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Author Mark bases his revitalized version of a significant Catholic meditation on the writings of Sister Mary Faustina Kowalska, a humble nun living in a Polish convent in the 1930s to whom God gave special messages that she duly transcribed. Faustina’s “chaplet” (recitation) is considered to be a comfort to the sick and dying, or even, as Mark states, for “fallen away Christians” or anyone seeking solace. In this version, Mark seeks to amplify and emphasize the painful death of Jesus, from his time in the garden of Gethsemane before his capture, his torturing pain, and his last moments on the cross. It is structured for a lead reader and a group response. The prayerful words repeated most frequently are “Have mercy on us and on the whole world.”
Mark is a former Peace Corps worker and teacher of special education who now serves as a eucharistic minister and hospice volunteer. Reading Sister Faustina’s Diary, he was convinced of the profound effect her chaplet could have. In making the events surrounding Jesus’s suffering and crucifixion more comprehensible to the current devotee, Mark offers historical information such as a description of the whip, or flagrum, used on the accused man by Roman soldiers. To bring the scenes into greater modern relevance, he depicts Jesus’s temptation by Satan, who tells him of mankind’s lack of interest in his teaching with such recent examples as Hitler, the Holocaust, and abortion on demand. The author has applied his own sincere belief in the power of the Faustina meditation to this composition, even seeking and receiving the approval (nihil obstat) of a high-ranking member of the Catholic clergy. Mark suggests helpful ways to read the chaplet corporately or for private use as an oft-repeated reminder of the somber, sacred events it portrays.