Sacred Heart Students Connect Popular Music with Spirituality

Sacred Heart University students, staff and faculty learned they can find spirituality in popular music at a recent Contemporary Catholic Conversations event.

David Nantais, adjunct professor of philosophy and religious studies at the University of Detroit Mercy in Michigan, spoke in the Frank and Marisa Martire Business & Communications Center forum on “Rock ‘n’ Roll Testimony: Finding the Sacred in the Guitar, Bass and Drums.”

Nantais, who also is director of mission and community benefit at St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia, MI, asked audience members to name songs that were meaningful to them. A student called out “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac. Nantais played the first several seconds of the song and the crowd sat silently and listened to Stevie Nick’s melodic voice. The student explained the song reminded her of her mother, who often played it whenever they were in a “bad spot.” Nantais nodded his head. He said music has the power to be cathartic, transcendent, vigorous, joyful and much more.

Nantais’s passion for music and his strong faith led him to write the book Rock-A My Soul. “I thought there had to be a connection between the music I loved and the faith I loved,” he said. Growing up with positive Catholic experiences, his religion brought him nothing but joy, and music evoked similar emotions in him. This realization dawned when he was 10 years old, playing ping-pong in his cousin’s basement. The song “What I Like About You” by the Romantics came on the radio, and its beat immediately changed his mood. Faith and music were the only two things that could make his mood “do a 180,” Nantais said.

Frisson, a strong feeling of excitement or fear, is often what people feel when they connect with a song. Nantais said it’s no surprise that when you hear your favorite song, you often feel a chill or get goosebumps. Your mind and body are responding to something you find meaningful, he said. 

A recent New York Times Magazine article featured the top 25 songs that matter. Nantais said all the songs on the list, from an old tune by Bruce Springsteen to a newer song by Ariana Grande, have meaning and spirit.

At the end of Nantais’s hour-long talk, audience members shared their thoughts and memories of music. One person related how her father finds enjoyment in the upbeat Rolling Stones song “Start Me Up,” even though he’s a quadriplegic and can’t dance to it. “It’s his theme song,” she said. “He plays purposefully…even though he’s not dancing, he is really feeling it.” Another audience member shared a story about the first time she heard the lyrics to the Jackson Five’s “I’ll Be There.” To her, she said, it was God saying He’ll always be there.

If you are unable to view the photos above, visit the Dan Nantais Flickr gallery.