{"id":5433,"date":"2011-03-26T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2011-03-26T06:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/the-coming-refuges-and-solitudes\/"},"modified":"2023-02-22T13:38:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T19:38:36","slug":"the-coming-refuges-and-solitudes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-coming-refuges-and-solitudes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Refuges and Solitudes","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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THE <\/strong>Age of Ministries is ending<\/em><\/a>… but something more beautiful is going to arise. It will be a new beginning, a restored Church in a new era. In fact, it was Pope Benedict XVI\u00a0who hinted at this very thing while he was still a cardinal:<\/p>\n

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The Church will be reduced in its dimensions, it will be necessary to start again. However, from this test a Church would emerge that will have been strengthened by the process of simplification it experienced, by its renewed capacity to look within itself\u2026 the Church will be numerically reduced. <\/strong>\u2014Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI), God and the World<\/em>, 2001; interview with Peter Seewald<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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He was echoing, perhaps, Pope Paul VI, who made the startling admission that, because of the growing apostasy in the Church, there will likely be left a mere remnant<\/em> of the faithful:<\/p>\n

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There is a great uneasiness, at this time, in the world and in the Church, and that which is in question is the faith<\/em>… I sometimes read the Gospel passage of the end times and I attest that, at this time, some signs of this end are emerging… What strikes me, when I think of the Catholic world, is that within Catholicism, there seems sometimes to pre-dominate a non-Catholic way of thinking, and it can happen that tomorrow this non-Catholic thought within Catholicism, will tomorrow become the stronger<\/em>. But it will never represent the thought of the Church. It is necessary that a small flock subsist<\/em>, no matter how small it might be.<\/strong> \u2014POPE PAUL VI, The Secret Paul VI<\/em>, Jean Guitton, p. 152-153, Reference (7), p. ix.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is the divine protection<\/em> of this little flock in times to come that concerns this present writing…<\/p>\n

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A PURIFIED FLOCK<\/p>\n

The Church must follow<\/em> Jesus into her own Passion. It is through the Cross that she is purified. Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it cannot bear fruit,<\/em> He said. [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. John 12:24<\/span><\/span>