Theme: Awake to the Light Before the Flood
1. LECTIO — What the Word Says
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord will be raised.
Isaiah 2:1–5
Nations will stream toward it.
Weapons will become tools for cultivation.
People will walk in the Lord’s light.
“Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.”
Psalm 122
Jerusalem — a city of compact unity —
a place where judgment seats stand,
where peace is prayed for.
“It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.”
Romans 13:11–14
Throw off the works of darkness.
Put on the armor of light.
Make no provision for the flesh.
“As in the days of Noah…”
Matthew 24:37–44
People carried on — eating, drinking, marrying —
unaware of the approaching flood.
“Therefore, stay awake.”
The Son of Man comes at an hour you do not expect.
Saint John Chrysostom thunders:
Dilexi te §42
“Not giving to the poor is stealing from them… because what we have belongs to them.”
Charity is not optional.
Indifference is not neutral —
it is injustice in disguise.
2. MEDITATIO — What the Word Says to Me
🎵 Song Pairing: Gucci Mane, Bruno Mars, Kodak Black – Wake Up in The Sky
The common thread woven through all four readings is wakefulness —
a readiness that refuses to drift into the sleep of denial, nostalgia, or selective forgetfulness.
Isaiah calls me to climb into the Light.
Paul urges me to wake from the long night.
Jesus warns me not to be numbed into complacency.
Chrysostom demands that I see the poor not as an afterthought
but as the very place where Christ is encountered.
And then Advent arrives — not quietly, not softly —
but with a prophetic jolt:
That Light shines on our Diocese of Amarillo too,
entering its Centennial year.
And as I hung Advent lights outside my home —
untangling strands, testing bulbs, replacing what no longer worked —
I felt the deeper truth:
Light must be chosen.
Light must be tended.
Light must be made ready.
“If Boston is the fault line of the child sexual-abuse scandal that has convulsed the Roman Catholic Church, then few places have felt the aftershocks more deeply than the Diocese of Amarillo.”
New York Times
August 24, 2002
Because without honesty, we stay asleep.
Without repentance, we live like the days before the flood.
Without confronting the dark places in our past —
especially the tribute to Bishop Matthiesen erected by John Salazar
before he was defrocked and sent to prison —
our Centennial risks becoming a celebration wearing a mask.
Advent is the Church’s call to remove masks.
To climb the mountain.
To beat swords into plowshares.
To walk in the Light — not pretend it’s already shining.
If the Diocese does not face its past,
we remain spiritually drowsy —
lulled by sentimentality,
afraid of the truth that heals.
But if we wake…
then even here —
in this desert land of our Catholic story —
we will see dawn.
3. ORATIO — What I Say to God
Lord,
rouse me when I want to sleep.
Shake me when I prefer comfort over truth.
Strip away whatever keeps me numb or neutral.
Teach me the vigilance of Noah,
the hope of Isaiah,
the urgency of Paul,
the courage of the wise virgins,
and the compassion Chrysostom demands.
Let my Advent lights shine honestly —
not hiding our Diocese’s wounds,
but illuminating them,
so they may finally be healed.
And awaken your Church in Amarillo
to remove anything that hides the Gospel —
especially tributes that honor grave mistakes
instead of honoring the truth that sets us free.
4. CONTEMPLATIO — Resting in the Word
Tonight, the Advent lights on my home begin their quiet vigil —
fragile strands glowing against the long night.
They remind me that:
Light doesn’t erase darkness.
It invades it.
Light doesn’t pretend.
It reveals.
Light doesn’t wait until everything is perfect.
It shines precisely because everything is not.
And so must I.
And so must my Diocese.
And so must we all,
if we hope to stay awake when the Lord comes.
5. ACTIO — How I Live the Word Today
🎬 Home Alone (1990)
“Inner peace is closely related to care for the common good.”
Laudato Si’ §225
👉 Today, I will choose one concrete act that brings honest light into my community —
whether by speaking truth gently but clearly,
by refusing to ignore injustice,
or by tending the wounds in my Church with courage rather than silence.
I will be awake — and keep my lamp lit.
Email to Bishop Zurek
Subject: A Request for Vigilance and Hope on This Last Day of the Liturgical Year
Your Excellency,
It was good to see you home at the Cathedral for Thanksgiving Mass. As we reach the end of the liturgical year and prepare for the Centennial, I write with a simple concern that continues to weigh heavily on my conscience.
In prayer, especially through the Gospel’s call to stay vigilant and strengthen what remains, I keep returning to the tribute erected by John Salazar in honor of Bishop Matthiesen. Because it was built by a priest who used his “second chance” to harm children in our diocese, its continued presence risks sending a message that wounds survivors and obscures our call to truth.
As we prepare to celebrate 100 years of the Diocese of Amarillo, I humbly ask that we consider removing this tribute as an act of healing and justice—so that our Centennial begins in truth, not silence.
Thank you for hearing my heart. Be assured of my prayers for you and for our diocese.
In Christ,
Darrell Glenn
My Story
“In memory of the death of innocence of the victims of clergy sexual abuse. When innocence dies…a life stops. It is essential that we never forget.“
- Bishop Matthiesen, who rode the white horse of public activism even as he brought abusive priests into our diocese—wounds that still mark us today. I spoke with him often, pleading with him to reconsider his “no regrets” about bringing those priests here…
- Bishop Yanta, who sought to enforce the Dallas Charter even when Bishop Matthiesen resisted him, and who bore the personal and pastoral cost of doing so. I met with Bishop Yanta about Bishop Matthiessen’s “no regrets” stance. He listened. He believed me. He acted where he could. And when he retired, he urged me—quietly but firmly—to keep speaking out.
- Bishop Zurek, who told the Diocese of Amarillo he had “no facts” about the Philadelphia report even as Amarillo’s connection to that tragedy was headline news. When I continued to speak out, as Bishop Yanta had once urged me to do, he later wrote that I was not among the faithful and loyal disciples whom the Lord Jesus desires.
- And now Bishop Strickland, whose own fall from leadership echoes the pattern — a man whose zeal burned like a torch but often without the oil of communion, misused by others, yet still a wounded shepherd who, like me, carries pawprints of injury and longing.