JOSh Friends

Jesuit Communications
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JOSh Friends is your go-to podcast for a dose of inspiration, friendship, and spiritual wisdom. Join us as we explore the treasures of JesCom's Library through the voices of our diverse community. Each episode features guests sharing powerful excerpts from our books and musical pieces, bringing these words to life in a fresh, engaging way. Whether you're a long-time follower or new to the faith journey, JOSh Friends offers a welcoming space for reflection, growth, and connection. https://jescom.ph/josh

  1. May 25

    Ang Ngiti at ang Bigat: Inay

    You can't always tell what someone is carrying just by looking at their smile. May Cu is known by those around her as warm, bubbly, and always smiling. As a Medical Assistant, she spends her days caring for others. As a mother of three, she gives everything she has to her children. But in the middle of all that giving, she carries one of the heaviest kinds of grief. Over a short period of time, several members of her family were lost to acts of violence in her home province. And the fear hasn't ended — because those responsible have never been brought to justice. Still, she shows up. She keeps smiling. Because three children are counting on her, and that is not something she can set down. In this episode of JoshFriends, May speaks honestly about grief, fear, and the kind of strength that doesn't always look like strength. And woven through her reflection is Inay by Fr. Arnel Aquino, SJ — a song not just for moments of worship, but for the quiet nights when you need to be reminded that you are held, that you are loved, and that you are not alone. This May, in the month of Mary, we reflect on what it means to be a mother. And what it means to need one. - Stream Inay by Fr. Arnel Aquino, SJ on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major DSPs.- Bring it to your choir and community — music sheet available at jescom.ph/josh under JesCom Exclusives.- Explore more books, music, and resources at jescom.ph/josh.

    8 min

  2. May 18

    Navigating Without a Map: Stella Maris

    There's a difference between being in the spotlight and being the reason the spotlight exists. In this episode of JoshFriends, we sit with Margarita Claudette Bautista Galura — Executive Director of COSMIC Philippines, Corporate Secretary of the Philippine Madrigal Singers Music Inc. and the Andrea O. Veneracion Sing Philippines Foundation, former performing member of the Philippine Madrigal Singers, and one of the quiet, steady forces behind some of the country's most respected musical communities. She reflects on a life spent navigating — concert tours across three continents, years of administrative leadership, and the ongoing work of sustaining choral and musical communities that shape generations of Filipino artists and faith communities. Woven through her reflection is Stella Maris by Bukas Palad Music Ministry — a song for those who serve through music, and need a fixed point when the waters get rough. This May, the month of Mary, we're reminded that the most enduring kind of leadership doesn't always stand at the front. Sometimes it holds everything together from behind — steady, faithful, and quietly lit by something that doesn't fade. Whether you're a choir member, a worship musician, a music director, or simply someone who shows up Sunday after Sunday to help the community sing — this episode is your reflection for the month. 🎵 Stream Stella Maris by Bukas Palad on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major DSPs.📄 Bring it to your choir — song sheet available at jescom.ph/josh under JesCom Exclusives.📚 Looking for reads this season? Explore the full JesCom collection at jescom.ph/josh.

    13 min

  3. May 11

    Buongiorno, Nanay — Sr. Susay Valdez on Mission, Mary, and the Middle of the Climb

    She learned to say buongiorno perfectly. But some days, the only word that feels right is Nanay. Sr. Susay Valdez, RC is a Cenacle Sister missioned to the Generalate community in Rome, where she navigates international community life, accompanies Filipino Catholics abroad, and distributes warm meals on Wednesday nights to those living on the streets. In this episode, she reflects on what it means to keep showing up quietly, faithfully, and without fanfare, and why, in the middle of a mission she doesn't always fully understand, Mary has never felt like a detour. The timing couldn't be more fitting. Mother's Day was just yesterday. The Feast of Our Lady of Fatima is this May 13. And we are right in the middle of the Month of Mary. Sr. Susay brings us back to a simple, grounding prayer through Mariang Ina Ko by Fr. Manoling Francisco, SJ, now streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major platforms. Song sheet available at jescom.ph/josh. Lead me to Him. That's the whole prayer. And most days, that's enough.

