Worship Aid
  • musicman923
    Posts: 239
    Hi Everyone,

    I have been asked to have worship aid booklets for holy week by my pastor. I have never done any worship aids before and don't even know where to begin. I was hoping I could make them on my iPad/old white Mac. But I not sure how to begin.

    If anyone has temples they would be willing to share, I would appreciate it! I don't even know how to put a refrain into the aid, so I'm a very basic beginner!!!

    Please give me some starting points!

    Thanks.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Almost any program will end up working for you- tools do not make the artist. So someone on here who uses Macs can suggest some layout program or another that will work for you.

    Here some suggestions to guide your design:

    -Pick one font. Font mixing can work, but if you're a beginner, stick with one.
    My personal favorite for worship material is Garamond. It was used in the Simple English Propers, and a variant was used in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Others here will surely chime in with their favorites.

    -Keep it simple.

    -Do not center-justify:
    --large blocks of text (more than two lines)
    --anything intended to be read or sung out-loud

    -Do not italicize:
    --large blocks of text
    --anything intended to be read or sung outloud

    -Do not use artwork (clipart, lineart, photos). This can be done well, but if you are a beginner, it is best to avoid it.

    -Do not be afraid of white space.

    -Do not attempt to be clever.

    -Make sure that someone who doesn't know what is going on would be able to follow. Worship bulletins can either be a tool for evangelism or a stumbling block.

    -Black ink, white paper.

    -Bi-fold, like a booklet. Trifold can confusing. Unfolded makes crinkly noises.
    Thanked by 4jpal Ralph Bednarz MarkThompson latebloomer13
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    +1 for Adam's comments. As you get more accomplished with it, you can branch out into things like clip art or multiple fonts, but start simple. Better to be simple and clear than fancy and hard to use.
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    Does anyone have a program they gave to the congregation that they would share? I too would like to create something, at least for Good Friday.
  • jpal
    Posts: 365
    Extremely important, at least for me: Learn to use styles. That way if you do the whole program and don't like, for example, the way a certain type of heading looks, you just modify the style and all of them change -- rather than going through the whole document and changing every instance.

    My normal procedure is to put in all or most of the text first (without any formatting), and then go back through and apply styles. Not sure if anyone else does it that way, but that works for me. Depending on where I am and what I'm working on, I have used Pages, Scribus, and Libreoffice.

    If you message me, I can post/send samples in all three of those. I do not have access at the moment.

    Adam's list is great. I often fall short on the "white space" suggestion...and then the program looks very cluttered, your eyes don't know where to go, and so it does indeed become a stumbling block.

    I use two fonts: a sans serif font for headings and rubrics, and a serif font for everything else.

    (I am no expert, so if anyone would point to anything I suggest as "bad" DTP practice, please do...always looking to improve)
    Thanked by 2canadash latebloomer13
  • marajoymarajoy
    Posts: 783
    I actually have some that I made about 5 years ago. If anyone is interested, please PM me your email addy. (I think they're in Word.) While my liturgical understandings have evolved since then (I do not condone everything that is in them,) my pastor at the time had a background in graphic design and gave me some good pointers on making things look "tidy," and so I think the format could be easily used and appreciated by anyone.

    ETA: Adam's suggestions are wonderful, but I would add one thing; I have been told that yellow/cream paper (with black ink) has actually been shown to be the "easiest" to read. (plus, cream paper looks really nice!)
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • Mark HuseyMark Husey
    Posts: 192
    Love it or hate it, it's ours. In an OF form, it's assumed by now that most people will be able to answer the opening dialogue with AND WITH YOUR SPIRIT. Responses with more than a couple of words are best printed out: especially the creed, because usually the priest gets lost. I'm leaving two versions on here: Our Contemporary Mass which may be where most parishes would be: three or four hymns and not much anthem text. I'll also leave our choral tri-fold order of worship, which is a six-sided venture.

