“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning..." - Benedict Joseph Ratzinger

"What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" - Romans 8

LifeSiteNews captured a few essential 'predictions' or 'prophecies' made by Cardinal Ratzinger many years ago, which were on occasion referred to throughout his pontificate.  Interestingly enough, they more or less corroborate with prophecies coming out of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the mid-1970's, in the waning years of Paul VI's pontificate.  The Charismatic prophecies were repeated at the Notre Dame Charismatic Congress around the same time.  I was there and I remember it distinctly.  I think it is worth noting that prophecies such as these are not threats or scare tactics, but are - in part - indications of what may occur, and more importantly, they offer assurance that God is with us in and through whatever befalls us.  "We know that all things work for good for those who love God,^* who are called according to his purpose." - Romans 8

What Ratzinger said...

“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.

She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes…she will lose many of her social privileges…. As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members…."

"…But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.

And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.”

Benedict's Angelus prayers this past Sunday, as reported by Vatican Insider, fit the same theme. He prayed:

“The time of testing is here. We must not use God for our own ends.” - See more here.
 

Ralph Martin and Bruce Yokum.

PROPHECIES GIVEN AT ST. PETER’S BASILICA DURING THE CLOSING EUCHARIST ON PENTECOST MONDAY—MAY 1975

“Because I love you, I want to show you what I am doing in the world today. I want to prepare you for what is to come. Days of darkness are coming on the world, days of tribulation....Buildings that are now standing will not be standing. Supports that are there for my people now will not be there. I want you to be prepared, my people, to know only me and to cleave to me and to have me in a way deeper than ever before. I will lead you into the desert...I will strip you of everything that you are depending on now, so you depend just on me. A time of darkness is coming on the world, but a time of glory is coming for my church, a time of glory is coming for my people. I will pour out on you all the gifts of my spirit. I will prepare you for spiritual combat; I will prepare you for a time of evangelism that the world has never seen.... And when you have nothing but me, you will have everything: land, fields, homes, and brothers and sisters and love and joy and peace more than ever before. Be ready, my people, I want to prepare you...” (given by Ralph Martin)

“I speak to you of the dawn of a ‘new age’ for my church. I speak to you of a day that has not been seen before....Prepare yourselves for the action that I begin now, because things that you see around you will change; the combat that you must enter now is different; it is new. You need wisdom from me that you do not yet have.

 

You need the power of my Holy Spirit in a way that you nave not possessed it; you need an understanding of my will and of the ways that I work that you do not yet have. Open your eyes, open your hearts to prepare yourselves for me and for the day that I have now begun. My church will be different; my people will be different; difficulties and trials will come upon you. The comfort that you know now will be far from you, but the comfort that you will have is the comfort of my Holy Spirit. They will send for you, to take your life, but I will support you. Come to me. Band yourselves together, around me. Prepare, for I proclaim a new day, a day of victory and of triumph for your God. Behold, it is begun.” (given by Bruce Yocum)  - Read more here.

 

(To be continued.)

H/T PML for Ralph Martin reminder.