    9 min

  4. May 4

    Out of Roads: When Planning Runs Out of Answers

    Maricel Olaguer builds safety nets for a living. She helps people prepare for retirement, for emergencies, for futures they haven't lived yet. She anticipates risk. She closes gaps before they open. That's not just her job — it's how she thinks. But nobody teaches you how to forecast your own burnout. In this episode of JoshFriends, Maricel "Cel" Olaguer, a Certified Internal Control Auditor, Unit Manager, and Licensed Financial Consultant, reflects on what happens when the person who plans for everything runs out of road. Not through a dramatic collapse. Not through a single bad decision. But through the slow accumulation of showing up, delivering, leading, and quietly carrying more than anyone around you knows. Because that's what the dangerous kind of exhaustion looks like. It's not a crisis. It's a calendar. It's a pipeline of clients and targets and expectations that keeps moving even when you're running on empty. She also used to be a soprano. Not past tense as in gone. Past tense as in set aside. The way most meaningful things get set aside — not because you chose to leave them, but because life got loud in all the wrong ways and the quiet things slowly stopped competing. It was Out of Roads, written by Fr. Arnel Aquino SJ, that caught her. First heard in My Bespren Emman on TV5 — a story about redemption, faith, and friendship — the song didn't ask her for anything theological. It just described exactly where she was. "I just ran out of roads again. Don't know where to turn." That's a Wednesday afternoon in a rough quarter. That's a recruitment call you didn't want to make. That's the version of the Prodigal Son nobody talks about — the one who didn't walk away dramatically, but simply kept moving until one day, nawala na yung direksyon. Hindi ka umalis. Naligaw ka habang nagsisikap. That's a quieter kind of far country. But it's still far. This episode enters the Marian month of May with that honesty. Mary doesn't ask you to clean yourself up before she meets you. She meets you on the road — in the middle of the rough quarter, in the middle of the exhaustion you haven't told anyone about yet. The whisper in the song? That's her. Persistent. Gentle. Not loud. Just already moving toward you before you turned around. For choir members, worship singers, and anyone who's ever opened their mouth to sing a surrender they were still learning how to mean — this episode is for you. Because sometimes the song you bring to your congregation is the same song you needed to hear yourself first. Cel is going back to singing. This time, more intentionally. And this May, the question isn't whether you have it together. The question is whether you're willing to stop running long enough to receive. 🎵 Out of Roads (Song of the Prodigal Son) by Fr. Arnel Aquino SJ, available on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major streaming platforms. 📖 JesCom Exclusives and resources at jescom.ph/josh

    9 min

  5. Apr 27

    What Nobody Tells You About Ministry

    Jovanni Chua spends his days forming other people. Retreats, recollections, choir rehearsals, one-on-ones with students still figuring out who they are. He walks with people for a living. And then he goes home, and walks with a twelve-year-old asking hard questions about faith, and a seven-year-old who just sings without caring how he sounds. Nobody warns you that the people most likely to run dry are the ones who never stop giving. In this episode of JoshFriends, Jovanni Chua, Assistant Campus Minister at Sacred Heart School, Ateneo de Cebu, reflects on what it actually feels like to lead worship when you're the one who needs it. To teach formation while quietly wondering who's forming you. To stand at a mic, hit every right note, and feel absolutely nothing. Because that's the conversation we don't have enough in ministry circles. Not the crisis moments. The ordinary ones. The Sunday where everything goes well on the outside and something in you is just... tired. It was a song that named it for him. Kind and Merciful by Himig Heswita, rooted in Psalm 130, written by Fr. Arnel Aquino, SJ. Not because it gave him an answer. But because it gave him permission. "Our God forgives our sins and heals our pain. He redeems us all from ruin and from shame." Ruin and shame. Not "areas for growth." Not "spaces for development." The psalm doesn't soften it. And somehow, that's the thing that reached him. The honesty of it. The directness. The reminder that restoration isn't something you earn by getting your act together first. This episode draws from the Fourth Week of Easter, a season about more than an empty tomb. It's about the disciples who were scattered and broken being gathered back. Not because they performed their way back to wholeness. But because that's just who God is. For choir members, worship leaders, campus ministers, and anyone who has ever stood in front of a community and served from a place of emptiness, this one is for you. You are not just the one doing the forming. You are being formed. Even now. Even here. Even tired. Whom you made and deeply know. That's the anchor. And it doesn't let go. 🎵 Kind and Merciful by Himig Heswita, available on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major streaming platforms.📄 Music sheet for choirs available at jescom.ph/josh📖 JesCom Exclusives also available at jescom.ph/josh

