Mission Week Keynotes

"The measure of your compassion lies not in your service of those on the margins, but in your willingness to see yourselves in kinship with them, connected to them – to move beyond the service of the other, to a solidarity, where your heart is in the right place –  and, now finally, to a place of kinship, where your feet are in the right place."

- Rev. Gregory Boyle, Creighton University Commencement Address 2009

The theme of the inaugural Creighton University Mission Week was The Call to Be Generous With Our Lives for Others, which led the Mission Week Planning Committee in an extended conversation about the word, magis, one of Creighton's seven core Jesuit values.

"Often understood as being our best or rising to express our fullest gifts and talents, we discovered that magis is really and truly about being utterly generous with ourselves, our gifts, and our talents. How do we give the best of ourselves, our time, resources, and intelligence to those in need, those around us, and our own family and friends?...This was our theme: to invite the whole campus to ask the question of ourselves, what is our magis?"

-- Angie Ngo & Michael Franco, Mission Representatives, CSU Leadership Board and Student Members, Mission Week Planning Committee

Literally translated, magis means “more” in a sense of greater or better. It has little to do with quantity, but quality. It denotes a transcendence, or “rising above or beyond normal expectations.”Magis does not mean, “to always do or give more to the point of personal exhaustion.” It is a value central to Ignatian spirituality and encompassed by the Latin phrase “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam,” meaning “For the Greater Glory of God.” (Motto of the Society of Jesus).

The Rev. Greg Boyle, SJ, HON’09, is the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation program in the world. In May, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, during a ceremony at the White House.

Fr. Boyle, who served as pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Boyle Heights, California, then the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles that also had the highest concentration of gang activity in the city, started what would become Homeboy Industries in 1988. Today, the Los Angeles-based nonprofit employs and trains former gang members in a range of social enterprises and provides critical services to thousands of men and women who walk through its doors every year seeking a better life.  

For his efforts, Fr. Boyle has received the California Peace Prize and been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2014, President Barack Obama named Fr. Boyle a Champion of Change. Fr. Boyle is the author of the New York Times-bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. Fr. Boyle received an honorary degree from Creighton in 2009. 

Thank you to the Collaborative Ministry Office, part of the Creighton University Division of Mission and Ministry, for making the lecture available.

This is the story of a remarkable odd couple. There’s Father Greg Boyle, a white Jesuit priest who’s spent some 25 years in the toughest part of East LA, and then there’s the tough, street-smart, and amazingly sweet young people – all former gang members – whom G-Dog loves and helps, and who love him in turn. For Father Greg’s remedy for what he calls “a global sense of failure” for kids at-risk is radical and simple: boundless, restorative love. His unstoppable compassion has turned around the lives of thousands of Latino, Asian and African American gang members. (American Film Showcase)

Select Works by Boyle

Boyle, G. (2017). Knead to heal. In U.S. Catholic (Vol. 82, Number 6, pp. 18-). Claretian Publications.

Boyle, G. J. (2010). The challenge of serving a diverse church: being Christ for others. Catholic Education (Dayton, Ohio), 13(3), 380-391.

Boyle, G. (2005). The voice of those who sing. Spiritus, 5(1), 79–87. https://doi.org/10.1353/scs.2005.0003

Articles

Finn, M. (2010). Second-chance cafe. In Sunset, 225(5), pp. 44-). Sunset Publishing Corporation.

Gilchrist, T. (2021). HOMEGROWN HOPE: Homeboy Industries’ social enterprises provide employment opportunities, revenue and social support. Los Angeles Business Journal, 43(42), 22-.

Leibowitz, E. (2013). Saint of the hood. Los Angeles Magazine, 58(5), pp. 102-147). Los Angeles Magazine, Inc.

Steiner, M. A. (2016). Leaving gangs behind to live parables of kinship. Health Progress, 97(4), 24–26.

Where homies can heal; reforming gang members. (2012). The Economist, 402(8772), pp. 32-). Economist Intelligence Unit N.A. Incorporated.

Books

Deuchar, R. (2018). Love, compassion and therapeutic communities in Homeboy Industries. In Gangs and Spirituality (pp. 89-113). Springer International Publishing.

Flores, E. O. (2013). God’s gangs : Barrio ministry, masculinity, and gang recovery. New York University Press. 

Schockman, H. E., & Thompson, C. (2021). Workplace well-being and human flourishing: A case model of Homeboy Industries and reducing gang recidivism. In S. K. Dhiman (Ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Well-Being (pp. 297–317). Springer International Publishing.

Tran, D. Q., Spears, L. C., & Carey, M. R. (2020). Building relational bridges: The inclusive spirit of servant-leadership. In S. K. Dhiman & J. Marques (Eds.), New horizons in positive leadership and change: A practical guide for workplace transformation (pp. 127–142). Springer International Publishing.  

Video

Boyle, G. (2011). Father Gregory J. Boyle, S.J., founder and chief executive officer, Homeboy Industries [Conference presentation]. Community Oriented Policing Services Conference, United States.

Schmidt, E. (Director). (2012). Good bread [Short Film]. Cinelan, LLC.