During my years as a parish music director, the latter part of the Easter Season was always one of my favorite times of year. With the peak of the liturgical year now behind us, and as the descent into the quieter summer months ensues, it is an excellent time to reflect on and take inventory of the year, and also to begin some strategic thinking for the year ahead. 

Anyone who has ever worked in a parish office knows what this time of year is also known as: budget season. If she hasn’t already, the business manager will soon be knocking on your door or dropping a proposed budget in your mailbox for the new fiscal year that will begin in July.

It can be tempting simply to coast into the summer—with visions of vacation, conferences, and a break from weekly grind ever in mind—and either to sign-off quickly on a repeat of the previous year’s plans (if you have that luxury), or to tell yourself that you will think about all of the great things you will accomplish next year… later, after a little rest and relaxation. Perhaps while swinging in a lakeside hammock, or on a quiet afternoon when your schedule finally clears up. But surely you will get to it at some point, with all of the downtime that you expect to have in the months ahead.

But we know what usually happens instead: Summer flies by, life happens, you were much busier than you thought you’d be, and before you know it you are back at your desk in the first week of August, staring at your renewal letter from your current liturgical resource publisher, realizing that—yet again—you missed the cancellation deadline that was so subtly (maybe even cleverly?) placed in peak vacation season for most pastors and parish music leaders.

And so you say to yourself, with a sense of guilty regret, that you’ll “just have to wait another year” before taking the step you have been wanting to take for years now: to elevate the liturgy in your parish by making the switch to a better missal or hymnal, and to dive more deeply into the musical riches that the liturgy has to offer, even while saving your parish money in the process.

This article is intended as a guide to help you begin preparing for the new liturgical year now and to explore the many benefits and opportunities that resources from Source & Summit can offer you and your parish in 2025.

Here’s what it will cover:

• What to Expect in Source & Summit Missal 2025

• The Difference Between Standard and Companion Editions

• Accompaniment Books and Digital Support Resources

• How the Digital Platform Can Transform Your Music Program

• How Hassle-Free Licensing Works

• How To Begin Integrating Source & Summit Into Your Existing Program 

• Spanish Music Resources From Source & Summit

• How to Save Money by Signing Up or Renewing Before July 1st

• How to Host a Source & Summit Workshop in Your Diocese

What to Expect in Source & Summit Missal 2025

With Source & Summit Missal 2025, this groundbreaking pew resource will enter its fourth year of publication. And it has matured and gotten better every year. New custom cover art will support the theme of the Missionary Year of the National Eucharistic Revival, and it will once again offer all that parishes around the country have come to expect from Source & Summit: beautiful design, sacred music that is both accessible and timeless, affordability, best-in-class support resources, and peace of mind knowing that you can live without fear of breaking music copyright law.

The Difference Between Standard and Companion Editions

Source & Summit Missal 2025 once again will be available in two different editions: the Standard Edition and the Companion Edition. 

The Standard Edition is a complete pew missal with Sunday readings and daily propers, over 300 hymns, 15 Mass Settings, musical settings of the Mass antiphons, Psalms, and alleluias, the sung Order of Mass, and a rich selection of devotional prayers.

The Companion Edition is a missal companion to your existing hymnal or hymn repertoire. It contains no hymns, but otherwise contains everything in the Standard Edition in addition to the priestly orations (Collect, Prayer over the Offerings, and Prayer after Communion) for Sundays and major feasts, and a broader selection of devotional prayers.

Accompaniment Books and Digital Support Resources

New in 2025, every Source & Summit Missal subscription is eligible to receive a free set of accompaniment books for all of the music contained in the missal. Additional copies of the 3-hole punched hymn packet, Responsorial Psalm and Alleluia book, and Entrance, Offertory, and Communion Antiphon book will also be available for purchase at economical prices.

Once again, a Missal Support plan on the Source & Summit Digital Platform will come for free with every missal subscription, offering best-in-class liturgy preparation tools, access to dynamically configurable music scores for all music in the missal, practice audio recordings and MIDI playback, and the ability to export, print music packets, and share Ordos with your musicians to help them practice and prepare.

Every new subscriber will also receive the Complete Digital Add-On (the equivalent of the Digital Platform Standard plan) for free for the first year, and any missal subscriber can add the Complete Digital Add-On to their missal plan for over 50% off the regular price. With this digital subscription you will have access to everything the Digital Platform has to offer, including support for Daily Mass, multiple users, unlimited templates, role support, an expansive music library, and much more.

How the Digital Platform Can Transform Your Music Program

The Source & Summit Digital Platform is unlike any other digital music and liturgy preparation tool that is currently available. In fact, it is a “liturgy planner,” customizable digital music score library, music suggestion resource, digital resource management system, custom booklet creation tool, dynamic Lectionary, Roman Missal, and Graduale Romanum, and choir management system all in one integrated application.

With this easy-to-use tool in the hands of your musical leadership (whether they are professionals or volunteers) you can confidently begin a gradual process of transition from where your parish is now to where you want it to be in time. This transition can be aided by the possibility of creating custom weekly congregational booklets, which the Digital Platform makes simple and easy. And later in 2024 booklet creation will be easier than ever with the release of a new in-app Booklet Creation feature that will allow you to produce beautiful booklets from any prepared Ordo in minutes.

