Mark Wahlberg has quite a past. He told UK’s Daily Mail he had a full-blown cocaine habit by the age of 13 and ended up in prison by the time he was 16 after blinding a shop keeper in one eye while serving as the look-out for a robbery.
“As soon as I began that life of crime,” he says, “there was always a voice in my head telling me I was going to end up in jail. Three of my brothers had done time. My sister went to prison so many times I lost count.
“Finally I was there, locked up with the kind of guys I’d always wanted to be like. Now I’d earned my stripes and I was just like them and I realised it wasn’t what I wanted at all. I’d ended up in the worst place I could possibly imagine and I never wanted to go back. First of all I had to learn to stay on the straight and narrow.”
That is how prison is supposed to work! Go there and realize: I don’t want to go back. Mark credits a local priest who “never gave up” on him and helped him turn his life around.
Now Mark is a respected actor, producer (of ‘Entourage’), and a married father of four. Good for him!
The more I hear about Mark, the more I like him 
Photos by INF
I like Mark Wahlberg as an actor, he has this charisma and star-quality about him that makes him watchable on screen, he was born to be a Movie Star. Yes, Marky certainly did have a very wild past in his youth. He was in trouble with the police frequently even before he was sent to prison, he had a drug habit and frequently stole and hustled to pay for drugs and booze. He was raised in a rough area of Boston and was surrounded by crime and delinquency from a relatively early age, as evidenced by the fact that his brothers had also done time in prison as well.
Blinding that poor Vietnamese guy in one eye and calling him “fucking Vietnam shit!” was the final straw. He was sent to prison for his crime and forced to reassess his life whilst he was inside. It was there that he found God, he started reading the Bible and praying every day, asking for forgiveness and a chance to set things right again and began his spiritual journey back to Jesus. Upon leaving prison, a priest that he had known from his childhood, Father Flavin, gave him Catholic instruction and moral guidance to keep him on the straight and narrow once Mark was released after serving his sentence. He had made the decision to leave his delinquent, lawless past behind him and do something better with his life and asked Jesus to give him the strength not to fall back into his old ways again. He distanced himself from the gang members who he had once associated with and forged a career as a Rap Artist, then eventually a respected actor and producer.
Marky’s story shows that Jesus can change lives, if we truly believe in his grace and forgiveness. He is now a happily married father of four and a devout Catholic who tries to attend Mass everyday no matter where he is in the world. He credits his faith and relationship with God for turning his life around and making him the man that he is today. Mark Wahlberg reminds me of Saint Dismas, the penitent thief that was crucified next to Jesus at Calvary. Dismas turned to Jesus and asked to be remembered by Christ when he entered his kingdom. Jesus turned to Dismas and said “I promise you that today, you will be with me in paradise.” The bandit-criminal Dismas became Saint Dismas, the only person to have been canonised by Christ himself whilst he was still alive, as opposed to after his death. It’s a pity that St. Dismas is not one of the saints who is better known to people. He perfectly illustrates the Christian concept of repentance; no matter how bad you are or what you have done, you can turn to Christ and be forgiven and receive his love.
I think that Saint Dismas should be Marky’s patron saint, as even though more than 2 thousand years separate the lives of Mark Wahlberg and St. Dismas, the parallels are obvious and the message is the same; JESUS SAVES.
what a great man ..love him
Love Marky Mark…always will.
I agree. Hopefully he’s apologized and provided some type of compensation and gives back to the community. Hopefully he’s not longer a racist either.
Well I hope he compensates that shop keeper every day for taking away his sight. It’s great he changed his own life but to cripple someone else’s life should be a huge guilt.
I had no idea he used to be bad
I love Mark Wahlberg. He changed his life through faith in God
Sigh, if you guys could label articles a little more specifically next time. I rushed over here thinking us gays might finally have a chance to bag ol’ Marky Mark and it turns out he just used to be a delinquent? Zzz, wake me when Anderson Cooper comes out…