The whole aim of our work is to serve Christ with the heart of David, becoming men and women after God's own heart ourselves, and to encourage and equip others to do the same. This mission is upheld by our commitment to three pillars.

Skillful hands and integrity of heart When St. Paul writes “Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others” (Col. 3:23), he is not instructing us to have an emotional experience. Neither does he suggest that having one’s heart in the right place should justify poor work. In fact, we believe he means quite the opposite. The skill of David's hands, both as a shepherd wielding a sling, and as a musician wielding a harp flowed from the integrity of his heart. He desired to serve God with the gifts which God gave him, and so he refined and honed them to the best of his ability, so that he might be adequate to the call. Sacred art demands the marriage of skillful hands with integrity of heart, and it is the concordance, not competition, of these qualities which is the foundation of our ministry. Skillful hands without integrity of heart leads to performances which are self-indulgent, ultimately at the expense of the real beauty and authenticity of the work. Likewise, integrity of heart without the necessary preparation or technical ability will inevitably fail to express the beauty which desires to be made known. We strive to make Christ known through beauty and the word, with skillful hands and integrity of heart.

While music can and should be used to teach, foster communities, and elevate the sacred liturgy, sacred scripture also teaches us that God works powerfully through music itself. An important example of this is how the demons afflicting Saul would flee whenever David played the harp: “Whensoever the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, David took his harp, and played with his hand, and Saul was refreshed, and was better, for the evil spirit departed from him” (1 Samuel 16:23). Without failing to recognize that music must be written and performed according to its purpose, whether it be educational, liturgical, or recreational, we place a special emphasis on the intrinsic power of music and beauty to lead us towards a transformative encounter with the Triune God, who is himself the source of all truth, goodness, and beauty. Recognizing that all true beauty serves as a kind of window through which we see God’s beauty, we seek to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ most especially through true, transcendent beauty.

We believe that the Psalter, or the book of Psalms, is a timeless, definitive model for Christian song. For this reason, our work is primarily inspired by the Psalms: we pray the psalms publicly and privately, we teach about the psalms, and we write music in the spirit of the psalms. Because the psalms lie at the heart of the Liturgy of the Hours, we also promote this liturgical prayer, especially among the laity in families and parishes. But why are the psalms so important? While this is by no means an exhaustive list, there are three main reasons that the psalms are central to our mission. First, because the book of Psalms draws together the entirety of sacred scripture into a single synoptic vision which is at once poetic, emotive, and deeply messianic. In other words, to know the psalms is to know the story of salvation as a whole, and to come to understand our own place in God’s redeeming work. The second reason is that the psalms form us, like King David, into men and women after God’s own heart. By bringing our prayer into conformity with the prayer of David, we also bring our hearts into conformity with his. By learning to pray like David, we learn to love like David. Finally, the psalms teach us to respond to the full range of human experiences with faith in God’s love, goodness, and providence. This is especially true for painful experiences. Appropriately, the majority of the psalms are psalms of lament, as the author expresses the piercing sorrow of betrayal, abandonment, isolation, grief, persecution, and spiritual desolation. At the same time, he never forgets God’s love and covenant faithfulness, and always brings his grief back to trust in God’s promises. In other words, the psalms show us how to fulfill St. Paul’s command to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)