Day 28: Be Joyful, Be Free (2026)

Summary

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The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames)

Episode: Day 28: Be Joyful, Be Free
Date: January 28, 2026

Overview

In this episode, Fr. Mark-Mary Ames explores the profound joy and freedom that comes from truly believing in the forgiveness of sins. Drawing from Scripture and personal reflection, he invites listeners to embody their faith with visible joy—in particular, the simple yet powerful act of smiling. Through the parable of the prodigal son, Father Mark-Mary encourages listeners to let go of the burdens of past sins and live fully in God's mercy, allowing themselves to rejoice and be free.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Faith Must Bear Fruit: Smiling as a Work of Belief

• Scriptural Foundation: The episode begins with James 2:18, which discusses the relationship between faith and works, stressing that faith, by its fruit, must be visible—“Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.” (01:05)
• The Invitation to Joy: Fr. Mark-Mary challenges himself and listeners, “If we say we have faith, we believe in the forgiveness of sins, one of the works proper to our faith is to smile.” (01:49)
  • Being genuinely joyful is proposed as an authentic sign of belief in forgiveness.

The Prodigal Son: Letting Go of Imaginary Burdens

• The Parable Revisited: Father Mark-Mary retells the story from Luke 15, focusing on the son returning to the father burdened by guilt, and the father's embrace and celebration. (03:22–04:43)
  • He paints a vivid image: the son, bent by the memory of his sins, continues to carry an imaginary weight even after being forgiven.
• Letting the Burden Go: The father’s words to the son echo the divine invitation:

  “Son, the burden is gone. It is forgiven. Let it go.” (05:33)

  • Many continue to act burdened even after forgiveness, a theme Father extends to us all.

Living in Mercy: Honest Self-Examination and Freedom

• Call to Examine the Heart: Listeners are prompted to reflect:
  • Are there unconfessed or unrepentant sins? (06:55)
  • If not, and forgiveness has already been granted, are we still clinging to the memory or shame?
• Practical Spiritual Advice:
  • If there are unconfessed sins, bring them to the sacrament. (07:03)
  • If already confessed, “Let it go. It’s gone, it’s forgiven. The burden you’re carrying… is not real.” (07:10-07:14)
• A Prayer for Freedom and Joy:

  “Lift our eyes to yours. Lift our heads. Free our hands from the fake burden, the fake weight. Teach us to rejoice. Teach us to do the work of smiling as we celebrate and live in and swim in the waters of your mercy.” (07:21)

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On faith and outward joy:
  • “If we say we have faith, we believe in the forgiveness of sins, one of the works proper to our faith is to smile... to stand upright, to be joyful, and to be free.” (01:49–02:33)
  • “I believe in the forgiveness of sins. And part of the work is letting go of the burden.” (05:54)
• On imaginary burdens:
  • “The burden you’re carrying, it is not real.” (07:14)
• On divine encouragement:
  • “Stand upright, my son. Stand tall, my daughter. Smile. Rejoice. Be joyful. Be free. Eat, drink, and be merry and celebrate with me that we are back together.” (06:14)

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Important Timestamps

• Scripture Reading & Context: James 2:18, on faith and works — [01:05]
• Call to Smiling as a Sign of Forgiveness — [01:49]
• Retelling the Prodigal Son Parable — [03:22–05:45]
• Invitation to Let Go of Past Sins — [05:54–07:14]
• Prayer for Freedom and Joy — [07:21]
• Memorable Closing & Call to Joy — [09:15]:
  • “You believe in the forgiveness of sins? Tell your face.”

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Episode Tone and Style

Fr. Mark-Mary’s tone is warm, pastoral, and slightly playful—he jokes with himself, uses everyday language, and brings relatable analogies to deep spiritual truths. His approach is encouraging, focusing on practical spirituality rooted in the joy of the Gospel.

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Summary Takeaways

• Faith in the forgiveness of sins should be visible in joyful living—especially in one’s facial expression and posture.
• The memory of forgiven sins must not weigh us down; God invites us to live as people truly set free.
• Regular self-examination, authentic confession, and wholehearted celebration of God’s mercy are part of Christian discipleship.
• The work of faith is as simple—and challenging—as learning to smile again, “to do the work of smiling as we celebrate…your mercy.” (07:21)

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For complete resources and the prayer plan, listeners are invited to visit ascensionpress.com/riy.

Transcript

[Father Mark Mary]

Foreign.

[Franciscan Friar]

Mark Mary with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and this is the Rosary New Year podcast, where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is day 28. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a year, visit ascensionpress.com rosary in a year or text RIY to 33777. You'll get an outline of how we're going to pray each month. It's a great way to track your progress. The best place to listen to the podcast is in the Ascension app. There are special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the full rosary with myself and other friars. No matter what app you're listening in, remember to tap, follow or subscribe for your daily notifications. The forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of.

[Father Mark Mary]

The body, and a life everlasting. Amen.

[Franciscan Friar]

I'm going to be a little creative in choosing our scripture passage by which.

[Father Mark Mary]

We will approach these articles of the Creed.

[Franciscan Friar]

This comes From James chapter 2, verses 18 and some of the following. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. And then going down for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. Sometimes I want to look in the mirror and ask myself this question. Oh, hey, Father Mark, Mary, can I ask you a question? Sure, go for it. Do you believe and everything the Catholic Church teaches?

[Father Mark Mary]

Heck, yeah, I do.

