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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25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Published: Sunday, September 18, 2016 Generosity to the poor is what distinguishes a good rich person from an evil one. Jesus says, “Make friends for yourself with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. |
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Saturday, 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle II Published: Saturday, September 17, 2016 But even though we miss the ball more often than we hit it — so to speak — God can make our best efforts bear far more fruit for the Lord than we could ever produce on our own: 30-, 60- and 100-fold — in our own lives and in the lives of others. |
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2016 St. Teresa of Kolkata Feast Day Mass Published: Monday, September 5, 2016 In this, Mother Teresa is an eloquent icon of God's mercy and an inspiring example for us to follow. And so the Lord sends us forth from this celebration of Mother Teresa to feed the hungry like she did, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned and bury the dead. |
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23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Published: Sunday, September 4, 2016 The cross calls us to stick out our neck and get involved. Meaning that we are called not only to morality but also to action, to doing our part to share in Jesus' work of building the Kingdom of God. And Mother Teresa, who is being canonized today, is an especially powerful witness to this. |
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22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Published: Sunday, August 28, 2016 Ambition or dedication? This may be the greatest spiritual challenge that any of us ever face and your choice will impact every sector of your life. It is the choice between pursuing success as the world judges success, or placing yourself at the service of others in a way truly worthy of the Lord. |
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Friday, 19th Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle II Published: Friday, August 12, 2016 Last week I sat next to a troubled 16 year old on a three-hour flight to California. He was traveling home to his mother following a month visiting his father in Florida. In the course of unburdening himself, he said his deepest wound — which has never healed — was inflicted by his parents’ divorce and his father’s subsequent remarriage when he was 4 years old. |
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19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Published: Sunday, August 7, 2016 And what is true for me and my fellow bishops is true for every one of you as well. You have been given responsibility for a portion of the master’s household, be it in academia or in pastoral work or wherever. Be vigilant, you too will be called to account, for the master may come when you least expect. |
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Monday, 18th Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle II Published: Monday, August 1, 2016 If we rely only on our own human ingenuity and merely human solutions, we are doomed to frustration and even burn out. But if, like Father Rother, we put our trust in God's providence, we will flourish ... |
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18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Published: Sunday, July 31, 2016 There is an old proverb that says that "money is like seawater, the more a person drinks, the thirstier he becomes." So long as a person centers his life on his own struggles for self-sufficiency and forgets those in need, and the God who has made all this possible, his desire will always be to get more. This attitude, against which we all have to struggle, is the very reverse of Christianity. |
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35th Anniversary of Death of Servant of God Father Stanley Rother Published: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 For Father Rother this meant leaving his family and friends, everything that was familiar, and coming to Guatemala. He gave his life to you for 13 years and then gave his life for you. In Father Rother's mind, you were a treasure worth dying for. Which is another way of saying that for him, Jesus — the Kingdom of God — was a treasure worth dying for. |
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17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Published: Sunday, July 24, 2016 Nowhere does God promise to satisfy all our desires because that might not serve his purposes. But God does promise to provide our most basic needs if we ask him to do so. And that's what we ask for, our daily bread, our basic needs. |
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16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Published: Saturday, July 16, 2016 You and I are busy about many things that are not very important. I've never heard anyone on their deathbed say they wish they'd worked harder, earned more money, spent more time cooking and cleaning the house. |
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15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Published: Sunday, July 10, 2016 How can we heal this wound? Nothing will really change until we as a nation begin to see each other as true brothers and sisters, which is the main point of Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan in today's Gospel. We can pass all the anti-discrimination laws we want, but until we have a change of heart, our nation's wound will not be healed. |
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14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Published: Sunday, July 3, 2016 Regardless of what they say, most people's actions show that they expect to find security in the things of this world and happiness in living however we want. Yet this willfulness only leaves us feeling even more insecure than before, because the conscience that God planted in us will not allow us to find true peace so long as we persist in living what we know deep in our hearts to be a lie. |
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Saturday, 13th Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle II Published: Saturday, July 2, 2016 By voting, we remind politicians that they have to take our concerns into account; if we don’t vote, we are likely to continue to be ignored, and some will feel free to actively promote policies that continue to do us harm. |