While the Source & Summit Digital Platform is a first-rate missal support resource, it is also designed to be used as a standalone tool to manage virtually all aspects of your music and liturgy program, at a low cost and with great consolidated value.

How Hassle-Free Licensing Works

The Source & Summit Missal and Digital Platform come with a Hassle-Free Licensing promise that allows you to reprint, livestream, copy, and share all of the music offered in your subscription without the need for any additional licensing fees and without the hassle of weekly music reporting. Many parishes live in fear of accidentally breaking copyright law and of the legal repercussions that might come from it. With Source & Summit you can consider this a thing of the past and can live with peace of mind knowing that all of your music licensing needs are covered with a single subscription.*

How To Begin Integrating Source & Summit Into Your Existing Program 

For most parishes, making any changes to the music sung in the Mass can be a challenging proposition, and for good reason: music affects us all deeply and personally, and it also is one of the most distinctive elements of the liturgy. Unlike building a new church or getting a new tabernacle, where the finished product is complete and on display for all to behold, the development of a parish music program takes time. The most successful renewal efforts typically involve a gradual transition and not a radical and sudden transformation.

Source & Summit resources are created with this reality in mind and designed to help move with your parish at whatever pace you need to take. Here are a few examples of what I mean:

•  Support for Other Missals and Hymnals. The Source & Summit Digital Platform now offers liturgy preparation support for other resources such as OCP Breaking Bread, Music Issue, and Heritage Missal, the St. Michael Hymnal, Ignatius Pew Missal, and with more to come. If you are currently using one of these resources, you can prepare your liturgies with music selections offered by Source & Summit, upload your digital scores from these resources right to the Digital Platform, and then supplement your repertoire gradually with the antiphons, hymns, and mass settings offered by Source & Summit. In time, you can gradually phase out some music as new music is phased in, allowing you to switch to a Source & Summit Missal plan or prepare your own weekly booklets with any of the resources in your library.

• Begin with a Basic Plan. The Source & Summit Basic plan was released in early 2024 and is designed as a stepping stone on your journey to elevate the liturgy and renew your music program. It offers support for other missals and hymnals, access to the essential liturgical texts, the Communion Antiphons of the Source & Summit Missal, and a library of Eucharistic hymns, integrated into a basic form of our innovative liturgy preparation environment. It costs as little as $59/yr ($139/yr for a 2500+ registered families) and as you continue through your implementation process you can upgrade to an Essentials plan to gain access to even more resources and features, and then finally graduate to a Standard plan or a Missal subscription whenever your parish is ready.

• Upgrade your “missalette”. If your parish has a music resource in addition to a seasonal or annual missal resource for Lectionary readings and daily propers, you can switch to the Source & Summit Missal, Companion Edition, and offer your parish access to the sung antiphons of the Mass, additional mass settings, rich extra-liturgical prayers, and more. Simply seeing musical settings of the antiphons amidst the readings can be instructive for your congregation, and as they begin to be sung bit by bit, they will have what they need in front of them to begin singing along and entering into these profound scriptural prayers more fully and deeply.

Spanish Music Resources From Source & Summit

While the Source & Summit Missal contains no Spanish music or texts, the Source & Summit Digital Platform offers a library of Spanish resources that contains over 100 hymns, tone based antiphons with chord symbols and accompaniments for every Sunday, and two mass settings. As with any digital plan, additional Spanish resources can also be uploaded and integrated into your liturgy preparation experience. We have plans to increase Spanish language offerings substantially after the promulgation of the new US Leccionario, which is anticipated in the very near future.

How to Save Money by Signing Up or Renewing Before July 1st

Like any other publisher, our costs increase over time and our missal prices usually need to increase annually as a result. Out of gratitude for your partnership, we will be offering all missal subscribers the opportunity to renew their subscriptions before July 1st and to lock-in 2024 pricing before 2025 pricing takes effect.

New missal subscribers can also take advantage of 2024 pricing before July 1st, and, as an added benefit, your free, first-year Complete Digital Add-On account will begin immediately, allowing you to begin your implementation process right away and to be ready for when your missals arrive prior to Advent.

Additionally, any new 2025 missal subscribers are eligible to receive free 2024 Companion Edition missals immediately for the cost of shipping alone, while supplies last, as a way to help assist you in a gradual implementation process. 

Lock in 2024 Pricing Now

I hope that all of these opportunities will make your transition to Source & Summit as smooth and as easy as possible.

Host a Source & Summit Workshop in Your Diocese

If your parish and any other parishes in your diocese are interested in hosting a training workshop for parish musicians, clergy, or Catholic schools, please contact us to learn more about Source & Summit training programs and to request a custom workshop proposal. I would be glad to come to your diocese to help share the Church’s vision for music in the liturgy and offer practical training to help make it a reality in your parish.

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I hope that this has been a helpful resource for you as you navigate budget season and, yes, even prepare for your much deserved summer break. Please do not hesitate to contact our Parish Support team if we can answer any questions, offer a demo, or prepare a quote. We look forward to partnering with you and to supporting your efforts to elevate the liturgy in your parish.

* Note: Any copyrighted music from other publishers that is uploaded to the Source & Summit Digital Platform must be properly licensed according to the requirements of the copyright holder.