Tag: music
Featured “Friar”: Father Justin Bolger, O.P.
by The Cowl Editor on April 22, 2021
Features
by Sydney Olinger ’23
News Staff
Father Justin Bolger, O.P., works within faith formation ministries at Providence College. He is also involved in music ministries as he has a background in various types of music. As an assistant chaplain, Fr. Justin also helps to serve the wider campus community and provide for the spiritual needs of the students, faculty, and staff.
Though his faith plays an important role in his life, music is an early passion of Fr. Justin’s. His love for music came in the form of both singing and songwriting. Shortly after finding this passion, he signed a record deal with his sister, Maggie. He recorded, toured, and wrote music with her for a period of time. Aside from just recording, touring, and writing, he found a way to connect his two passions: faith and music. Fr. Justin and his sister also played music for masses, youth retreats, and other religious events, which helped him imagine what his next journey might be.
Fr. Justin received his master’s degree in philosophical studies at Mount St. Mary’s University. While obtaining his master’s, he worked as the director of music ministry there, continuing to pursue his love for music. After his time at Mount St. Mary’s, Fr. Justin entered the Order of Preachers. In May 2020, he was ordained a priest, eight years after becoming a Dominican. Though it was an exciting moment meant to be celebrated after a long journey, Fr. Justin’s ordination was a fairly small event due to COVID-19 regulations. Despite the small affair, he realized it was not the celebration that truly mattered, but instead the experiences to come.
Fr. Justin has worked in a variety of different ministries, both as an ordained priest and as a student brother. Some of these include campus ministry, prison ministry, helping the homeless, and, of course, music ministry. His desire to help others both inside and outside of the PC community demonstrates how much it means for Fr. Justin to act as a servant leader.
As a Dominican, Fr. Justin has helped record music specifically for music ministry. He has recorded four albums of sacred choral music and two albums of bluegrass/gospel music with his band, The Hillbilly Thomists. Students and faculty may remember members of The Hillbilly Thomists serenading the community from a golf cart in the fall of 2020.
“I love the fraternity of the Dominican Order—we live, pray, eat, study, and minister together,” said Fr. Justin.
Growing up in a big family, it was not a huge adjustment for him to join the Dominican family here at PC. Fr. Justin was born in Baltimore and raised in Frederick, MD, alongside six siblings. Within his big family, his brother also decided to follow Christ and join the priesthood; he is currently a priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Something Fr. Justin carries with him is the Dominican Order’s charism “to contemplate and share with others the fruits of contemplation.” He acknowledges that this is an important part of the Order, as well as the priesthood, and it is something the friars practice each and every day, studying and sharing the truth as a way of life.
Fr. Justin also thoroughly enjoys the time he spends with students on campus and loves to work with them. “I hope to help lead them in their pursuit of truth. Most of all I hope to lead them closer to Jesus, who is truth personified,” stated Fr. Justin.
As a friar and a very faithful person, he loves spreading his knowledge of the Catholic faith and helping students to become active members in the ministry on campus. He shared that he is always available to meet and discuss any topic regarding faith, school, life, or anything else.
Music is for More than Your Ears
by The Cowl Editor on November 14, 2019
Opinion
by Katie Belbusti ’22
Opinion Staff
Music is a big part of everyone’s life. On any day during the week, it seems that music can be heard blasting through the walls of Providence College dorms. It plays at its loudest when you want to sleep, and is non-existent when you are most in the mood to dance. Music plays a big role in each of our lives, especially as students.
Whether you have earbuds in walking between classes, while doing homework, or at the gym, the music we listen to is our own form of self-expression and says a lot about us as people. This is why we should all stay true to our own individual tastes in music, and not conform by only listening to whatever three songs are popuar at a given time.
Weekend after weekend, the same songs are played, and everyone seems to be content with that. But it is a good thing to stand out from the crowd, and for those who appreciate a wide variety of music genres, they should be unafraid to share them.
Music is more than just something to listen to to pass the time or fill the quietness. Rather, it is something to listen to in order to reflect your mood or maybe even put you in a better one. In this way, music is a form of self-expression, and a way we can form our own individual identities.
Cole Dougherty ’22 is not only extremely interested in listening to music, but he also creates his own music that he puts on SoundCloud. Dougherty explains how artists try to create lyrics that people can relate to: “Whatever mood the chords I compose suggest is the mood in which I write my lyrics in. I then take out my G2 pen and my moleskine notebook—writing on pen and paper is the easiest way to convey what I’m feeling for the song. Sometimes my lyrics are about things in real life, but I always try to write things that people will be able to feel.”
For those who are more into mainstream music and prefer listening to only pop music, it may not be for the reasons you believe. Grace Riley ’22 speaks on the topic of music and listening to pop music, saying, “Music can completely change my mood. I like listening to what’s ‘in’ because you can learn more about an artist that way and can relate to them. Artists have the ability to describe everything you’re thinking and feeling, even though you’ve never met them before. They can put into words what you’re feeling.”
Listening to pop music does not always have to be for the same reasons that everyone else listens to that genre—after all, it is called popular music for a reason.
The concern comes with the lack of exposure that pop music creates, specifically for the teens and young adults of our society. There is so much music that people do not get exposed to because they never put in the effort to listen to anything else besides pop music.
Embrace the true meaning of music and how listening to music can benefit your life in more than the ways to which you may be accustomed. Let it help your mood and give you something to relate to, but more than that, do not be afraid of having a music taste different from everyone else.