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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Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord 2023 Published: Sunday, August 6, 2023 Today, Peter, James and John see Jesus transfigured with glory — his face shining like the sun and his clothes as white as light. Later, they will see him transfigured with pain — sweating blood during his agony in the garden, whipped and crowned with thorns on Good Friday, his body broken but not his spirit, which remained courageously resolute to do his Father's will completely. |
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Mass with Seminarians 2023 Published: Monday, July 31, 2023 Years ago the Lord planted into each of your hearts the seed of a religious vocation and he has worked it into your soul like a woman working yeast into the dough, gradually, gently. Dough that will eventually become a delicious loaf that will delight and nourish all who share in its goodness. |
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Arkansas Catholic Charismatic Conference 2023 Published: Friday, July 21, 2023 If embraced, these seven gifts of the Spirit lead to the nine fruits of the Spirit mentioned by St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians. These nine fruits of the Spirit are the attributes of persons and communities that live in accord with the Holy Spirit, namely love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. |
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14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Published: Sunday, July 9, 2023 Appearances can sure be deceiving. Even today, the most important truths are hidden from those whose hearts are closed. They can only be learned by those who open their hearts to God with childlike humility. |
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Jubilarian Mass at St. Scholastica Monastery 2023 Published: Saturday, July 8, 2023 May your life be filled with joy and love, may you grow ever closer to your divine friend and partner, may the fruit you have produced in this life endure and when the day comes, may the Lord give you the full reward of your goodness and faithfulness. |
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Seminarian Signing Day in Jonesboro 2023 Published: Friday, July 7, 2023 It is precisely because Jesús (Tovar) has heard God’s call that he will be signing his letter of intent to enter the seminary and continue to discern whether God is in fact calling him to serve him and the Church as a priest. |
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11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Published: Sunday, June 18, 2023 I want to remind you fathers that you are men with a mission to do whatever it takes to shepherd faithfully your part of God's flock, including sacrificing yourself for them, just like Jesus, our Good Shepherd, and those original apostles did for us, especially when they stray. |
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Inauguration of Shrine of Divine Mercy Published: Sunday, June 11, 2023 This shrine is to be a place of pilgrimage, a place of eucharistic adoration inaugurated in this time of National Eucharistic Revival, and a place to experience divine mercy in the sacrament of reconciliation and through the reception of indulgences at this shrine, which is one thing that sets this shrine apart from all other places of worship in our diocese and thus making it a place of pilgrimage. |
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Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity 2023 Published: Sunday, June 4, 2023 God's very nature is love and so belief in him is a response of our love to his love, and that can be very demanding. It has wonderful consequences but like with all love there is a cost: death to self. Submitting our will to his. |
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Eucharistic Revival Days 2023 Published: Saturday, June 3, 2023 This Mass will end with an apostolic blessing, also called a papal blessing and thus the plenary indulgence that comes with an apostolic blessing. When there is sufficient reason and an appropriately solemn event, bishops are allowed to impart the apostolic blessing up to three times a year. This is the first time that I will have done so ... This is a really special deal. |
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25th Anniversary of Diaconate Class of 1998 Published: Thursday, June 1, 2023 Each person must convert and conversion is personal and dynamic, a change in your own self that leads to insight and thus forward motion. Another way of saying this is to remember that we are all born blind like Bartimaeus, and like Archimedes, even with physical eyesight we can see things thousands of times without really seeing them and then one day, Eureka! |
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Priesthood Ordination of Deacons Nathan Ashburn and John Paul Hartnedy Published: Saturday, May 27, 2023 You become another Christ, “alter Christus,” through ordination, so you are to offer yourself to God as well, in every Mass you celebrate, united to Jesus, whose priest you will be. |
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Graduation 2023 Published: Sunday, May 21, 2023 It is through prayer and reflection that, over time, we discover our role in God's plan, so prayer and reflection is the place for you to start. This is the only truly solid foundation for making decisions of this magnitude. |
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Ascension of the Lord 2023 Published: Sunday, May 21, 2023 There is confusion about whether the Ascension occurred in Jerusalem or Galilee, though the Church gives more weight to Matthew's memory, that it was in Galilee since he was an eyewitness while Luke was not. But actually, where it occurred is really beside the point. What is important is the meaning of the event, which is clear in both accounts. |
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Deacon Ordination of Cody Eveld Published: Friday, May 19, 2023 It is true that you become part of a much bigger family and have access to far deeper levels of spiritual intimacy with more people than would ever be possible without the clear sexual boundaries that celibacy protects — many blessings, to be sure — but a big sacrifice nonetheless, and not without temptations to be faced and overcome, as all these priests present can certainly attest. |
