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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Deacon Ordination of Emmanuel Torres Published: Thursday, August 13, 2020 People who don’t love themselves have a hard time loving others. And so Jesus raises the bar: How has Jesus loved us? Totally, sacrificially, to the death. And so that’s how we are to love one another. |
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Deacon Ordination of Omar Galván Published: Wednesday, August 12, 2020 Your life is now a life lived for others. Through you, people will encounter Jesus at every stage of life: the babies whom you baptize, the couples whom you marry and the dead whom you bury. |
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Deacon Ordination of Alex Smith Published: Tuesday, August 11, 2020 Chastity requires us to be pure not only in our overt actions, but also in our thoughts and in our words, pure in the way we deal with others — no deceit, no mixed messages. Pure and sincere in the desires of our own heart. And of course, this requires death to self, which is the foundation of a life lived for others. |
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Chrism/Jubilarian Mass 2020 Published: Monday, August 10, 2020 Jesus was both priest and victim, the one who offered and the one who was offered, and so are we, in union with Jesus. He did so in the concrete circumstances and all the adversities present in 33 A.D. We do so in the concrete circumstances and all the adversities present in 2020, and I want you to know how proud I am of you, the priests of the Diocese of Little Rock. We are walk by faith. |
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19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Published: Sunday, August 9, 2020 It is not my role to enter into the politics involved, but it is my duty to point out the moral issues and explain the explicit teaching of the Catholic Church, which in this case is stated clearly in the catechism for all too see. |
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40th Anniversary of Priesthood Published: Sunday, August 2, 2020 That call to Little Rock, was the most unexpected blessing of my life! We have faced a few challenges together during these last 12 years, but even so, it has been such a joy to serve here. |
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Memorial of Blessed Stanley Rother 2020 Published: Tuesday, July 28, 2020 The days of Jeremiah and Blessed Stanley were fearful times and given the COVID-19 pandemic, we live in fearful times too — although in our case it is a different kind of threat, but still a time of tears, insecurity and loss. |
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16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Published: Saturday, July 18, 2020 All of us are sinners and there will always be hypocrites in the Church. There will always be people who use their church membership for selfish ends. Sometimes we do have to intervene and pull out the most damaging weeds by the roots, as with the great evil of the clergy abuse scandals, but most of the time prudence requires us to just be patient. |
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15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Published: Saturday, July 11, 2020 Farmers plant lots of seeds; many get eaten by birds or wither for lack of roots or get choked out by weeds. But some do fall on good soil and produce a great harvest: 30, 60 or hundredfold. If a farmer expects every seed to produce, his expectations are unrealistic. |
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14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Published: Sunday, July 5, 2020 True joy is hidden from those who dedicate themselves to selfish, worldly pursuits. It is only found by those who truly give themselves to God and others with sacrificial love and childlike humility. |
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13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Published: Sunday, June 28, 2020 What Jesus says is that he must be the primary allegiance of our lives. He’s the only one we really have to please, and sometimes doing the right thing, especially in the face of opposition, can be very challenging. But anything less is not worthy of him. |
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Votive Mass to the Holy Spirit Published: Sunday, June 21, 2020 Your next prioress is going to suffer, so you’d better elect someone who can do difficult things; embrace the cross with sacrificial love. That’s what Jesus says is the unavoidable price of following him. |
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12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Published: Sunday, June 21, 2020 So if you know what you should do and not do, you’ve got values. But it is only when you actually live according to those values that you’ve got virtue. |
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Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 2020 Published: Sunday, June 14, 2020 What you and I receive at Communion retains the appearance and taste of bread and wine, but that’s no longer what it is. By means of the words of consecration, Jesus changes them into his very own Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. |
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Pentecost Sunday 2020 Published: Sunday, May 31, 2020 If this tiny virus that none of us can even see with the naked eye has brought us to our knees, what more do we need to show us where to place our trust and hope, both in this life — and in the case of those who have died — also in the next. |
