Optional Memorial of Saint André Bessette
Day 28 of praying for Synodality during our Centennial Celebration
regarding the Diocese of Amarillo’s “Tribute to Bishop Matthiesen”
1. Lectio
The crowd is hungry before it knows it.
They have followed truth into a deserted place, and truth has the bad habit of interrupting dinner.
The disciples are practical men.
They see the hour, count the coins, measure the cost, and suggest dismissal.
Jesus sees something else entirely.
He does not ask whether the people should eat.
He asks who will feed them.
“’Give them some food yourselves.’”
The scandal of the Gospel is not the miracle.
It is the command that precedes it.
Five loaves. Two fish.
Not enough to solve the problem—
but enough to surrender.
The food is taken, blessed, broken, and given away.
And in that precise order, everyone eats.
Not anxiously.
Not competitively.
But abundantly.
They eat until they are satisfied.
And the fragments are gathered—
because nothing given to God is wasted.
“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.”
“Therefore, when the Church bends down to care for the poor, she assumes her highest posture.”
Dilexi te §79
Can I make it my mission—one of the pillars of our Diocesan Centennial—to ask the Church, through Synodality, to bend down in care for the victims of our “serious mistake”, so that our Centennial banner may rise to its highest posture?
2. Meditatio
I do like to eat. One look at this obese, wannabe shepherd makes that abundantly clear.
And truth be told, much of my “shepherding” has been about my own appetite
for justice, for answers, for resolution, for recognition.
Photo used by permission of Douglas Kirkland/Corbis via Getty Images
The danger of my eating is not excess, but direction.
I focus on what I consume, not who goes hungry.
Below: A Fallen Centennial Banner
The disciples had the same problem.
They saw mouths to feed and calculated scarcity.
Jesus saw hunger and demanded generosity.
When I seek Synodality regarding the Diocese of Amarillo’s Tribute to Bishop Matthiesen, I often imagine myself as the one demanding food—
answers, apologies, explanations.
But today the Gospel reverses me.
Lay Brother
Born
August 9, 1845
Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Quebec, Province of Canada
Died
January 6, 1937 (aged 91)
Montreal, Quebec, Dominion of Canada
Venerated in
Catholic Church
Beatified
May 23, 1982, Saint Peter’s Square, Vatican City, by Pope John Paul II
Canonized
October 17, 2010, Saint Peter’s Square, Vatican City by Pope Benedict XVI
Major shrine
Saint Joseph’s Oratory
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Feast
January 6 (January 7 in Canada)
What if I am being asked to feed?
Not with certainty.
Not with power.
But with what little I have—
my voice, my persistence, my willingness to break myself open.
Saint André Bessette understood this.
Illiterate. Frail. Assigned to the door.
He did not produce bread; he pointed to Saint Joseph.
He did not cure; he trusted.
And somehow, multitudes ate.
When Jesus gets involved in a vocation—
especially one centered on hunger—
even the smallest offering becomes Eucharistic.
3. Contemplatio (Chestertonian Synthesis)
The modern world believes hunger is solved by supply.
The Gospel insists it is healed by gift.
I want Synodality to fix something.
Christ wants it to feed someone.
The paradox is this:
The Church is never weakest when she lacks resources,
but when she refuses to break the bread she already holds.
To eat rightly is to allow oneself to be broken for others.
And to be satisfied is to discover that God has fed more than one expected—
including the one who offered the loaf.
4. Oratio
Day 28 Prayer for Synodality
O God, whose Only Begotten Son
has appeared in our very flesh,
grant, we pray, that we may be inwardly transformed
through him whom we recognize as outwardly like ourselves.
Teach us to hunger for justice
without hoarding righteousness,
to seek healing
without demanding control,
and to offer what little we have
so that others may eat and live.
May our Centennial be marked
not by display,
but by distribution;
not by silence,
but by nourishment.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
5. Actio
“For example, there is a great variety of small-scale food production systems which feed the greater part of the world’s peoples, using a modest amount of land and producing less waste, be it in small agricultural parcels, in orchards and gardens, hunting and wild harvesting or local fishing.”
Laudato si’ §129
Inspired by Laudato si’:
Today I will practice attentive generosity—
listening before answering,
sharing before defending,
and offering presence rather than solutions.
Synodality begins when the Church stops asking,
“Do we have enough?”
and starts asking,
“Who is still hungry?”
🎶 “Bread of Heaven” (Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer)
🎬Movie: : Babette’s Feast (1987)
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.