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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30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, October 24, 2021 We can’t give effective witness to Jesus unless we know him ourselves. Knowing about him is not the same thing as knowing him. We are not saved by what we know but rather by who we know. Jesus is our redeemer. He came to set us free from sin and death and everything else that holds us bound. Some of us may be investing a lot of energy studying his teachings and even reading a lot of Scripture, but this will not bear lasting fruit apart from a living relationship with Jesus, our constant companion. |
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Opening Mass of the Synod on Synodality 2021 Published: Sunday, October 17, 2021 Synodality requires that we really try to include those who feel excluded. ... How can we journey with people who, for whatever reason, feel pushed to the periphery in the Church and in society? There’s a lot to learn from each other. |
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28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, October 10, 2021 Do we really expect to pass through the eye of that needle with all of our stuff, and in particular any stuff we buy with the 10 percent that rightly belongs to God and in some cases spending the other 90 percent on low priority items instead of thinking first about how God wants us to use our money? |
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27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, October 3, 2021 Today’s Jews still have a valid covenant with God. God remains bound to his people and they remain bound to him forever. And the same is true for us. Through baptism we entered into a valid covenant with God through Jesus Christ, and through Jesus we remain bound to God forever. |
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Mass with Brothers and Sisters of Charity 2021 Published: Saturday, October 2, 2021 Jesus understands marriage to be not a contract but rather a covenant, like the unbreakable covenant between God and his people. And it is the will of God from the beginning of creation that in marriage the two become one flesh, such that there are no longer two parties; nothing to separate. |
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Red Mass 2021 Published: Friday, October 1, 2021 Let me share with you a secret that has given me a great deal of peace when I have had to deal with difficult, painful situations. I draw on that last gift of the Holy Spirit (fear of the Lord) in this way: I remind myself consciously that the only one I have to please is the Lord. |
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26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, September 26, 2021 Jesus doesn't want us to go around cutting off body parts we used to sin with, and besides, we sin with our brains: that's where we choose evil. What he's saying is that if you think that's bad, wait until you see hell. The stakes are that high, and so if we're smart, we'll do everything possible to avoid its eternal flames. |
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25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Saturday, September 18, 2021 Who are the people who have had the most positive impact on your life? I’ll bet they are the people who have sacrificed themselves the most for you. And how did they change you — by coercion or by persuasion? |
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Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Church Published: Sunday, September 12, 2021 Mary humbly accepted us in exchange for the Son of God, thus showing us again that true greatness lies in self-sacrifice. That means trusting God, living by his standards, and embracing suffering like Mary did when that is what fidelity to him requires. |
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24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, September 12, 2021 There are difficult things in life and that suffering, which is the price of faithfulness, when freely embraced, can be redemptive, in part because it forces us to live for something bigger than ourselves; true to the best that is in us. |
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25th Anniversary Mass of MCP, CMST Sisters' Service Published: Saturday, September 11, 2021 You have dedicated 25 years — the best years of your life — to building the Kingdom of God here in Arkansas. And during this time you have grown not only in gray hair, but also in wisdom and holiness. |
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23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, September 5, 2021 Anything less than a full response to the one who gave his whole life for us is sort of an insult, don't you think? I'd certainly hate to have to defend mediocrity before the judgment seat of God! Sins of omission, the things we fail to do — God knows what he has given you and it's from that he expects a return. |
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Mass with Seminarians 2021 Published: Monday, August 2, 2021 And like me, you too are swimming against the current. I swam against the current of a flood of priests leaving the ministry — the Church was in crisis and people thought I was crazy to get on board what they thought was a sinking ship. What they didn’t know was that Jesus was at the helm. |
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18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, August 1, 2021 Jesus explains: "I myself am the Bread of Life. No one who comes to me shall ever be hungry, no one who believes in me shall ever thirst again.” The symbol of the manna is fulfilled in Jesus. Eat manna and you live one day longer, eat the Bread of Life and you live forever! |
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17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Saturday, July 24, 2021 When we mature ungrateful for all God’s blessings, and forgetful of all he has done for us, we can easily begin to imagine that everything is now on us; that our successes and failures are all our own doing, that we have to provide for ourselves at all times. So we end up forgetting about our ongoing dependence on God and others for meaning and purpose and all the other important things in life. |
