Welcome to the “Mini-Series” podcast of the St. Josemaria Institute! We’re excited to launch this new channel announcing our first mini-series:

New Horizons: Living the Faith as a Young Professional

Launching on May 1, 2025, join our host, Rob Hays, as he invites listeners to open new horizons in their lives and explore what it means to “work for God,” especially as young professionals who are trying to navigate both the opportunities and pitfalls they face every day at work, at home, and in society.

Over 7 in-depth episodes, Rob shares anecdotes and lessons learned from his personal and professional life, and he draws on over 20 years of experience mentoring hundreds of young professionals, to help listeners grapple with life’s big questions.

Rob also shares how the life-changing teachings and spirituality of St. Josemaria Escriva taught him how to work for God and how to guide others in their desires and goals to live genuinely Christian lives.

OUR HOST

Rob Hays is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of Ashford Hospitality Trust. He earned his A.B. in Politics with a certificate in Political Economy from Princeton University. He is involved in several charitable, formative, and faith organizations, such as the Aquinas Institute for Catholic Life at Princeton University and the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) in Washington DC. He co-founded the Business Ethics Forum for Dallas-area executives, and he is the lead organizer for the annual Dallas Successful Fathers Conference. He and his wife Alicia have been married 20 years and are blessed with 7 children.


New episodes premiere every Thursday beginning May 1, 2025. Subscribe today!

Episode 1: Introduction - Working for God

In this first episode of "New Horizons," Rob Hays introduces listeners to this mini-series for young professionals seeking to integrate their Catholic faith into daily life and work.

Outlining the game plan for this 7 episode series, Rob shares a bit about his background, the inspiration for the series, the common struggles and issues of the professional life, and the spiritual wisdom of St. Josemaria Escriva that transformed his perspective on work, faith, and life.

For Rob, St. Josemaria speaks more directly about the lay vocation and the importance of work as a means of sanctification than just about any other saint in history. To get us started, Rob explains how St. Josemaria helped him discover the meaning of working for God--that work matters, work is a prayer, and work is an integral part of everyone's path to holiness.

As Rob explains, "Our work in daily life as a way of expressing love of God will be a theme that weaves in and out of all of these episodes of the series, and it can be a revolutionary change for someone's work and prayer life."

Ready to begin? Rob invites you to have a willingness to be open to the Holy Spirit, a willingness to grow, a willingness to listen, and a willingness to change and take some risk.

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Episode 2: Dealing with Stress, Anxiety, and Burnout

In this second episode of "New Horizons," Rob Hays explores how living with greater unity of life, order, and a daily plan of prayer can help young professionals navigate stress, anxiety, and burnout.

Reflecting on his own experiences leading through the pandemic, Rob highlights the importance of consistency between faith and work, prioritizing first things first, and rooting daily habits in love for God. He also shares a powerful encouragement from the Gospel of Mark: when we give time to God, it will be given back to us and multiplied — a reminder that putting prayer first brings greater peace, fruitfulness, and freedom in our lives.

Resources mentioned in the episode include:“Towards Holiness”: A Spiritual Game Plan, The Way, Furrow, The Forge , Friends of God

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Episode 3: Networking and Relationship Building

In this episode of New Horizons, Rob Hays reframes networking as a path to authentic friendship, grounded in three often-overlooked virtues: service, cheerfulness, and naturalness.

He first highlights St. Joseph as a model of service—quiet, faithful work done with love and selflessness. Rob encourages us to view networking as a way to give rather than get, shaped by a spirit of generosity in our professional lives.

Next, he explores how true cheerfulness—rooted in faith—draws others in and builds trust. Rob reminds us that real connection does not come from self-promotion, but from joyful, self-forgetful engagement with others.

Finally, he turns to Christ as the model of naturalness: simple, sincere, and fully present. In a world of performance and image, Rob urges us to live and relate with authenticity, letting our faith be seen in ordinary, honest actions.

Together, these virtues invite us to see networking not as strategy, but as a way of living with purpose.

Resources mentioned in the episode include: "The Way, Furrow, The Forge" and "Friends of God".

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New Horizons: Living the Faith as a Young Professional

In this episode, Rob Hays offers 3 practical steps to integrate into your daily life to successfully deal with conflict in the workplace, and bring you closer to God.

