The most beautiful sound we’ve ever heard in thirty years of music ministry isn’t a solo voice. It isn’t a perfectly arranged choir, or a packed concert hall, or even three hundred young people filling Symphony Hall with the story of the Passion.

It’s a congregation singing.

It’s the sound we’ve come to appreciate above all other musical sounds that we can make in the liturgy – The heavenly sound of the song of God’s people.

Ordinary people. All ages, all abilities; those who can hold a tune and those who definitely can’t! Opening their mouths and hearts together and singing their faith out loud.

That sound is the one that we’re aiming for every time we lead and animate music for the liturgy, whatever the context.

Writing for the congregation, not the soloist

The vast majority of what CJM MUSIC has written and published over thirty years is music you’ll never hear on a Boyce & Stanley studio album (although there have been several of those over the years).

The mainstay of our 30 year catalogue are Mass settings, Psalm settings, simple congregational prayer songs designed to put the assembly’s voice at the centre.

Not because we don’t value beautiful solo or choral music – we do. But because we’ve always believed that the most important voice in the liturgy is the assembly’s. And so that’s what we’ve written for.

Songs like Bread of Life Truth Eternal – the very first song Mike and I wrote together, before CJM MUSIC even had a name, and still our best-known communion song thirty years later. Gather Gather. Come Let Us Go. Lord By Your Cross. Taste and See. Awake Awake. Father of All. Hail Mary. Magnificat. Song to the Trinity… And so many more.

Songs that have found their way into classrooms, school halls and parish churches across the UK — not because they’re impressive, but because they help people pray.

What thirty years has confirmed

We’ve led music in Catholic schools and parishes for more than three decades. We’ve been on pilgrimage to Lourdes with the Archdiocese of Birmingham for twenty-five years. I’ve played in tiny school chapels and in concert halls.

And the one thing that has only grown clearer with every passing year is that the music which serves the Church best is the music that serves the assembly and helps them to participate more fully and intentionally in the prayer of the Church.

Not the music that showcases the musicians at the front. Not the music that impresses visitors. The music that opens something in the people in the room. The music that helps them find their voice… Because when the voice is open, the heart opens too, and when the heart is open, God can enter in.

That’s what CJM MUSIC has been trying to make for thirty years.

A birthday offer 🎁

This month, as we celebrate our 30th birthday, we’re making the three volumes of our Rejoice and Sing collection available as a special anniversary bundle – our Virtual Songbooks and Mass Settings, together, for just £30, until 30 June.

Thirty years of music that has helped congregations pray and sing their faith in schools and parishes across the UK. For £30.