Bishop Taylor Homily Library

Homilías en Español

E.g., 03/18/2024
E.g., 03/18/2024

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord 2020
Published: Sunday, May 24, 2020
Think, perhaps, of the hardest confession you ever had to make, and then how exhilarating it was to finally be set free and be given a fresh start; set free from that "ton of bricks" of bitter remorse that had so long been weighing down your soul.
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A
Published: Sunday, May 17, 2020
We are grateful finally to be able to resume the celebration of Mass on a limited basis and there are many things about the restrictions we presently have to live with that I don’t like any more than you do, but with which we have to obey — and which are, in fact, the price of self-sacrificing love.
Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A
Published: Sunday, May 10, 2020
We take all the reasonable steps we can think of to mitigate the threat — God gave us brains and he expects us to use them — and then we place in his hands all the things we cannot prevent. And so, to us also, he says “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.”
Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A
Published: Sunday, May 3, 2020
We do what we can to care for both the physical and spiritual needs of those the Good Shepherd entrusts to our care. Hence the suspension of public Masses in order to maintain necessary physical distancing, but live-streaming Masses to better enable people to make a good spiritual communion. Neither is ideal, but we live in an imperfect world, so this balancing of prudence and piety is what the care of the flock requires.

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