Bishop Taylor Homily Library

Homilías en Español

E.g., 03/28/2024
E.g., 03/28/2024

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.

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Published: Sunday, July 10, 2016
How can we heal this wound? Nothing will really change until we as a nation begin to see each other as true brothers and sisters, which is the main point of Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan in today's Gospel. We can pass all the anti-discrimination laws we want, but until we have a change of heart, our nation's wound will not be healed.
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Published: Sunday, July 3, 2016
Regardless of what they say, most people's actions show that they expect to find security in the things of this world and happiness in living however we want. Yet this willfulness only leaves us feeling even more insecure than before, because the conscience that God planted in us will not allow us to find true peace so long as we persist in living what we know deep in our hearts to be a lie.
Saturday, 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle II
Published: Saturday, July 2, 2016
By voting, we remind politicians that they have to take our concerns into account; if we don’t vote, we are likely to continue to be ignored, and some will feel free to actively promote policies that continue to do us harm.
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Published: Sunday, June 26, 2016
Like Cortez who burned his boats and Elisha who burned his farm implements, you and I must burn our bridges to eliminate everything that might tempt us to return to our former way of life when things get rough.
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Published: Sunday, June 19, 2016
In order for you men to be fathers truly worthy of the name, you have to embrace your fatherhood, give yourselves over fully to all that is entailed becoming the kind of fathers that God has called you to be.
Diaconate Ordination of William Burmester
Published: Thursday, June 2, 2016
The obedience you promise today is not just the mere compliance of a slave. It is the self-sacrificing gift of yourself to the Lord, and so you promise not only to do what I ask you to do, but also to do so with a listening, loving heart.
Priesthood Ordination of Stephen Gadberry, Taryn Whittington, Mario Jacobo, Norman McFall and Joseph Chan
Published: Saturday, May 28, 2016
Ninety-nine percent of the time, your ministry will require you to lead, but not compel; to inspire, and not shame; to encourage the sheep instead of rebuking them — and hopefully, that rare one percent of the time when rebuking is needed, might never arise if they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you love them and revere them.
Diaconate Ordination of Stephen Hart and Matthew Glover
Published: Wednesday, May 25, 2016
In our second reading, Peter calls us to sincere mutual love, that we should love each other "intensely from a pure heart." And in today's Gospel that love and service come together in the person of Jesus Christ who "did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Diaconate Ordination of Michael Johns
Published: Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Today we formalize your response to the call of Jesus and his Church, committing yourself to a life of sacrificial love, loving others as Jesus has loved you. And so Jesus speaks directly to you when in today's Gospel he says: "It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you to go forth and bear fruit."
Diaconate Ordination of Ramsés Mendieta
Published: Friday, May 20, 2016
While celibacy involves sacrifice and death to self, you will discover it to be a gift that enables you to love others more fully and more freely, your life modeled on Jesus who also was celibate — probably for that very same reason — and who will give you the grace you need to live with total dedication to the promises you make today.
Diaconate Ordination of Luke Womack
Published: Thursday, May 19, 2016
So Luke, like the rest of us, from this day forward, it will be your duty to do all in your power to bring about "a revolution of tenderness" (88), which is the life-changing fruit of the Gospel of joy!
Diaconate Ordination of Martin Siebold
Published: Wednesday, May 18, 2016
And because you will be ordained to the priesthood a year from now, God willing, today you will also publicly promise to embrace celibate chastity for the rest of your life as a "sign of your dedication to Christ the Lord for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, in the service of God and man."
Pentecost Sunday 2016
Published: Sunday, May 15, 2016
If I had not gone in to hear those confessions, I would not have experienced in that way just how much the Holy Spirit had already empowered me without me being especially conscious of it — I discovered his power by using it.
Mass of Christian Burial for Rachel Taylor
Published: Saturday, April 30, 2016
Well Mom, we have gathered here today to commend you to that Lord for whom you have longed in one way or another all 83 years of your life. You were united to him in his death the day of your baptism and began already then to live the life of the Kingdom of God in which you now share even more fully.
Rosary, Visitation for Rachel J. Roth Taylor
Published: Friday, April 29, 2016
The way my parents lived their faith was convincing because it was so sincere and so unpretentious. Of course we never missed Sunday Mass even when on vacation, but we also knew that they prayed privately every morning and evening: This was just normal in our home.

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