{"id":43295,"date":"2021-01-10T14:14:47","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T20:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=43295"},"modified":"2021-01-27T17:25:36","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T23:25:36","slug":"a-people-in-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/a-people-in-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

…the daybreak from on high will visit us<\/span>
\nto shine on those who sit in darkness and death\u2019s shadow,<\/span>
\nto guide our feet into the path of peace.<\/span>
\n(Luke 1:78-79)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

AS<\/b> it was the first time Jesus came, so it is again on the threshold of the coming of His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven,<\/em> which prepares for and precedes His final coming at the end of time. The world, once again, is “in darkness and death’s shadow,” but a new dawn is quickly approaching.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Dear young people, it is up to you to be the\u00a0watchmen<\/em> of the morning who announce the coming of the sun who is the Risen Christ!… I did not hesitate to ask them to make a radical choice of faith and life and present them with a stupendous task: to become \u201cmorning watchmen\u201d at the dawn of the new millennium. <\/strong>\u2014POPE JOHN PAUL II,\u00a0Message of the Holy Father to the Youth of the World<\/em>, XVII World Youth Day, n. 3; (cf. Is 21:11-12); Novo Millennio Inuente<\/em>, n.9<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In fact, it is this dense darkness that tells us precisely how close the dawn is…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HOW THESE TIMES WERE SHORTENED<\/p>\n

In 2005, my wife came bounding into the bedroom where I was still sleeping, waking me up with unexpected news: “Cardinal Ratzinger has just been elected Pope!\u201d<\/em> I turned my face into the pillow and wept for joy \u2014 an inexplicable<\/em> joy that lasted for three days. The overwhelming feeling was that the Church was being given an extension of grace and protection. Indeed, we were treated to eight years of beautiful depth, evangelism and prophecy from Benedict XVI.<\/p>\n

But on February 10, 2013, I sat in stunned silence as I listened to Pope Benedict announce his resignation from the papacy. For the next two weeks, the Lord spoke an unusually strong and persistent word in my heart (weeks before I’d hear the name Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio for the first time):<\/p>\n

\n

You are now entering into dangerous and confusing times.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The confusion, division, and uncertainty are spreading now by the hour, like the ripples of a tsunami descending upon an unsuspecting coastline.<\/p>\n

Recently, Fr. Charles Becker, former American representative of the Marian Movement of Priests (MMP), gave an invaluable nugget of information that sheds more supernatural light on Benedict’s election. In a recent video<\/a>, he shared a passage from the writings of the late Fr. Stefano Gobbi, the founder of the MMP \"\"whose prophecies are now unfolding before our very eyes. Referring to St. John Paul II reigning at the time, Our Lady said to Fr. Gobbi:<\/p>\n

\n

When this Pope will have completed the task which Jesus has entrusted to him and I will come down from heaven to receive his sacrifice, all of you will be cloaked in a dense darkness of apostasy, which will then become general.There will remain faithful only that little remnant which, in these years, by accepting my motherly invitation, has let itself be enfolded in the secure refuge of my Immaculate Heart. And it will be this little faithful remnant, prepared and formed by me, that will have the task of receiving Christ, who will return to you in glory, bringing about in this way the beginning of the new era which awaits you.<\/strong><\/em> \u2014Our Lady to Fr. Stefano, To the Priests, <\/em>Our Lady’s Beloved Sons, <\/em>“The Pope of My Secret”, n. 449, Salzburg, Austria, May 13, 1991, p. 685 (18th edition)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But four years later \u2014 after many more priests and prayers joined Our Lady’s cause, she announced that “time will be shortened”:
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The times will be shortened, because I am Mother of Mercy and each day I offer, at the throne of Divine justice, my prayer united to that of the children who are responding to me with a “yes” and consecrating themselves to my Immaculate Heart… The times will be shortened, because I am your Mother and I want to help you, with my presence, to carry the cross of the painful events through which you are living. How many times have I already intervened in order to set back further and further in time the beginning of the great trial, for the purification of this poor humanity, now possessed and dominated by the Spirits of Evil. The times will be shortened, because the great struggle which is being waged between God and his Adversary is above all at the level of spirits and is taking place above you… I entrust you to the powerful protection of these Archangels and of your Guardian Angels, so that you may be guided and defended in the struggle which is now being waged between heaven and earth, between paradise and hell, between Saint Michael the Archangel and Lucifer himself, who will appear very soon with all the power of the Antichrist.<\/strong><\/em>\u2014”The Times Will be Shortened”, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), September 29, 1995, n. 553<\/span><\/p>\n

If the Lord had not shortened those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he did shorten the days. (Mark 13:20)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Fr. Charles then retells the story of a European priest in the MMP who was with Fr. Stefano on the day that Benedict XVI was elected:\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Upon hearing the name of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, [Fr. Stefano] exalted with joy. He immediately said these precise words: “Our Lady has kept her promise. She has shortened the “great test” by eight years.<\/em>“<\/strong> \u2014see <\/span>video starting at 38:58<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Eight years, of course, ended up being the length of Benedict’s papacy \u2014 something Fr. Gobbi could not have known back then, except prophetically. However, with the resignation of Benedict XVI and the new pontificate of Pope Francis, Fr. Charles says the “test commenced full swing<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Of course, some will immediately point to Francis as the source<\/em> of this apostasy, which is far too simplistic if not careless. For one, the apostasy in the Church long precedes Pope Francis. As far back as 1903, St. Pius X stated that ‘apostasy’ was spreading like a ‘disease’ and that ‘there may be already in the world the \u201cSon of Perdition\u201d [the Antichrist] of whom the Apostle speaks.'[1]<\/sup><\/a>E Supremi<\/em>, Encyclical On the Restoration of All Things in Christ, n. 3, 5; October 4th, 1903<\/span><\/span>