[Franciscan Friar]

So you believe everything that's in the Apostles Creed, for example, like, yeah, absolutely. So you believe in the forgiveness of sins? 100%. Then I want to say, why don't you tell your face, you know, because here's my proposal. 1. If we say we have faith, we believe in the forgiveness of sins. One of the works proper to our faith is to smile. To smile, my brothers and sisters, an authentic sign of our faith, an authentic work of our faith and the forgiveness of sins is to smile is to stand upright, to be joyful, and to be free. Because what we're talking about here is like, so when we have received the forgiveness of sins, I'm talking about sins that have been where we've been washed clean, either through baptism or or through sacramental confession. Like it's no longer about the sin. Like we no longer have to be bent over and sad and beating ourselves up. Like it becomes about God's mercy.

[Father Mark Mary]

And.

[Franciscan Friar]

The focus is on his mercy. I have been forgiven. I believe in the forgiveness of sins. And I believe in it so deeply. I experience it so deeply, I can't help but smile. I can't help but be joyful. Absolutely. There's other works appropriate to our faith and the forgiveness of sins, but this is the one I want to focus on today. And to help paint another picture, let's take a look at the parable of the prodigal son. So this is Luke, chapter 15, right? And so, you know, we all know the youngest son, he asked for his inheritance, he goes and squanders it and loose living and. And he's reminded, like, I have a father. I have a father back home. And so he's going to go to his father, I'm going to go back to him. I'm going to say, I no longer be, you know, deserve to be called your son and I'll be your servant. And the father sees him at a distance and is moved and runs and embraces him, kisses him and has the fatty cast slaughtered. And then it says, and they begin to make merry. And I kind of have this image of pretend like there's the prodigal son and he's on his journey back to his father. And I'm thinking of like, sort of like a picture maybe you've seen of like a 16th century Franciscan monk who's like got the old burlap sack and he's going through town maybe begging bread. It's just like this big bag that he's. He's got two hands on it just kind of over his shoulder, next to his ear, and it's this big heavy bag and he's bent over. And I kind of have the image of the prodigal son being like that. And in the bag are all of his sins. And so he's coming back to the Father. And when the father comes and embraces him. And what does the father do?

[Father Mark Mary]

He just.

[Franciscan Friar]

He takes it. He takes all of the weight, he destroys all of the stones, he forgives all the sin. All of the debt is forgiven. You don't have to carry it anymore.

[Father Mark Mary]

It's gone.

[Franciscan Friar]

So imagine like the son believing in forgiveness of sins enough. Believing his father's mercy enough. Like, he comes to the party and he's there and he's in it and they're singing and dancing all around. But now imagine I could. I just. I see like the son still bent over and still with both of his hands together, kind of over his shoulders, carrying this imaginary weight. Like he's just become so accustomed to it and he still sort of feels it in his interior heart. So he's just going around this party in his honor, celib that the son who is dead is alive. Like just bent over and like he's not. He's not joyful, he's not taking it in. His hands are both carrying this empty weight that's gone, but he's still acting like he's carrying it. And the Father coming to him, right? And gently lifting his eyes, taking both.

[Father Mark Mary]

His hands, saying, like son, the burden is gone. The burden is gone. It is forgiven. Let it go.

[Franciscan Friar]

And the son can do this, right? The son can do this. And you and I can do this because it's forgiven. The Father took care of it.

[Father Mark Mary]

It's gone.

[Franciscan Friar]

I believe in the forgiveness of sins. And part of the work is letting go of the burden. And my brothers and sisters, I think so many of us, the sins are.

[Father Mark Mary]

Forgiven, but we remember them.

[Franciscan Friar]

We're still bent over, beat up, eyes.

[Father Mark Mary]

To the ground, no smile, uncomfortable.

[Franciscan Friar]

Our hands not free for rejoicing because.

[Father Mark Mary]

They'Re carrying this fake burden. Let's let the Father come to us again. Say, hey, the sins are gone, you are forgiven. Stand upright, my son. Stand tall, my daughter. Smile, Rejoice, be joyful, be free. Eat, drink and be merry. And celebrate with me that we are back together. As we pray, let us just be honest with ourselves.

[Franciscan Friar]

Firstly, do we have unrepentant sins?

[Father Mark Mary]

Do we have unconfessed sins?

[Franciscan Friar]

If we believe in the forgiveness of sins, like, let's take this to the sacrament.

[Father Mark Mary]

Let's take it and give it to Jesus.

[Franciscan Friar]

If we have confessed sins.

[Father Mark Mary]

Let'S let them go. Let it go. It's gone, it's forgiven.

[Franciscan Friar]

The burden you're carrying, it is not real.

[Father Mark Mary]

Father, come to us. Lift our eyes to yours. Lift our heads. Free our hands from the fake burden, the fake weight. Teach us to rejoice. Teach us to do the work of smiling as we celebrate and live in and swim in the waters of your mercy. Let us pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

[Franciscan Friar]

And lead us not into temptation, but.

[Father Mark Mary]

Deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, The Lord is with the. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father and to the Son, to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In the name of the Father, amen. And of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

[Franciscan Friar]

All right, thanks, everybody. I enjoyed that one. You believe in the forgiveness of sins? Tell your face. Oh, gosh.

[Father Mark Mary]

Got to put it in my mirror.

[Franciscan Friar]

All right. Anyway, thanks for joining me. Thanks for praying with me today. Thank you, Jesus, for your goodness and your mercy, Father. Look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow.

[Father Mark Mary]

Poco, poco, friends.

[Franciscan Friar]

Bye now.