Music is a God-given gift and essential to our Catholic faith. Yet, research found that only 50% of Catholics are satisfied with the music they experience at Mass (Pew Research 2023). In fact, 74% of Catholics select a place of worship based on music (US Catholic Magazine).
Music consumption today is more isolating and divisive than it was a generation ago, with the average listener spending 25 hours per week consuming music in headphones.
Where music is meant to "bring pious joy, sweet consolation and spiritual progress to Christian families" (Pope Pius XII, 1955), it now tends to divide parishes and households on the dividing lines of subjective preference.
How Can The Institute Help?
Through our experience touring as The Vigil Project, we have walked alongside parishes and musicians as they confront modern challenges in music ministry. From our discoveries, they formed the Vigil Institute to develop consulting, instruction, and resources to bring this help to others. We've even developed these resources for families, as joint household practices of prayer and singing have been found essential to transmitting religion to children (University of Münster, (2025).
In short, our work serves the church to discover all facets of the impact of music and music ministry programs.
Music is a constant invitation to believers and to all people of good will to work hard to give humanitya future rich in hope.
- Pope Benedict XVI
THE SCOPE OF OUR WORK
While there are many wonderful resources and organizations focused on raising the bar of liturgical excellence, the vision and work of Vigil Institute is more holistic. Every person that comes to Mass on Sunday —from the music director to the back-row parishioner — lives an integrated life, where music is not just experienced on Sunday morning but is consumed and prayed with throughout every moment of every day. Our work explores the integrated life of Catholics, and helps to frame how we perceive and engage with music in each of these areas.
The Parish & Diocese
As the heartbeat of the church, the parish is our primary mission field. Our work focuses on restoring the role of sacred music in the Mass (chant, stable hymnody, antiphons, polyphony) and creating a lane for devotional prayer in the culture of the parish. Our approach is always an invitation and never an imposition, accompanying bishops, pastors, parishioners, and musicians in discovering, themselves, the beauty of music in the life of prayer.
The Home
Most Catholics do not have a say in what happens musically at their parishes, yet they also don’t go and create a culture of music in their home that reflects their hopes for beauty and excellence at the parish. We work with partner organizations to resource the sung prayer of the home and teach families to encounter God through music. From releasing over a dozen devotional albums to teaching families how to chant the liturgy of the hours with Gregorian tones, we cover the full scope of music in the everyday life of the domestic church.
The Missionary Field
What role does music play in evangelization and missionary proclamation? While this intersects with the parish and home (where music can certainly be an attractor to the faith or significantly turn someone away from an interest in Catholicism), there is also a point to ensuring that missionaries are equipped to utilize music to proclaim truth, goodness, and beauty. Our Institute and formational work focuses in these refined areas to ensure that just one well-formed musician can have an outsized impact on a local community.
The School
Music is essential to forming the whole person in the scope of a Catholic education. We advise schools to move beyond a performance-based curriculum to instill music into the everyday classroom experience. From incorporating a Ward Method curriculum in the music room, to building a culture of praise and sung prayer in the classroom, The Vigil Project seeks to elevate music beyond simply a subject of study.
IN NEED OF SUPPORT
We recognize that one musician typically can serve about 5,000 people in the course of a year. When we form just one musician well — a holistic formation in prayer, intellect, and technical ability — it has a visible and outsized impact on the liturgical and communal life of Catholics in a community.
The functions of Vigil Institute are largely supported by individual donors across the United States. We are a 10-year-old 501(c)3 nonprofit without endowment or major foundation support, largely due to the niche focus of our mission and unabashed religious affiliation with Catholicism. It takes approximately $400,000 every year to fund our mission, and an increasing amount to keep up with the growth and demand we’re experiencing from parishes and partner organizations.
If God is calling you to get involved, consider making a donation below, or contact Andrew Goldstein (Director of Mission Advancement): agoldstein@thevigilproject.com
THE INSTITUTE'S IMPACT
So much talking and writing goes into the Catholic project of offering God beautiful liturgy. But who stops and just prays for the liturgists? Who bends their life around in order to listen to their conflicts and to care for and gently guide them? THIS is a missing link that The Vigil Project provides.
Sr. Mary Ruth O'Brien
Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia
I have been longing for this freedom for years, especially in this intimate, vulnerable gift from God that is my art. Following the retreat I went on with The Vigil Project, I now have a boldness and a fearlessness that I have not experienced previously, and it all came from the truth that I belong here, with The Vigil Project and in the Church.
Ben Batalla
Composer & Music Director
Having The Vigil Project present at the 10th National Eucharistic Congress was a blessing. Their heart for the Church, along with their talent and worship expertise, elevated every session they participated in. Further, joining Vigil on their Way of the Star tour gave me a glimpse into an even more unique ministry. I cannot think of any other apostolate serving the Church quite like them. Their collective gifting is only matched by their selflessness and desire to share the love of Jesus through music, fellowship, and prayer. Their passion for ministry is contagious, and I am forever grateful for the opportunities I've had to serve alongside them. I look forward to seeing The Vigil Project's continued impact on the lives of many for years to come.
Kris Frank
National Eucharistic Congress
Music Ministry Boot Camp was a life-changing experience for me as a Catholic, a musician, and a leader. It gave me the formation and technical tools I needed to ultimately move with confidence into full-time music ministry and serve the Christ the King LSU community well. It is an ongoing blessing to work alongside the same people from The Vigil Project that helped form me for ministry.
Bryce Pellegrin
Louisiana State University