    11 min

  6. Apr 21

    The One Thing a Demand Planner Couldn't Forecast | Pagkakaibigan by Hangad

    Ronald Dator plans months, sometimes a year, ahead for a living. He anticipates gaps before they happen. But the most important things in his life? He never saw them coming. And neither did he plan for the moment a song pulled him back to himself. In this episode of JoshFriends, Ronald Dator, a Demand Planning Manager based in Canada, reflects on what happens when the part of you that knows how to prepare for everything meets the part of you that can't be forecasted. From singing in a choir as a kid in the Philippines, to spreadsheets and gym mornings in Canada, Ronald traces the quiet drift that happens not through dramatic failure, but through productivity. Through being busy. Through building a life that works, while slowly losing the person living it. Because nobody warns you that the dangerous kind of distance from God isn't a crisis. It's a calendar. It's a routine that makes sense. It's being successful enough that you stop noticing what's missing. It was a song that caught him. Pagkakaibigan by Hangad, heard again on Spotify, alone, far from home, and something in him remembered. Not the choir loft. Not the Philippines. Himself. "Hinango sa dilim at kababaan." Drawn out of darkness and lowliness. Not "you climbed out." Hinango. There was a hand reaching in. Into his apartment. Into his schedule. Into the ordinary life he'd built. This episode draws from the Third Week of Easter, not as a celebration to attend, but as an invitation to manahan. To stay. To let the resurrection be less of an event and more of a place you actually live. For choir members, worship singers, and anyone who's ever felt the difference between performing faith and meaning it, this one is for you. It's not about the dramatic fall.It's about the slow drift, and the hand that still reaches in.It's about being chosen not because you're qualified, but because someone has a plan bigger than yours. Are you staying? 🎵 Pagkakaibigan by Hangad, available on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major streaming platforms. 📄 Song sheet for choirs : jescom.ph/josh 📖 JesCom Exclusives also available at jescom.ph/josh

    8 min

  7. Apr 13

    Keep Knocking | Sr. Maria Leah Japos, PVMI on Faith, Doubt & Doing It Anyway | Love Him Ever More by Fr Joe Laramie, SJ

    In this episode of JoshFriends,Sr. Maria Leah Japos, PVMI — former lawyer, acoustic band singer, and now a religious sister who knocks on strangers' doors for a living — reflects on what it means to keep showing up when the mission feels heavier than it looks. From courtrooms where every word carried consequence, to parishes and homes where the work is quiet, unglamorous, and deeply human — her story is one of a life fully lived, deliberately left behind, and just as deliberately rebuilt around something greater than herself. Because nobody tells you that religious life comes with its own kind of loneliness. Nobody prepares you for the doors that don't open. And nobody warns you that the hardest part of mission isn't the dramatic sacrifice — it's the going-back-anyway, carrying-your-own-crosses-while-carrying-others, show-up-even-when-nothing-seems-to-change kind. With a brother battling cancer, aging parents, and the daily weight of accompanying people in the margins — Sr. Leah sits with three questions from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius that are easy to read and hard to live: What have I done for you? What am I doing for you? What will I do for you? This episode draws from Day 8 of Love Him Ever More by Fr. Joe Laramie, SJ — a nine-day retreat rooted in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, asking all of us to move from knowing our faith to actually living it. Not in grand gestures. In small things. Done with a full heart. This isn't a story about a perfect vocation.It's about what faith looks like when the doors stay closed.It's about what mission looks like when you're running on empty.It's about choosing — every single day — to knock again, to stay present, and to trust that showing up is already enough. Whether you're discerning a big decision, carrying quiet crosses no one knows about, or simply trying to stay faithful in a season that feels like too much — this one is for you. What if the bravest thing you can do today isn't something grand — but simply going back to the door that didn't open yesterday? 📖 Love Him Ever More by Fr. Joe Laramie, SJ Available at jescom.ph/josh

    8 min

  8. Apr 6

    Sige Lang, Tulugan Muna

    “Sige lang… tulugan muna natin.” In this episode of JOSh Friends, Mir de los Santos reflects on what it means to keep going when life feels heavy, uncertain, and unresolved. From personal grief and loss, to the weight of current events, to the quiet struggles many carry each day—this episode names a truth we often overlook:rest is not surrender. Sometimes, choosing to pause is an act of trust.A way of gathering strength.A quiet yes to God, even in the dark. Through the lens of the Passion, Mir invites us to see how even in suffering, God is present—not absent. That between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, there is space for waiting, for healing, and for hope that does not rush. Because in real life, resurrection does not come overnight. But it comes. As we continue the Lenten journey and move toward Easter, this episode reminds us: You don’t have to have all the answers today.You don’t have to force the light. For now—sige lang. Pwedeng tulugan muna. And trust that when you wake, grace is already at work.📖 Continue your Easter reflection with resources from JesCom Exclusives jescom.ph/joshSupport the mission. Visit https://jescom.ph/donate/

    9 min
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About

JOSh Friends is your go-to podcast for a dose of inspiration, friendship, and spiritual wisdom. Join us as we explore the treasures of JesCom's Library through the voices of our diverse community. Each episode features guests sharing powerful excerpts from our books and musical pieces, bringing these words to life in a fresh, engaging way. Whether you're a long-time follower or new to the faith journey, JOSh Friends offers a welcoming space for reflection, growth, and connection. https://jescom.ph/josh

Information

  • Creator
    Jesuit Communications
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    68
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Jesuit Communications
  • Show Website
    JOSh Friends