75th anniversary of Carmelite Monastery 2025

Published: August 3, 2025

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily Aug. 3 at the Carmelite Monastery in Little Rock for its 75th anniversary.

Bishop Taylor

There is a magazine called Vanity Fair and although I have never actually read this magazine, I suspect that its content probably contradicts everything about the consistent witness to holiness and contemplation that our Carmelite sisters have stood for these last 75 years at Carmel.  

Why would you ever buy a magazine about vanity? Many people’s lives in today’s America have become a rat race, but not here at Carmel where the contemplative life prevails. Remember, only rats win rat races. 

Have you ever seen a desert mirage? An illusion that relief is just ahead? The Bible says those who put their trust in the things of this world have been deceived by a mirage that promises what it cannot deliver. Today's first reading says “vanity of vanities, all things are vanity.” 

Our Carmelite sisters give eloquent witness to this truth about the things of this world. The accumulation of possessions is vanity: they will soon belong to someone else, and so our sisters vow poverty. Anxiety about the future is vanity too: you can't know it or control it, so why worry about it? Just do your best and then trust in the Lord. Jesus says riches are especially dangerous because they give us a false sense of security, causing us to forget about God. 

God blessed the man in our Gospel with a rich harvest. You'd think gratitude would draw him closer to God but what happens is the exact opposite. The more secure he feels financially, the more he gives himself over to a life of illusion. Eat, drink and be merry! But God says: “You fool, this very night your life will be taken from you; and all these possessions — to whom will they then belong? Thus it is for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.” And our sisters are rich in what matters to God.

What was true for that fool in today’s Gospel was true 75 years ago when this Carmel was founded and remains true for many fools today. You are a fool if you place your trust in the things of this world — and when we do this or see others do it, we know deep down that it's all really just an illusion we strive to maintain because we fear no one would accept us if they knew who we really were, which just leaves us feeling all the more empty once the show is over and everyone has gone home.

For the last 75 years, our Carmelite sisters have shown us a better way. If people strived as hard to become rich in the things of God as they currently do to become rich in the things of this world, their vanity would be replaced by virtue and their lies by truth. In today's 2nd Reading Paul says that if we have been raised up with Christ, we should seek what is above, not what is on earth and therefore must root out of our lives the vices that impoverish us spiritually — he lists immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed — and replace them with the virtues that make us rich in what matters to God.

As we gather to thank God for the 75 years of the Little Rock Carmel, for us on the outside, it is worth asking ourselves whether our life has become a rat race? If so and if we keep playing the game as it is, we may one day become the biggest rat — in the language of today's Gospel, the biggest fool in town. 

The witness of Carmel is that if we change the goal of the game and the rules of play into something worthy of the Lord, everyone can win and not just the big loser on the top of the heap. I hope that none of our lives have become a Vanity Fair, an empty mirage that, far from giving relief. just leaves us thirstier and thirstier the longer we buy into the shallow illusions of this world. 

Jesus shows us a better way, and our Carmelite sisters show us a better way. Seek your riches in the things of God and you will discover true treasures both in this passing life and most especially in the even greater eternal life that is yet to come.