JOSh Friends

On mic, she gives voice to characters, stories, and productions. Off mic, she's still learning to trust her own.

Ces Dela Cruz Guevara has spent her career behind microphones and in front of rooms — as a voice actor, dubbing director, script translator, host, and events producer. She knows how to hold a stage. What she's still figuring out is how to hold the quiet.

As a creative who juggles multiple careers and parish ministries, Ces carries two battles most people don't see: imposter syndrome that doesn't care how long your resumé is, and procrastination that isn't always laziness — sometimes it's just fear in disguise.

In this episode of JOSh Friends, Ces reflects on My Soul Finds Rest by Himig Heswita, written by Fr. Arnel Reyes SJ, from the album O, Bayan ng Diyos — a song rooted in Psalm 62 about anchoring yourself in God when everything else shifts.

At the heart of her reflection is her tatay. A man from a family of poor farmers in Nueva Ecija. Eldest of nine. Only finished Grade 6. Worked abroad for years with no connections and no backup plan — and still sent all five of his children to college. His weapon? Tibay ng loob at pananampalataya.

Now at 83, napakababaw ng kaligayahan ni tatay. Isda, gulay, gatas ng kalabaw — parang piyesta na sa kanya. He smiles whenever he sees you. He never made the hard parts sound hard.

For choir members, worship teams, parish musicians, and anyone who has ever confused being busy with being okay — this episode is for you.

Because rest isn't the absence of struggle. It's a decision about where you place the weight.

My Soul Finds Rest by Himig Heswita is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major DSPs. Support the ministry and explore more at jescom.ph/josh.

And mark your calendars — Bayan Umawit: Ignatian MusicFest 2026, July 4, 2026, 7:00 PM, New Frontier Theater, Araneta City, Cubao. Bukas Palad, Hangad, and Himig Heswita live — with The CompanY as special guests.

On air, he is DJ Bolero. Warm, steady, and always present.

Off air, there were seasons Bryan Calzado could barely get out of bed. Seasons of anxiety and depression that nobody saw, until music found him, or more accurately, until he let it find him again.

As a broadcaster, songwriter, choir conductor, and mentor to the Junior Parish Choir at the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice in Quezon City, Bryan has built a life around helping others discover and offer their gifts. But behind that calling is a deeply honest story about what it means to offer something to God when you're not sure you have anything left to give.

In this episode of JoshFriends, Bryan reflects on Day 7 of Love Him Ever More by Fr. Joe Laramie, SJ, a nine-day personal retreat built on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola and the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. At the heart of his reflection is a single question from the book:

"What are some of the gifts in your life? Which of these gifts is easiest for you to offer to the Lord?"

Woven through his story is the life of St. Anthony of Padua, whose feast day falls this Thursday, June 13, the patron of lost things, and a saint who only found his true calling by surrendering his own plans entirely.

For choir members, composers, music ministers, and anyone who has ever wondered if their broken, imperfect offering is still worth giving, this episode is for you.

Because what is lost can be found. And the mission begins not someday. It begins now.

📚 Love Him Ever More by Fr. Joe Laramie, SJ is available through JesCom Exclusives at jescom.ph/josh.📖 Begin your nine-day retreat today. All you need is an open mind, an open heart, and a willingness to show up.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

“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/