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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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Published: Saturday, February 10, 2018 When I gave him a hug, he automatically pulled back in emotional self-defense because he was so used to people being afraid to touch him. He had become a leper. Our parish church was full the day of his funeral, but very few of those present had ever visited his sick bed. |
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Catholic Arkansas Sharing Appeal 2018 Published: Saturday, February 3, 2018 During these 10 years, with our upcoming eight ordinations this spring, I will have ordained 34 priests for the service of our diocese, plus three Benedictines, more than half of all the Diocese of Little Rock priests presently in active ministry in just 10 years. |
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Mass for Life 2018 Published: Sunday, January 21, 2018 This is what a consistent ethic of life entails. Abortion is huge and we are resolute in our opposition to abortion, but there are other pro-life issues that are important too and boy do we have our hands full! This is not an either/or situation; it is a both/and situation. |
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Reception of a Relic of Blessed Stanley Rother Published: Sunday, January 14, 2018 There is a big difference between a career and a calling. Careers are jobs we choose. The disciples had a career in the fishing industry. Callings are chosen for us by God, whom we then obey. |
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Mass 2018 Published: Saturday, January 13, 2018 And I ask you, what was the greatest obstacle that Dr. King had to overcome? It wasn’t hatefulness, as awful as that was and still is. The greatest obstacle was fear. Racism is rooted in fear, otherwise decent people kept silent out of fear. |
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Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God 2018 Published: Monday, January 1, 2018 Joseph and Mary — exhausted and probably dirty — end up in a stable full of camels, donkeys and livestock. There was no lighting, no running water and plenty of manure. It was there, under the most unsanitary conditions imaginable, that our Savior was born to Mary, the Mother of God — whose feast we celebrate today. |
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Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph 2017 Published: Sunday, December 31, 2017 What makes a family is commitment to each other, marriage and parenting rooted in faith in each other, which for a believer is rooted also in our commitment to the Lord. That's why marriage is sacred and the breakdown of family unity so troubling, not only for sociological reasons, but above all for reasons of faith. |
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Come and See Retreat Mass 2017 Published: Saturday, December 30, 2017 Second he warns them that the battle is ongoing and that they have to remain vigilant because it is so easy to get off track. There are three main areas of temptation that we all have to struggle with: the world, the flesh and Satan. |
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The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) 2017 Published: Monday, December 25, 2017 So we give gifts to Jesus on his birthday by giving gifts to God, which we do by giving gifts to each other. But there’s more: the greatness of a gift comes from how much it cost you personally — not the monetary cost, not how many dollars you spent, but rather how much of yourself that gift represents, your self-sacrificing love — that’s the true cost and true value of a gift. |
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Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year B Published: Sunday, December 24, 2017 "The Son of God stripped himself of the privileges of his divinity in order to embrace our damaged human condition because that sacrifice was necessary for him to accomplish his great work of redemption, a work that he completed 33 years later when he sealed with his own blood the New and definitive Covenant with all of humanity." |
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Third Sunday of Advent, Year B Published: Sunday, December 17, 2017 We too are “sent by God." We each have a role in his plan of salvation. And what we are sent to do, in one way or another, is to “testify to the light.” |
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Priesthood Ordination of Nelson Rubio Published: Saturday, December 16, 2017 Nelson, before the Lord “formed you in the womb he knew you” and without yet knowing it, “before you were born” he had already designated you for a specific role in his divine plan: to be a priest of the Diocese of Little Rock. |
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Second Sunday of Advent, Year B Published: Sunday, December 10, 2017 If you came here today afflicted with worries and problems, Jesus wants to comfort you with the Good News that your Savior has come to free you from everything that holds you bound: sins you committed in the past, present circumstances that are beyond your control, uncertainty regarding your future. |
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Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 2017 Published: Friday, December 8, 2017 But for that salvation to become yours, to make a difference in your life and in the lives of others, you have to open your heart like Mary and Joseph did. They said in effect: "Yes Lord, whatever you want, I will do!" And so now, how about you? |
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First Sunday of Advent, Year B Published: Sunday, December 3, 2017 Advent is a time of preparation. It is a time to look inward. It is a time to get ready and to see how ready we really are. You could say figuratively that every one of us has a beeper that could go off at any time. |
