A homie misreads the liturgy aloud, calling God 'exhausted' instead of 'exalted,' and Boyle decides he prefers the mistake.

The Fat Man, a lifelong heroin addict Boyle meets as a prison chaplain at Folsom, ends every conversation with 'I love ya like a rock.'

After his release from prison, the Fat Man overdoses and dies, and Boyle adopts his signature phrase as a lasting tribute.

A group of Belgian nuns moves out of their convent so Boyle can use it as an alternative school for gang members.

Ten-year-old Rico bursts into Boyle's evening mass and, when asked what is going on, joyfully declares 'I'm finding you!'

Boyle is diagnosed with leukemia and must immediately begin chemotherapy, disrupting his ministry at a critical time.

Sergio tells 600 social workers that his mother first told him to kill himself at age six and beat his back bloody throughout elementary school.

Manny tells a Palm Springs conference audience about his childhood mentor Rafa, who was shot in the head while walking beside him.

Boyle attends the double funeral of brothers Miguel and Cesar, and the relentless rain stops suddenly the moment the procession reaches the cemetery.

A secret service agent bars Freddy from meeting Vice President Al Gore during a Homeboy Industries visit, calling Freddy a 'scumbag.'

Boyle appears on the Dr. Phil show and argues that troubled young men already know the consequences of gang life and simply don't care.

Trayvon, a joyful presence at Homeboy Industries, is gunned down at a picnic months after delighting a Teach for America audience with his excitement.

Carlos, deported and robbed naked near a Mexican village, is immediately clothed and cared for by strangers despite his gang tattoos.

A Homeboy Industries member working as a valet at the Oscars is invited by Martin Scorsese to hold his newly won Academy Award for a photo.

Mario, the most heavily tattooed man at Homeboy Industries, breaks down sobbing in Spokane when an audience member praises exactly who he is.

This pool follows the most significant events from Gregory Boyle's decades of ministry at Homeboy Industries, opening with early encounters that shape his unconventional vision of God. It traces major milestones including the establishment of an alternative school, Boyle's leukemia diagnosis, and the wrenching stories of homies whose trauma is laid bare before strangers. Key tragedies and triumphs — from the deaths of young men to the barriers they face in mainstream society — run throughout. The pool also captures Boyle's public challenges to media figures and institutions about how society discards gang members. It closes with moments of profound human kinship, culminating in a tattooed man's tearful transformation before a roomful of strangers in Spokane.

The landmark moments that define Boyle's ministry at Homeboy Industries.

Chuy tells Boyle that God always shows up no matter how much wrong Chuy has done, saying simply: 'The Dude shows up.'

Rogelio's young son tells his father at the swimming pool that he wants to grow up to be a father just like him.

Gato uses the phrase 'holy befold' during storytelling, and Boyle decides not to correct him because he prefers the mix-up.

Boyle recalls childhood Saturday mornings sitting silently with his taciturn father, who always gave him a wordless neck massage before leaving the table.

Nestor, when asked if he ever had a religious experience, describes witnessing a woman breastfeed her child in a church pew.

On a train, a drunk passenger stops in the aisle and belches loudly; Boyle's friend Mark turns to him and says 'Life's great.'

A juvenile inmate shouts 'Drive safe, G!' to Boyle from behind barred windows as Boyle leaves a detention facility.

Anderson Cooper tells Boyle the LAPD believes gang members take advantage of him; Boyle's sharp retort surprises Cooper enough that he later adopts it himself.

A homie named Mike gives Boyle public speaking advice, recommending he pepper his talks with 'self-defecating humor.'

A child who read Tattoos on the Heart meets Boyle in person and flatly refuses to believe he is the book's actual author.

President Obama pauses to exchange warm words with Boyle and several former gang member homies during an encounter.

A woman at a ceremony honoring Boyle tells him she hates him and Homeboy Industries because a gang member killed her son.

Johnny wears his Homeboy Industries sweater on the LA Metro, persuades a fellow rider to visit Homeboy by sharing his own story, and hands the man Homeboy's address.

Bear, shot during a drive-by and hospitalized, wakes briefly to crack a joke at his friends' expense, easing the fear gripping the room.

A homie accustomed to being overlooked is visibly and genuinely surprised when Boyle shows up to visit him in the hospital.

This pool highlights the rich secondary stories that reveal everyday holiness within Boyle's community and the world beyond it. It opens with intimate glimpses of homies experiencing fatherhood, unexpected wisdom, and the irreverent ways God makes an appearance. The pool captures quiet humor, small miracles, and surprising moments of grace found in ordinary encounters — from a drunk man belching on a train to a former president warmly shaking hands with ex-gang members. It follows Boyle through speaking engagements, media confrontations, and face-to-face encounters with injustice and hostility. The pool closes with moments of deep mutuality that dissolve the boundary between those who serve and those who are served.

The everyday grace and humor woven through Boyle's community.

Cuco, who never knew his own father, begins creating a new daily adventure with his son, inspired by the boy's enthusiastic homecoming greeting.

Boyle reveals he has buried 220 young people killed by gang violence — children he loved, often killed by other children he loves.

While praying among the Redwoods, Boyle suddenly feels his late father's neck massage and smells his distinctive cologne, and is overcome with tears.

Bird, hospitalized with severe injuries and unable to speak, deflects every attempt Boyle makes to minister to him by asking about Boyle's own leukemia.

Topo, high on PCP and threatening to shoot his opponent, finally relents when his brother Snoopy breaks down in desperate, anguished sobs, and the two brothers embrace.

Sergio challenges the assembled social workers with a rhetorical question: 'How can I help others to heal if I don't welcome my own wounds?'

A homie named Joshua coins the phrase 'If you're humble, you'll never stumble,' which Boyle immediately adopts as a personal mantra.

Andres quietly drapes his favorite sweatshirt over a sleeping stranger on a park bench, later telling his fellow homies 'I know that bench.'

Boyle reunites with Adolfo decades after first meeting him and tells him that Adolfo himself — not his achievements — is the accomplishment.

Lica, recently released from prison, asks to join Homeboy's Baby and Me class even though he has no child of his own.

Johnny visits Boyle's office and weeps as he shares that, for the first time in his life, he felt genuinely admired by strangers on a train.

Al Bundy refuses to retaliate after a prison guard humiliates him, quietly explaining he doesn't want the man going home angry and hurting his family.

Nando excitedly shows a report card riddled with poor marks to everyone at Homeboy Industries, and Boyle resists the impulse to correct him.

Pato, a Homeboy Industries baker, ends every workday with the same declaration: 'Today was a beautiful day. Tomorrow will be even better.'

Carlos spots a church billboard reading 'Carlos, I Am With You' while riding atop a train through Mexico, and becomes certain he will make it home.

This pool focuses on the pivotal moments of insight, surrender, and transformation experienced by Boyle and his homies across the full arc of the book. It begins with intimate family scenes revealing cycles of fatherhood broken and reborn, and moves into Boyle's own spiritual reckoning with grief, mortality, and the limits of his calling. Dramatic turning points — brothers reconciling through tears, a man realizing his own worth after decades of feeling worthless — anchor the pool's emotional center. Stories of humility, self-acceptance, and unexpected grace accumulate into a portrait of a community finding its way home to itself. The pool ends with former enemies choosing kinship, showing how one transformation quietly ripples outward into the world.

The pivotal discoveries and transformations that shape each homie's journey inward.