    This is a recent contemporary order of worship: even if you don't like the content, you can adapt it to your own style of music (and clip art, which I picked to match the music). -
    Lent 2 C Contemporary 2013.pdf
    917K
    Thanked by 3Andrew Motyka canadash latebloomer13
  • Mark HuseyMark Husey
    Posts: 192
    Attached here is our choral tri-fold order of worship. I feel that you don't need to list everything that is going to happen in the program: Catholics are largely "by rote" and intuitive communities, and things are going to progress and move along because the celebrant knows the Mass....or should. Kyrie.
    Lent 2 C 2013 CHORAL.pdf
    1M
    Thanked by 1Andrew Motyka
  • Ambrosius
    Posts: 49
    Attached is a sample of the kind of thing I prepare each Sunday. It's printed on A3 and folded, but uses two columns per page to increase amount of print area. I include some of the music, using simple Meinrad fonts (downloadable free), which slip into the document like any other font; I stick to the same text-font all the time for clarity and a clean look; I include, by request, the readings (we have a large building, an imperfect p.a. system and sometimes inexpert readers).
    Worship Aid sample.pdf
    363K
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    It doesn't sound like it, but if you plan on using Microsoft Publisher, let me know and I'll send you my Triduum worship aids. We have a photocopier that does all of the folding and stapling - each weekend the worship aid is 2 legal sheets, which gives me 8 "pages". It is better if you are able to get these printed someplace offsite as your colleagues will harbour resentment toward you for occupying the photocopier for days at a time.

    First page is always the Sunday's name, a graphic, and the name of the church. Occasionally a note about something liturgical (i.e. the organ is used only to accompany singing during the season of Lent).
    Second page lists the prelude and has the processional hymn (w/music) and introit text.
    Third page is the Kyrie/Gloria, Psalm response, and Gospel acclamation.
    Fourth page is the offertory hymn (w/music) and/or motet text.
    Fifth page is the Sanctus/Mysterium/Agnus Dei. We just chant the Amen, so no need to print it. If one of these is extremely well known, I don't print it.
    Sixth page is the communio text or the communion antiphon with music plus a refrain to a Psalm or Taize-something or the text of the motet/anthem.
    Seventh page is either a hymn or motet text if its not on the previous page.
    (it takes a long time for 2000 people to receive Communion)
    Back page has the recessional hymn and lists the postlude.

    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 493
    I like Adam's advice.
    In M. Word I lost quality when pasting images from PDFs. These images need to be converted to PNG's through another promgram like GIMP. (thank's Chonak)
    When I vary fonts and formats I try to follow the format style of the "Missalette."
    Text without music seems to be OK with our congregation- maybe even preferred for familiar or predictable melodies.
    Any suggestions on paper quality? cardstock is too heavy.

    The Vatican has their programs online too.
    We created programs to guide the congregation through the confusing Holy Week layouts of OCP's "Today's Missal." A worship aid for the worship aids- you get two hymnals a missallette, a program and a candle. We follow this paradigm. The program also let us include some simple propers, and translate some of the Latin propers that we recycle throuought the week). Last year's programs for our parish:
    Holy Thursday
    Good Friday
    Eater Vigil ( The Offertory is Frisina's, and we could not obtain permission for the score, so we presented it the way the Vatican did in their program-text only).
    Thanked by 1latebloomer13
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,206
    Paper: I use 60-pound white for the inside pages and cover stock for the cover. Cover stock comes in several thicknesses and can be glossy or flat in finish.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Here's a few I have put together for daily Masses with music at my parish.

    http://blog.yankehome.com/liturgy/worship-aids

    The ones with double content on the left and right are designed to be cut in half, making half-sheet leaflets.

    Lately, I've been doing the halfsheet ones, since we now have the VII hymnal (so I don't have to reprint the ordinary every week!)
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Also, as I reread the original post, I doubt you'll be able to do something good on an iPad. Not saying it isn't possible, but it might be much, much easier to do it on a computer. However, if it works out on the iPad, let me know how you did it, because I'd be interested :)
  • musicman923
    Posts: 239
    Okay. I actually got in touch with the guy who does the church website and he will be helping me create the Holy Week booklet! Thanks everyone for all your advice though!! I will come back to it if I ever need to do one on my own!
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