As regular readers know, I've shared music on the blog practically since Webster invited me aboard. I don't recall how it happened, but I remember when he posted a YouTube video in a post and I thought, "wow, that is cool. I wonder if Webster would let me post some music videos too?" We did a post together in January of last year, and by then the fledgling project got off the ground in earnest.
Blah, blah, blah, Frank...whoop-de-do, right? Music for Mondays, big deal. I know, I know, I go over the top with it sometimes, and other times I barely even add liner notes. But the thing is, though I'm not gifted with musical ability myself, I really enjoy music, and respect it as an artform. And though the MfM posts published here run the gamut from Chant to Classical, the bulk of my posts have been written around popular music. And for the most part, rock n' roll.
So why am I boring all of you about this late on Tuesday night? Because I just found out about a book that I simply must read, and I discovered a blog that I've just added to the "Cool Links" list and, à la Mark Shea at his Dark Lordly best, I will command that you all go investigate it at once. First the book.
No, I haven't read it! I only just found out about it. It's written by a fellow named David Nantais, a guy with a resume about a mile wide and two miles deep. David thought he wanted to be a Jesuit priest, see, and he studied at the seminary preparing to follow that vocation. He got married back in 2008 and, well, go look at his CV for all the details.
I saw a brief sketch of a review on his recently published book entitled Rock-A My Soul. Here's what Fr. James Martin, SJ (author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything) had to say about the author and the book,
David Nantais is, hands down, one of the best young writers on Christian spirituality: inviting, inventive, and insightful. In Rock-a My Soul, he offers a fascinating look at how rock music, often thought to be a threat to faith, can actually support and nourish one’s spiritual life. If you’re a music fan, Nantais, a rock musician himself, will show you how the music you love can draw you closer to God. If you’re a believer, Nantais will serve as an experienced guide to modes of experiencing God that you might never have considered. And if you’re a music fan and a believer, well, then this book will, as the band said, rock you.
Operators are standing-by, order your copy today! This is exciting news for me, because I love rock, and of course, I love the Rock of our Faith even more. As my MfM posts will attest, I've always seen the complimentarity between the yearning of human beings, and how our deepest longings are often reflected in contemporary music. Jesus, indeed, goes mainstream through music.
And now, here is your next assignment me hearties: go check out this neat blog called Rock and Theology that I just happened upon. I would tell you more about it, but I'm too busy letting you know that it even exists to have spent much time there myself. It all started when,
a theologian friend sent me a link from “Whispers in the Loggia,” to a story about Notker Wolf, then the head of the Benedictines, a Catholic religious order. There was Wolf, strumming an electric guitar with right hand, left hand a-swashing the neck forth and back, face full of focus and a drum kit off his right shoulder. Oh, yes, that’s definitely an atypically liturgical shade of concert orange sidelight shining onto him and the kit, as well. And that cowl—so exceedingly metal! As a cohabitor of Catholicism, rock music, and theology, as a devotee of loud sounds shaken out of guitars under auburn lights, I could hardly breathe. What face of rock was this? I felt in this picture a strange, uncontrollable, entrancing, and consoling beckoning.
Whaat? The head of the Benedictines, Dom Notker Wolf is/was a rocker?! That alone is just another reason why I am Catholic. Then I found out that the blog is part of a project sponsored in part by Fordham University, etc, etc, and there is a boatload of contributors, including David Nantais, all of which have advanced degrees in music and are rockers in their spare time.
Look, I'd love to chat about this with you some more, but I have to head on over to Rock and Theology for a little bit of spiritual rock n' roll therapy. Feel free to join me!
