Over the years the feedback we’ve had about the free, contemporary settings of Responsorial Psalms for Sundays and Feast days has been incredibly positive.

We know that these psalms – available as free downloads from our website – have been sung in schools and parishes across the globe. Congregations and music groups love the accessible, singable melodies that help to bring the text of the psalms to life in the context of the Liturgy.

With the introduction of the new Lectionary, the Catholic Church across England, Wales and Scotland now uses the Abbey Psalms & Canticles in the Mass, instead of the long-familiar Grail translation.

Unsurprisingly, lots of folks have been asking if we intend to revise or rewrite our entire catalogue of Responsorial Psalms to accord with this new translation.

The short answer is, “yes”.

The long answer is…

There is a considerable investment of time and resources required on our part to achieve that.

There are about 150 responsorial psalms and variations of responses in the 3 year cycle of Sundays and Feast days. For each psalm we need to:

• Revise or compose the setting for the new Abbey Psalm & Canticles text
• Record the setting to provide the MP3 audio
• Transcribe the setting to produce the PDF melody leadsheet
• Apply for the necessary permissions to publish from the Bishops’ Conference
• Update our website to make the psalm resources available for download.

That approximates to about 10 hours work for each setting. A wapping 1500 hours in total. It’s not a wonder, really, that it took almost 15 years the first time around! ⏳

To create the revised settings for the Abbey Psalms and Canticles translation in a more timely manner, and to continue to make these resources available to the Church for free, we really need your support.

Our Fundraising Goal

If we only took the minimum wage of just over £12 per hour as a benchmark, the cost in human labour will be at least £18,000.

We have set our fundraising goal at a much more conservative £5,000. If we can raise that amount, it will help us prioritise and allocate the time and human resources needed to the make some real headway with this process in the coming weeks and months.

If you, your school, or your parish have found value in this resource over the years, we would be grateful for any financial support you are able to give. However big or small – it will make a huge difference to help us fund this massive rewrite project, and help us to continue to offer these psalms settings as a gift to the Church.

Thank you. And God bless

PS. Many parts of the English-speaking world continue to use the Grail translation in the Liturgy – and those settings will continue to be freely available from our website.