Witnessing how many young professionals today prefer to avoid conflict altogether, Rob believes its important to see it as an opportunity to grow in personal holiness. Drawing on St. Josemaria Escriva's teachings, Rob walks us through the steps:

1. Rest in your identity as a child of God (divine filiation).
2. Stay rooted in God’s presence throughout the day (presence of God).
3. Embrace daily difficulties with a spirit of mortification.

Resources mentioned in the episode include: "The Way, Furrow, The Forge", "Friends of God" and "Christ is Passing By".

Are you enjoying the mini-series? Please help us reach more listeners by leaving us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify now. Thank you!

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New Horizons: Living the Faith as a Young Professional

In this episode, Rob Hays invites young professionals to shift their focus from ambition to excellence. Ambition often fixates on outcomes we can't control—success, recognition, influence—while excellence is rooted in what we can control: our inputs—our prayer life, study, and the care we give to our daily work.

Drawing from the teachings of St. Josemaria Escriva, Rob offers two key ways to pursuing excellence in our professional and personal lives:

1. Study: Dedicating ourselves to ongoing formation, seeing study as both a professional and spiritual responsibility.

2. Little things add up to big things: The "little things" – carrying out the small duties of each moment with love and attention.

Rob also reflects on prestige as modeled in the life of Christ, not as a goal to pursue, but as something that arises naturally from a life of excellence, and which becomes a powerful tool for apostolate when grounded in prayer and humility.


Resources mentioned in the episode include: "The Way, Furrow, The Forge" and "Friends of God".

Are you enjoying the mini-series? Please help us reach more listeners by leaving us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify now. Thank you!

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New Horizons: Living the Faith as a Young Professional

In this episode, Rob Hays tackles the sometimes uncomfortable but essential call to evangelize in the workplace, a responsibility St. Josemaria Escriva called our “principal mission.” Through personal stories and practical insights, Rob explains that we are not called to impose, but to witness—face to face, heart to heart—through sincere friendship and daily fidelity.

Drawing from the writings of St. Josemaria, Rob offers three key virtues for living out this mission:

1. Sincerity – Be truthful in word and deed. Sincerity reveals God's love and builds credibility with coworkers.
2. Daring – Be unafraid to step into spiritual conversations. Through “holy shamelessness,” we overcome fear of rejection and embrace the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
3. Perseverance of a Donkey – Like the donkey that carried Christ into Jerusalem and those donkeys that would faithfully turn the waterwheels, we are called to be humble, steady, and constant. Evangelization often means quietly showing up day after day with faith, love, and grit.

Rob reminds listeners that our example, not eloquence, is often what opens hearts. When rooted in prayer, sacraments, and daily effort, our ordinary work becomes a powerful means of apostolate.

Resources mentioned in the episode include: "The Way, Furrow, The Forge" and "Friends of God".

Are you enjoying the mini-series? Please help us reach more listeners by leaving us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify now. Thank you!

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New Horizons: Living the Faith as a Young Professional

In the final episode of this mini-series, Rob Hays inspires listeners to contemplate how the hidden lives of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph reveal the deep meaning and holiness of work and ordinary life.

Inspired by the teachings of St. Josemaria Escriva, Rob especially encourages young professionals to look to the example of the Holy Family to fight off the temptation to think that our work is meaningless, that our decisions don't matter, that we don't make a difference, and that we aren't capable of changing the world.

In particular, Rob highlights three lessons that they teach us:

1. The little things of life matter. The hidden life of Jesus, which lasted almost two decades, shows us that all human existence--our work and the daily activities of life--have a holy and divine purpose.
2. Our daily life is anything but ordinary. St. Joseph's faithfulness and obedience to God allowed him to always do what needed to be done. He directed his life to the service of others regardless of his circumstances and without complaints. This is an important and crucial reminder to us about the value of our daily life and work.
3. The "secret sauce" is love. Mary, like Jesus and Joseph, lived a poor, ordinary life in Nazareth dedicated to her family and her daily duties. But, when we look through the eyes of faith, we know that her life was far from meaningless-- her secret was to fill the ordinary with love.

Resources mentioned in the episode include: "The Way, Furrow, The Forge", and "Christ is Passing By".

Are you enjoying the mini-series? Please help us reach more listeners by leaving us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify now. Thank you!

View Transcript