Official Website of the
Catholic Diocese of Little Rock
Bishop Taylor Homily Library
Bishop Anthony B. Taylor celebrates Mass across Arkansas and beyond. This library features the homilies delivered from March 2014 to the present. To listen to earlier homilies, please visit the bishop's Homily Archive.
|
Easter Vigil Mass 2024 Published: Saturday, March 30, 2024 Today is Jesus’ day of victory. It can be our day of victory too. Those who are united with Jesus in likeness to his death will share in a like resurrection. This share in Jesus’ victory begins in this life for those who have been born again in baptism and live already the life of the Kingdom of God. And it continues in eternal life for those who share fully in Jesus’ victory. |
|
Good Friday of the Lord's Passion 2024 Published: Friday, March 29, 2024 Anger implies that God owes us something that he has not delivered. Anger exalts our will over God’s will and certainly does not “hallow” his name. What did Job say after losing practically everything? “The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord!” |
|
Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper 2024 Published: Thursday, March 28, 2024 The opportunity to receive Jesus’ body and blood offered in sacrifice for our salvation was not to be a one-time event at the Last Supper. Jesus appointed his apostles to continue to make him present for future believers in the Eucharist offered in his memory. That is why in every Catholic Church we have an altar of sacrifice; not merely a communion table. |
|
2024 Solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary Published: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 Just like the Holy Family had to flee to Egypt, presumably without authorization, many other Josephs are forced to do the same thing to protect their children and provide for their families today. |
|
2024 Second Sunday of Lent, Year B Published: Sunday, February 25, 2024 If you are not bearing a cross, making sacrifices in order to live for something bigger than yourself, you are not following Jesus because his path to glory leads through Calvary. If you embrace your cross with love, one day you will receive a crown, but otherwise, not. |
|
2024 First Sunday of Lent, Year B Published: Sunday, February 18, 2024 Part of God's power consists in his ability both to respect our freedom to choose evil and then, at the same time, to be able to bring good out of the suffering caused by sin or disasters. God can write straight with crooked lines. So when Jesus's adversaries chose to execute an innocent man, God took this evil act and used it for our salvation. |
|
Ash Wednesday 2024 Published: Wednesday, February 14, 2024 What we do with our life matters. Each of us has a choice: Where do we place our allegiance? The kingdom of this world or the Kingdom of God? |
|
Catholic Arkansas Sharing Appeal 2024 Published: Sunday, February 4, 2024 You too are missionaries — home missioners — and I am so grateful for all your sacrifices and dedicated work spreading the good news of Jesus Christ in your parishes and local communities. |
|
2024 Consecration Day and Religious Jubilarian Mass Published: Saturday, February 3, 2024 Jesus will not calm every storm because sometimes it is the storm itself that serves God's purposes. That's the mystery of the cross. Most of the disciples saved that day from drowning will one day die a martyr's death, perish in a different kind of storm, but a storm nonetheless. |
|
2024 Women of Hope Retreat Published: Saturday, February 3, 2024 It is sometimes hard to discern well what is best for others or even for ourselves. So as we begin this conference, let us make this request of Solomon our own: "Give your servant an understanding heart." |
|
2024 Presentation of the Lord Published: Friday, February 2, 2024 Mary and Joseph were amazed by what they were saying about their child. But it was not all happiness and light. Simeon had to warn Mary about the suffering that would be the cost of our salvation. |
|
Mass for Life 2024 Published: Sunday, January 21, 2024 That Kingdom of God is still at hand, and we sure have our work cut out for us in our task of calling people — indeed our entire nation — to repentance today. And we have not only the God-given right, but more importantly, the God-given obligation, to do so. |
|
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Mass 2024 Published: Saturday, January 13, 2024 Fear and hopelessness lead to abortions to end inconvenient pregnancies and are performed on African American women far more frequently than on white women. Fear also leads to the application of the death penalty, which still today falls more heavily on African Americans and other people of color who languish in our prisons way out of proportion to their percentage of the general population. |
|
Epiphany of the Lord 2024 Published: Sunday, January 7, 2024 This vision of inclusion is at the heart of our call to follow Jesus as Christians and today’s feast challenges us to become agents of inclusion in our own time and in the process discover that freedom from fear that comes from seeking to do God's will rather than our own. |
|
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God 2024 Published: Monday, January 1, 2024 As we begin this New Year at a time when war is raging in the Middle East and Ukraine and in countless other places, we gather on this feast of the Blessed Mother to pray for peace. For true peace, not merely the absence of war. |
