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.
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Third Sunday of Easter, Year C Published: Sunday, May 1, 2022 He rehabilitates Peter, getting him to profess three times that he loves Jesus to erase the three times he had denied even knowing him, and then he entrusts to Peter the care of his flock (the Church) going forward. |
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Divine Mercy Sunday 2022 Published: Sunday, April 24, 2022 We gather for this Mass of hope and healing, we pray for those who have suffered the grave injustice of sexual abuse by clergy and others in our Church and society. And we commit ourselves to doing all in our power to set things right: to help victims from the past and to work hard to make sure that these crimes never occur again. |
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Easter Vigil 2022 Published: Saturday, April 16, 2022 By cooperating with the power of God’s grace, you can overcome all those inner fears and insecurities that prevent you from really dying to yourself so as to live fully for God. Jesus has set us free and enabled us to face our fears and bear our own crosses courageously so as to then wear a crown, sharing fully ourselves in the fruits of Jesus’ victory. |
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Good Friday of the Lord's Passion 2022 Published: Friday, April 15, 2022 On Good Friday we discover that the cross is salvific, including the crosses in our own lives, what cause is there for anger there? If Jesus, who is without sin, embraced the cross with sacrificial love, who are we to resent the adversities with which God sees fit to bless us, and indeed, save us? |
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Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper 2022 Published: Thursday, April 14, 2022 Footwashing on the other hand, is unlike the Eucharist and the priesthood in as much as it has to do with a mandate rather than a sacrament — hence Maundy Thursday. And the mandate is not about washing feet per se, but rather a command that we undertake acts of humble, selfless service as symbolized by the washing of feet. |
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Chrism Mass 2022 Published: Monday, April 11, 2022 Brother priests, I want you to know how grateful I am for you. I should express this more often. I am forever bragging about you. Unlike some other dioceses, there are no real divisions among us. It is clear that you like each other and support each other, and that you support me in my efforts — for which I am very grateful. Not every bishop can say that. |
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Palm Sunday 2022 Published: Sunday, April 10, 2022 Arrested as a blasphemer, condemned as an insurrectionist, still hailed as king but now only in mockery by his torturers. No more cloaks on the ground to honor him, now they strip him of his clothing to dishonor him. |
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Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C 2022 Published: Sunday, March 27, 2022 God is throwing a banquet and wants to see his Church packed with returning prodigals, our brothers and sisters. And we have a choice: rejection or compassion, a choice that may well determine whether we get admitted to the banquet ourselves. By the measure we measure we will be measured. |
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Third Sunday of Lent, Year C 2022 Published: Sunday, March 20, 2022 The kingdom of God is open to everyone, but there are standards; conditions of membership. Jesus' hope is that once we know the rules and what the job expectations are — and the consequences of non-compliance — that we'll get with the program right away. |
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Ash Wednesday 2022 Published: Wednesday, March 2, 2022 Ashes are what’s left behind when smoke ascends to heaven; where we all hope to ascend one of these days. Ashes are the residue left behind by the purifying fire, the trials and tribulations of this earthly life. Ashes do eventually become soil and indeed fertilize the soil. That’s why some farmers burn their fields and plow under the remaining stubble and ashes. But unlike ordinary dirt, ashes also tell a story of previous life. |
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2022 Arkansas Catholic Men's Conference Published: Saturday, February 12, 2022 We have also received God's providence: through our parents, relatives, teachers, priests, all the people through whom God has provided for us all these years — and above all through Jesus — and he continues to feed our souls with miraculous bread, bread not only multiplied into more loaves, not merely changed in quantity as in today's Gospel, but actually changed in its very nature, miraculously changed into the very body and blood of Jesus for us to eat and drink, and through which we receive eternal life. |
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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C 2022 Published: Sunday, February 6, 2022 Like me and like Peter, you too may feel unworthy as a sinner, or incapable due to personal limitations, but that's no excuse. When the Lord calls, the only proper answer is: "Yes Lord! Yes, I'll do whatever you ask in faith." |
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Catholic Arkansas Sharing Appeal 2022 Published: Saturday, February 5, 2022 Last year, despite the pandemic and the attendant financial uncertainty that many of us experienced, you were amazingly generous to our CASA appeal, and today I come before you to ask you to do the same again this year. |
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Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C 2022 Published: Sunday, January 30, 2022 Those who think outside the box often threaten those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo — oil producers prefer gas-guzzlers because they’d sell much less gas if we all drove hybrid cars — and the people of Nazareth felt so threatened and infuriated by Jesus’ message that their enemies were included in God’s plan of salvation that they tried to kill the messenger, by throwing him over a cliff. |
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Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C 2022 Published: Sunday, January 23, 2022 There were many stages of composition and many writers contributed to the final result. God was the author of the events described, which is different from our concept of authorship. He didn’t write the text with pen and paper, but he is its source, and he guided its development, and so is in that sense the author — the intellectual author of the Bible. It reveals his will and contains his promises — and that’s how it should be read. |
