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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Arkansas Catholic Charismatic Conference 2021 Published: Friday, July 23, 2021 St. Bridget of Sweden was one of the great mystics of the Middle Ages, such a great figure in her time that in 1999 St. John Paul II named her one of the patron saints of Europe. And yet how many of you know anything much about her? You know, a “mystic” is one of the things that they called charismatics in the Middle Ages. |
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16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, July 18, 2021 You parents are shepherds of the flock, of the family God has entrusted to your care. But again, Jesus is the true shepherd of your family. He’s the one who can keep you united and lead your family where you need to go, which will happen only if you make Jesus the very center of your marriage, accepting his leadership in the life of your family — thus making your marriage a continual encounter with God in your self-sacrificing love for each other and in your generous openness to bringing new life into the world. |
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75th Anniversary of Sr. Marcella Schmalz, OSB Published: Sunday, July 11, 2021 Today we are gathered to celebrate our 101-year-old jubilarian, Sister Marcella Schmalz, who this year marks 75 years respectively serving the Lord in religious life; 46 years of which as a founding member of St. Scholastica’s daughter house, St. Benedict’s in Canyon, Texas. |
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14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, July 4, 2021 The people of Nazareth dishonored him with ridicule. We would never do that, knowing what we know about him. But we could dishonor him with empty words of praise unless we take his message seriously and apply it to our lives. |
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2021 Priest Jubilarian Mass Published: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 We preach the “exaltation” of the cross of Jesus not to exalt suffering in itself, but rather because it is our greatest proof of just how completely God loves us. This cross points to a God who participates in human suffering as a fellow sufferer. |
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12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, June 20, 2021 The technical name for the main part of a Church building is the "nave," meaning the "boat," the same as our word, "Navy." As you can see, we're all in this boat together and we face the storms of life together. No matter how fiercely the winds blow, we're safe because we've got Jesus on board. |
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11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 2021 Published: Sunday, June 13, 2021 We have a tendency to brand as a heretic anyone who does not think as we do. That is a danger especially that universities have to try to avoid. It is good for us to feel confident that we are right, but that is no reason for us to think that everyone else is wrong. |
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Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary 2021 Published: Monday, May 31, 2021 Father Bill, we are grateful to you for all the care you give us. You proclaim the Gospel courageously; you are a man of prayer and you die to yourself in order to serve us. |
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Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity 2021 Published: Sunday, May 30, 2021 There is a starting point: God loved us first. And not just first, but also second and third and fourth and so on, as many times as necessary to finally elicit from us a response of trust. |
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Priesthood Ordination of Deacons Alex Smith, Emmanuel Torres, Omar Galván, Brian Cundall and Ben Riley Published: Saturday, May 29, 2021 Once a priest, always a priest. This is not a 9-to-5 job. You are to love everyone as Jesus has loved you, 24 hours of the day, even when people call you at 3 in the morning. Indeed, especially when people call you at 3 in the morning. From this day forward, you are to lay down your life for others as Jesus did for you, 24 hours a day. |
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Deacon Ordination Daniel Wendel Published: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 God bestows on you today all the graces you need to serve him faithfully as a deacon — and a year from now as a priest — committed like St. Paul in our Scripture readings today, to the courageous proclamation of the Gospel and a life of humble service in and through the Church, modeled on that of Christ. |
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Pentecost Sunday 2021 Published: Sunday, May 23, 2021 Look around and you will see many unhappy, frustrated people who have exhausted themselves trying to make it through the challenges of life without God's power and light — doomed to failure by their own weakness and ignorance, powerless before temptation, deceived by worldly schemes that promise happiness but cannot deliver. |
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Deacon Ordination José Jaime Nieto Published: Friday, May 21, 2021 The initiative is from God and therefore, José Jaime, his choice of you for the diaconate and eventually the priesthood had already been made well before you were ever formed in your mother’s womb. Like with Jeremiah, it was for this very purpose that you were even born! |
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Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year B Published: Sunday, April 25, 2021 Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, a day for us to pray for our shepherds — the pope, me your bishop, your pastor and all our priests and deacons worldwide — and to pray that the Lord will raise up from our midst many more good shepherds to care for his flock going forward. |
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Divine Mercy Sunday 2021 Published: Sunday, April 11, 2021 How about you? What kind of proof do you require? Some people demand scientific, historical proof for events that occurred 2,000 years ago, and what you can’t prove empirically they reject. Like Thomas, they put the burden of proof on God. The method they choose predetermines the outcome, and this outcome is not where the life is. |
