
Catholic Music Consulting
Collaborating with parishes to achieve excellence
in liturgical and devotional music.
80% OF CATHOLICS
say music is an important part of their experience of the Mass…
Music invites an evangelistic encounter with Jesus Christ in the Mass. Yet music is a common factor in people leaving a parish.
The Vigil Project’s mission is to expand the conversation around Catholic music to every moment of the Catholic journey, flowing from the Mass into the day-to-day devotional life of Catholics. Many parishes attempt to cram the full musical expression of the Church into one hour on Sunday mornings, leaving a music ministry overextended and parishioners battling over their musical preferences.
We help parishes rebuild excellence in their worship to restore a sense of unity in their music. We come alongside pastors in their unique context to help them discern how best to build a local culture of devotion and refine their parish’s sacred music to meet the visions cast by the Second Vatican Council. From offering practical musical training to guiding a renewal of prayer, we’re ready to journey in relationship with your music ministry.
The next round of cohort and consulting begins Winter 2025. Get in touch (or click below) to learn more today.
COMMON QUESTIONS FROM PASTORS:
The parish is the heartbeat of the Catholic Church and the heartbeat of our work. While every parish is unique, we encounter many similar challenges and questions from pastors around the world. Here are some real questions we often hear:
PARISH CONSULTING APPROACH
As a pastor, you may feel far out of your depth in reviving music at your parish. Perhaps the music has been the same for a long time, or the choir is dwindling in numbers and ability as the core membership ages. Maybe you’ve sensed a deficit in the lyrical and theological quality of music in your hymnal. Or perhaps you tried making a change and received a deluge of complaints. This is where we – at The Vigil Project – thrive: we love working with pastors to implement a vision for liturigcal music, help musicians and parishioners through uncomfortable feelings about a musical shift in the Mass, and develop locally the skills to select and execute truly beautiful, authentically Catholic liturgical music.
Phase 1: Immerse
We want to understand your community, the pastoral vision for music, and how we can work together to get there. Beginning with pastoral meetings, we will evaluate, survey, and talk with key leaders in your parish’s music ministry. We come alongside you to pray and discern what obstacles stand between your music ministry today and what the Lord is calling it to be tomorrow.
Deliverables:
Pastoral meetings
Key leader meetings
Trust-building meetings with music ministers
Parish-wide survey on music
Written report and recommendations for next steps
Phase 2: Shift
We don’t use a “by the book” mentality in serving parishes. We target key areas of growth for your unique music ministry, from growth in musical skill or liturgical knowledge to helping musicians discern musical selections for each moment. We come to your parish for a curated three-day retreat: a chance for your music ministry to pause, grow in relationship and begin to work toward a pastoral vision for your parish’s music.
Deliverables:
3-day retreat with our team and your music ministry
Setting the pastoral vision, laying a spiritual foundation, and beginning to strive for excellence together
Resources to develop parishioner understanding of music
Follow-up resources for retreatants
Phase 3: Implement
Following our in-person retreat weekend, we work with you to provide short-term resources for targeted growth and healing, and a long-term strategy for your music ministry. We’ll help establish effective leadership, develop training resources, and set the course for a music ministry that prays well and serves skillfully.
Deliverables:
Regular strategic meetings with pastor and key music ministers
Written music ministry plan to guide the next year of ministry
Online & in-person training and resources tailored to the needs of your music ministry’s continued learning and spiritual growth
Online comunity access to engage with parishes and musicians around the globe
ONLINE MENTORING SMALL GROUP
Perhaps, as a pastor or music director, you desire a change in your liturgical music, yet you sense (and have heard from others) that the issue is too complex to handle well. Maybe you feel ill-equipped in knowledge of what the church says on music, or don’t know how to communicate well with your musicians. At The Vigil Project, we often encounter and work with priests, parish administrators, and music directors in these very same scenarios. Over six months, we’ll spend time journeying with a small group of parishes (limited to just 10) to train them on the Church’s vision for music, give them confidence in communicating a vision, help solve real-life scenarios they experience with their music ministers, and develop a grounded local vision for the music ministry with actionable steps to implement it over time.
Weekly Zoom call with The Vigil Project
Hear from other pastors and music directors with similar music ministry situations
Full access to our online Catholic musician training platform
Ability to add targeted workshops to train musicians in key skills.
FREE 1-HOUR EXPLORATORY CALL
Have questions about music ministry? Not sure where to start?
We’re happy to help, whether you decide to partner with us or not! Over the course of a FREE one-hour call, we’ll pray with you and explore together what’s going on in your parish’s music ministry. You can use this time to seek advice or ask specific questions, or we can simply guide you through an exercise in evaluating music in your parish.

OUR CREDENTIALS
The parish is the heartbeat of the Catholic Church and the heartbeat of our work as we’ve served over 400 parishes in recent years. We regularly host Catholic Musician Retreats and regional workshops, and lead a college-level formation residency at Christ the King at SLU Baton Rouge. We are music presenters and music programming consultants for the National Eucharistic Congress in 2024. Explore the organizations we’ve served and partnered with below:
Focus Conferences
Exodus 90 Men’s Summit
Legatus Summit
Hallow Summit
National Eucharistic Congress
Fullness of Truth Conferences
NFCYM Conferences
Abbey Youth Festival
Abbey Faith and Music Festival
Southwest Youth Conference
Flourish Ecumenical Conference
NPM Conference
March for Life
Life Teen Events
Archdiocese of New Orleans
Archdiocese of Mobile
Archdiocese of Chicago
Archdiocese of Indianapolis
Archdiocese of Seattle
Archdiocese of Modena
Archdiocese of Vienna
Diocese of Venice
Diocese of Raleigh
Diocese of Lake Charles
Diocese of El Paso
Diocese of Winona-Rochester
Diocese of Syracuse
Diocese of Fargo
Theology of the Body Institute
Worship Academy Vienna
Catholic Music Initiative (CMI)
Source & Summit
The Word Among Us
The Hagios Study
Franciscan University of Steubenville
Ave Maria University
Loyola University of New Orleans
St. Francis University
EWTN
Salt & Light
Shalom World
TESTIMONIALS
“Their voices are anointed, there is no doubt that the Lord works through every single note they play and sing. TVP is truly an example of service and love with a versatile style.”
“I have worked closely with The Vigil Project, and we have planned multiple True Presence Nights that were offered across the Archdiocese of New Orleans. I was the presider and witnessed firsthand the value these events brought to our community, especially after the impacts of Covid-19 and being separated from our communities for so long. These events have been a tremendous blessing to the parishes in the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and I believe they will be to yours as well. ”
MORE ABOUT OUR TEAM
We are a collective of truly Catholic liturgical and devotional musicians
We hold to the orthodox teachings of the Church and are well-versed in liturgical documents on music
Our staff have decades of experience touring as devotional musicians, as well as serving in myriad leadership roles in parishes
We don’t promote any one genre of Catholic music; rather we promote excellence and beauty as the pillars of our work, and help parishes become musical discerners of the moment,
We are versed in many styles of music, including: praise & worship, sacred hymnody, gregorian chant, instrumental music, and more.
Our network extends to musicians and experts with specialized skills on key topics, making it easy to pull in support for each parish’s unique needs.
Let’s work together
Let’s start a conversation! Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly!