Archbishop Bolen's Homilies

Jun 15

Corpus Christi - Resurrection, live streamed - June 14, 2020

Corpus Christi - Resurrection, live streamed - 2020

The feast of Corpus Christi, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, celebrates the gift that God gives us of Jesus; that gift given to us not only in his earthly life, but a gift that continues in the Eucharist, where the Lord Jesus is really present to us, where we have the gift of receiving him into our lives. In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus say, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever... Whoever eats my flesh...

Apr 11

Archbishop Donald Bolen's Easter Vigil Homily - April 11, 2020

Christ is Risen, friends. Let us rejoice.

Brothers and sisters, tonight’s celebration takes us from chaos and darkness to light and creation, from slavery to freedom, from alienation to covenant, and from death to life. We awoke this morning, many of us, with the thought of Jesus in the tomb, and began the movement from grief to expectation. This morning I found an extraordinary passage, which I later discovered comes from the Orthodox Morning Prayer for Holy Saturday. It reads: “Today a tomb holds him who holds the creation in the hollow...

Apr 9

Archbishop Donald Bolen's Holy Thursday Homily - April 9, 2020

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ of the Archdiocese, and all who are joining us this evening.

At the start of tonight’s Gospel, St John relates: “Having loved his own in the world, he loved them to the end”... he loved them to the end.... Over the course of the next three days, what we are going to see what it means, that Jesus ‘loves us to the end’. Jesus’ dying and rising - the paschal mystery - is where we believe God speaks God’s own self to us most fully. Tonight we enter into this mystery, beginning with the last night of Jesus...

Apr 5

Archbishop Donald Bolen's Homily Palm Sunday

Apr 5

Archbishop Donald Bolen's Palm Sunday Homily - April 5, 2020

Palm Sunday 2020

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, gathered through livestreaming from all corners of the archdiocese, and all who are joining us this morning, we now enter into this holiest of weeks at this strangest of times. Thank you for joining us in this walk from life to death to new life.

It would have been easier, today, if the Gospel we heard at the start of today’s Mass, Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, would have been the only Gospel we heard this morning. We could be...

Mar 30

Archbishop Donald Bolen's Homily Chrism Mass

Mar 29

Archbishop Donald Bolen's Homily March 29, 2020

Mar 22

Archbishop Donald Bolen's Homily | March 22nd, 2020

Jun 19

Homily for the Permanent Diaconate Ordination, 2018

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We gather this evening in great joy, surrounding our candidates for the permanent diaconate with our hopes and prayers.

Before anything else, I would turn our thoughts to my predecessor, Archbishop Daniel Bohan, who had a dream for diaconate in our Archdiocese. For him it was about implementing Vatican II. Bishop Dan felt the need for explicit diaconal ministry in order for the Church to be fully the Church. He brought Brett Salkeld in as Archdiocesan theologian specifically to build and lead a local diaconate formation program. He hoped...

Jan 6

Archbishop Don Bolen's Christmas Homily

Intro: paraphrasing Pope Francis from earlier tonight: Tonight is a night of glory, that glory proclaimed by the angels in Bethlehem and also by us today all over the world. It is a night of joy, because from this day forth, and for all times, the infinite and eternal God is God with us: he is not far off, we need not search for him in the heavens; he is close, he is become human and will never distance himself from our humanity, which he has made his own. It is a night of light: that light, prophesied by Isaiah (cf. 9:1), who said that the...

Jan 1

Archbishop's New Years Day Homily

Today’s celebration marks three important things. It is the Octave of Christmas and the Feast of Mary the Mother of God; it is the World Day of Prayer for Peace; and it is New Year’s Day, a day to give thanks for blessings of the past year and to look forward to the year to come.

At the heart of today’s celebration, from today's gospel, we hear these gentle words of what the shepherds of Bethlehem saw: “they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger.” In Matthew's gospel, which speaks not of shepherds but of magi from the east, there is a similar...

Oct 16

Archbishop Bolen's Installation Mass Homily

Wednesday night in Saskatoon, we celebrated a farewell Mass, and Fr. Lorne Crozon attended the celebration and spoke a few words on behalf of the people of the Archdiocese of Regina. He said “we’re not stealing your bishop. We’re simply taking him back.” Thank you for taking me back. While it was difficult to leave Saskatoon, it is very good to be home, and even as I am being welcomed, it is a blessing to be able to join in welcoming so many other people here tonight, in the Cathedral and in the hall below, from near and far, and others following by live...