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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Red Mass 2021 Published: Friday, October 1, 2021 Let me share with you a secret that has given me a great deal of peace when I have had to deal with difficult, painful situations. I draw on that last gift of the Holy Spirit (fear of the Lord) in this way: I remind myself consciously that the only one I have to please is the Lord. |
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26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, September 26, 2021 Jesus doesn't want us to go around cutting off body parts we used to sin with, and besides, we sin with our brains: that's where we choose evil. What he's saying is that if you think that's bad, wait until you see hell. The stakes are that high, and so if we're smart, we'll do everything possible to avoid its eternal flames. |
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25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Saturday, September 18, 2021 Who are the people who have had the most positive impact on your life? I’ll bet they are the people who have sacrificed themselves the most for you. And how did they change you — by coercion or by persuasion? |
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24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, September 12, 2021 There are difficult things in life and that suffering, which is the price of faithfulness, when freely embraced, can be redemptive, in part because it forces us to live for something bigger than ourselves; true to the best that is in us. |
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Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Church Published: Sunday, September 12, 2021 Mary humbly accepted us in exchange for the Son of God, thus showing us again that true greatness lies in self-sacrifice. That means trusting God, living by his standards, and embracing suffering like Mary did when that is what fidelity to him requires. |
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25th Anniversary Mass of MCP, CMST Sisters' Service Published: Saturday, September 11, 2021 You have dedicated 25 years — the best years of your life — to building the Kingdom of God here in Arkansas. And during this time you have grown not only in gray hair, but also in wisdom and holiness. |
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23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, September 5, 2021 Anything less than a full response to the one who gave his whole life for us is sort of an insult, don't you think? I'd certainly hate to have to defend mediocrity before the judgment seat of God! Sins of omission, the things we fail to do — God knows what he has given you and it's from that he expects a return. |
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Mass with Seminarians 2021 Published: Monday, August 2, 2021 And like me, you too are swimming against the current. I swam against the current of a flood of priests leaving the ministry — the Church was in crisis and people thought I was crazy to get on board what they thought was a sinking ship. What they didn’t know was that Jesus was at the helm. |
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18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, August 1, 2021 Jesus explains: "I myself am the Bread of Life. No one who comes to me shall ever be hungry, no one who believes in me shall ever thirst again.” The symbol of the manna is fulfilled in Jesus. Eat manna and you live one day longer, eat the Bread of Life and you live forever! |
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17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Saturday, July 24, 2021 When we mature ungrateful for all God’s blessings, and forgetful of all he has done for us, we can easily begin to imagine that everything is now on us; that our successes and failures are all our own doing, that we have to provide for ourselves at all times. So we end up forgetting about our ongoing dependence on God and others for meaning and purpose and all the other important things in life. |
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Arkansas Catholic Charismatic Conference 2021 Published: Friday, July 23, 2021 St. Bridget of Sweden was one of the great mystics of the Middle Ages, such a great figure in her time that in 1999 St. John Paul II named her one of the patron saints of Europe. And yet how many of you know anything much about her? You know, a “mystic” is one of the things that they called charismatics in the Middle Ages. |
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16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, July 18, 2021 You parents are shepherds of the flock, of the family God has entrusted to your care. But again, Jesus is the true shepherd of your family. He’s the one who can keep you united and lead your family where you need to go, which will happen only if you make Jesus the very center of your marriage, accepting his leadership in the life of your family — thus making your marriage a continual encounter with God in your self-sacrificing love for each other and in your generous openness to bringing new life into the world. |
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75th Anniversary of Sr. Marcella Schmalz, OSB Published: Sunday, July 11, 2021 Today we are gathered to celebrate our 101-year-old jubilarian, Sister Marcella Schmalz, who this year marks 75 years respectively serving the Lord in religious life; 46 years of which as a founding member of St. Scholastica’s daughter house, St. Benedict’s in Canyon, Texas. |
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14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, July 4, 2021 The people of Nazareth dishonored him with ridicule. We would never do that, knowing what we know about him. But we could dishonor him with empty words of praise unless we take his message seriously and apply it to our lives. |
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2021 Priest Jubilarian Mass Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 We preach the “exaltation” of the cross of Jesus not to exalt suffering in itself, but rather because it is our greatest proof of just how completely God loves us. This cross points to a God who participates in human suffering as a fellow sufferer. |
