Some discernment over my parish’s communications media in the works for this summer. One of the proposals, which has been dismissed wherever else I’ve ever served, has a surprising ally: incorporating the weekly worship aid into the parish bulletin. Our deacon brought this to me from the cathedral:
Sit in the purple chair and render judgment. If you use a printed worship aid, would this be a good idea?
In other places, people sitting in other chairs didn’t like the notion. There would be no parting gift for the people as they left church. If the homily was boring, people would read the rest of the bulletin instead of listening.
I’m feeling neutral on this, perhaps surprisingly so.
Catholic Sensibility 
Works best when the worship aid is in the front of the material.
It is truly wonderful at St. James Cathedral, Seattle! Allows us to use wide breadth of material, include minor adjustments for rites within Mass, and sends people home with the means to reflect on, perhaps even play and sing, the music along with the rest of the bulletin. The very brief spoken announcement from the cantor at the beginning of each Mass and the spoken announcement from the presider before the final blessing make it a great approach! See e.g., https://www.stjames-cathedral.org/Bulletin/Bulletins.aspx
18 pages and no ads. Impressive. And so much space on the worship pages. Our cathedral’s, imaged above, crams it all into two
Boston’s cathedral has a separate worship aid for its first and last Sunday morning Mass, because it’s not used for every Mass (not for Spanish nor Alexandrian Ge’ez Rite Mass). The bulletin is English & Spanish.
Click to access 13OrdC2022HC.pdf