Copyright 2019 Brian K. Kravec. All rights reserved.
Father Kevin McGoldrick grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was ordained in 2003. He’s been a priest for 16 years and a musician for more than 30 years. He currently serves as the chaplain of St. Cecilia Academy and the Overbrook School in Nashville, Tennessee with the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia.
As the Executive Director of Possibility Productions, I’ve enjoyed the privilege of bringing Fr. Kevin to the West Coast for Central Valley Encounter in 2016 and the Square Peg Round Hole California Concert Tour in 2017.
He’s been featured on Serius XM’s The Catholic Guy and The Jennifer Fulwiler Show, Aleteia, the Catholic Playlist, Relevant Radio, Immaculate Heart Radio, and EWTN’s At Home with Jim and Joy. He was awarded the 2017 Catholic Hipster music award. His debut album, Square Peg Round Hole, went to #1 on the global chart CECILIA.
Bridging the gap to evangelization
For Fr. Kevin, music has allowed him to merge his priesthood and his need, as an artist, to create. More importantly, through his God-given artistry, he often finds himself in unique places to evangelize where other priests would not usually have access or the opportunity to go.
God became a man in the world to go out into the world and sanctify the world so there’s this need to bridge the gap and really become a bridge. Being a priest and a singer/songwriter has allowed me to do that in a lot of different venues. – Fr. Kevin McGoldrick
As Christians who share in the primary mission of the Church to evangelize, it’s crucial that we’re going out and engaging people. Fr. Kevin believes it’s important that Catholics become the best musicians and the best actors and the best dancers and painters that they can be. This is how we can evangelize through the arts and gain access to engage those in the world of arts and entertainment who might otherwise have little or no exposure to the love of Christ and the Catholic Church.
Evangelizing through the arts: Fr. Kevin McGoldrick
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Twisted Mystics
In the words of Fr. Kevin, Twisted Mystics are “those artists in the world whose lives don’t appear perfect on the outside but they are creating beauty and speaking deep truth with what they are doing.” For example, Fr. Kevin points out that “Mozart was a hot mess in reality, but everyone would agree that what he created was divine.”
Fr. Kevin believes that one of the first steps of evangelization is to bless what’s already good in the culture by “blending the secular with the sacred” and grafting the secular branch into the Divine Vine from which all branches grow.
His music seeks to stir up in the soul a reminder of the truth and beauty found in our everyday lives, a truth and beauty that will always point back to its source, Jesus Christ. – Most Reverend David R. Choby, Bishop of Nashville
Fr. Kevin is on a mission to “baptize” the secular with the sacred one cover song at a time by producing the Twisted Mystics Project. Listen to In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel on Fr. Kevin’s debut album, Square Peg Round Hole.
Divine Mercy
The Chaplet of Divine Mercy has always been important to Fr. Kevin. On Good Friday, April 3, 2015 (the Year of Mercy), Fr. Kevin awoke at 5 AM with a deep desire to make good use of the day and commemorate Divine Mercy. He recalls praying the chaplet about 100 times in the process of writing a new musical setting for the prayer. The fruit of his labor that day is his original version of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy which “seeks to draw one into prayer and intercession through an atmosphere of community praise and worship.”
The message of Divine Mercy is so needed for our time. There are so many struggles on personal and global levels. We need God’s Divine Mercy more than ever. – Fr. Kevin McGoldrick
Pulling from his very rich and diverse musical background, Fr. Kevin’s contemporary jam-session-style arrangement makes it easy to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and enter into God’s message of Divine Mercy.
Transcendental Beauty
In a recent podcast interview on Word to Life, Fr. John Maria Devaney, O.P., spoke with Fr. Kevin and discussed the importance of celebrating art that is imbued with the transcendentals of truth, goodness and beauty.
Wherever there is truth, beauty, and goodness, there is God. Beauty is it’s own end. Beauty does not need an apologetic. What’s the answer to the question “Why do something beautiful?” Because it’s beautiful. – Fr. Kevin McGoldrick
Priests have always engaged the culture throughout history. They don’t run from the secular culture: They speak to it. Fr. Kevin speaks to the secular culture as an authentic artist and as an authentic disciple. Book Fr. Kevin for a concert or parish mission.
Copyright 2019 Brian K. Kravec