philippines
Winter Break
Sucre, Bolivia
Summer Break
Misericordia, Chicago
Spring Break
Hope House, Villa Park
Bi-Weekly Homeless Shelter
CRS Ambassadors
Social Justice Work
www.ben.edu/service
croberts@ben.edu
Apps. out now!

7. Library Research Guide
In this artful, disquieting, yet surprisingly jubilant memoir,
Jesuit priest Boyle recounts his two decades of working
with “homies” in Los Angeles County, which contains 1,100
gangs with nearly 86,000 members. Boyle’s Homeboy
Industries is the largest gang intervention program in the
country, offering job training, tattoo removal, and
employment to members of enemy gangs. Effectively
straddling the debate regarding where the responsibility
for urban violence lies, Boyle both recounts the despair of
watching “the kids you love cooperate in their own
demise” and levels the challenge to readers to “Stand in
awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in
judgment at how they carry it.”

8. Homeboy Industries

9. Notre Dame Commencement 2017

10. In small groups, please take 12 minutes to
discuss and then report back about one of the
following questions:
1. What is the primary issue of Tattoos on the Heart, and why
do you think so? Was there agreement among members of
your group or no?
2. Discuss in detail one criticism of Boyle, the book, or
assumptions that are made in talking about them.
3. Rival gang members worked side by side in Greg’s first
humanitarian business venture, Homeboy Baker. How did
this unusual arrangement—enemies working together—play
out? Can you think of ways this approach might work in a
different context of conflict?

11. Essay Questions:
 What surprised you most in reading Tattoos on the Heart, and
how does that connect with your life?
 The Publisher’s Weekly review said this about the book:
“Effectively straddling the debate regarding where the
responsibility for urban violence lies, Boyle both recounts the
despair of watching the kids you love cooperate in their own
demise and levels the challenge to readers to stand in awe at
what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at
how they carry it.” Comment on the debate about urban
violence, and describe how Boyle straddles the divide. Do you
believe he succeeds in this? To what degree can compassion,
even more than policy, address problems like this?
 Summarize one or two of Boyle’s main themes. What are the
assumptions behind his arguments? How does he use stories as
evidence to support his points, and to what degree are you
persuaded by or skeptical about his conclusions?