Today the Scriptures do not rush; they wait.
John tells me that light is already shining,
yet darkness still pretends to rule.
Love is the proof that the light has arrived,
but hatred lingers like a stubborn night.
The psalm sings joy into the heavens
before the earth quite believes it.
Praise goes out ahead of proof.
And then Simeon appears—
an old man who has done nothing spectacular
except wait well.
He does not fix Israel.
He does not correct Rome.
He does not remove swords or crowns.
He simply recognizes the Child
and names the cost.
Salvation has arrived,
but it will pierce a mother’s heart
before it heals the world.
This is Advent stretched into Christmas:
not triumph yet, but truth—
received in arms that have learned to wait.
“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
“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.”
“Their mission was to form hearts, teach people to think and promote dignity. By combining a life of piety and dedication to others, they fought abandonment with the tenderness of those who educate in the name of Christ.”
Dilexi te, §71
Can I make it my mission—awaiting conversion rather than applause—as one of the four pillars of our Diocesan Centennial, to form hearts, teach people to think, and uphold human dignity by uniting a life of piety with a dedication to others; to resist the abandonment born of Bishop Matthiesen’s “serious mistake,” and to do so with the tenderness of those who educate and heal in the name of Christ?
Meditatio — “Awaiting“
Today I name my posture honestly: I am “awaiting“.
Photo used by permission of Douglas Kirkland/Corbis via Getty Images
I am “awaiting” Synodality
in regard to the Diocese of Amarillo’s
Tribute to Bishop Matthiesen.
Like Simeon, I do not yet see restoration.
I see recognition.
I recognize that truth, once named,
will divide before it heals.
I recognize that light reveals
even as it consoles.
Below: A Fallen Centennial Banner
Simeon waited his whole life
not to see everything made right,
but to see what God was doing
and accept the cost of saying so.
Thomas Becket saw that cost too.
When his friend, King Henry II, nominated him for archbishop,
he knew the friendship would not survive the truth.
He tried to refuse the honor
because he foresaw the wound.
“Awaiting“, then, is not passivity.
It is courage without a timetable.
Can I be content to await Synodality
knowing that if it comes,
it will not flatter the powerful,
and it may not spare the faithful from pain?
Contemplatio — A Chestertonian Synthesis
There is a peculiar madness in the modern world
which insists that waiting is weakness
and that silence is always cowardice.
But the Church was saved by waiting—
by prophets who spoke only when compelled,
by saints who delayed victory
until truth could endure it.
The world wants quick solutions.
God wants enduring hearts.
Simeon waited not for success,
but for fidelity fulfilled.
Thomas Becket did not rush toward martyrdom;
he simply refused to step away from the truth
when it finally arrived.
“Awaiting” is not standing still.
It is standing where God placed you,
long enough to recognize Him
when He passes through your arms.
Oratio — Day 20 Prayer
Almighty and invisible God,
who dispelled the darkness of the world
by the coming of your Light,
look with serenity upon your Church.
As I pray for Synodality
during this Centennial season,
teach me to recognize your work
even before its fruits appear,
and to accept the cost of truth
with patience, humility, and love.
May I neither rush your justice
nor retreat from it.
Through Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Actio — Awaiting with Synodality
“Although the summit was a real step forward, and prophetic for its time, its accords have been poorly implemented…The principles which it proclaimed still await an efficient and flexible means of practical implementation.”
Laudato si’ §167
Today I will practice Synodality by resisting urgency.
I will not demand outcomes,
but I will continue to name realities
with clarity and charity.
I will wait without withdrawing.
I will speak without hardening.
I will trust that God works
even when institutions move slowly.
🎵 “Mary Did You Know”
🎬Movie: Becket (1964)
Email to Bishop Zurek
Subject: A Request for Synodal Discernment Regarding the Tribute to Bishop Matthiesen
Your Excellency,
I write to you during this Christmas season after many days of prayer and reflection, particularly through Lectio Divina, regarding the Diocese of Amarillo’s Centennial and the tribute honoring Bishop Matthiesen.
Over time, my focus has shifted. I am no longer asking simply for the removal of the tribute, but for the beginning of a genuine synodal process around it. I believe silence—however well-intended—has become pastorally burdensome, especially for survivors of clergy abuse connected to what Bishop Matthiesen himself described as a “serious mistake.”
My concern is rooted not in accusation, but in family: the family of survivors, the parish family, the diocesan family, and the wider Church. In the spirit of reason, religion, and loving kindness, I ask whether we might openly discern why this tribute exists, how it is received by those wounded by abuse, and what faithfulness to the Gospel requires of us during this Centennial year.
Christmas reminds us that God chose humility over grandeur, presence over silence, and truth spoken in love over avoidance. I respectfully ask that this matter be engaged synodally—with listening, dialogue, and prayer—so that healing, not division, may mark our celebration.
Please know that I remain committed to the Church, to the Eucharist, and to walking this path in charity and fidelity.
Respectfully in Christ,
Darrell Glenn
Diocese of Amarillo
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 such as John Salazar—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.