by Arthur Policarpio
Garabandal is a small village of around 300 people located in a ruggedly beautiful, mountaineous region of Northern Spain. In the evening of June 18, 1961, four girls were playing in the outskirts of the town – 11-year old Maria Cruz Gonzalez, and three 12-year-old girls named Conchita Gonzalez, Maria Dolores Mazon, and Jacinta Gonzalez. Notwithstanding their similar last names, none of them were related. Suddenly, they heard a loud noise, like thunder, and they saw the Archangel Michael. On the following days, the Archangel appeared today in the same place, announcing to them that on July 2, they would see Our Lady.
Parallel Message with Akita
One cannot help but see the striking similarity of the formal messages of Garabandal with the messages of Our Lady in the Church-approved apparitions of Akita, Japan. On April 22, 1984 Bishop John Shojiro Ito, local bishop of the region of Akita, Japan, declared the Marian apparitions of Our Lady Akita to be of supernatural origin. Below is the exact text of Our Lady’s messages in Akita:
As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Heavenly Father will inflict a great punishment on all humanity. It will definitely be a punishment greater than the Deluge, such as has never been seen before.
Fire will plunge from the sky and a large part of humanity will perish… The good as well as the bad will perish, sparing neither priests nor the faithful. The survivors will find themselves plunged into such terrible hardships that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the sign left by My Son (Eucharist).
Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary pray for the bishops and priests. The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church. One will see cardinals opposing other cardinals… and bishops confronting other bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and condemned by their confreres; churches and altars will be sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will tempt many priests and religious to leave the service of the Lord.
In her messages in Garabandal, Our Lady foretold three great supernatural events: the Warning, the Great Miracle, and the Great Chastisement. Of the three (3), the Great Chastisement, as with Akita, is conditional.
The Warning
Conchita was advised by Our Lady at the pines on January 1, 1965 of a divine Warning that would precede the Great Miracle. The Warning will be seen and experienced by all people all over the world, and will be a direct, supernatural work of God. It will take place before the Great Miracle at a date unknown to Conchita, and its purpose is give people a chance to amend their lives. Conchita wrote:
The warning comes directly from God and will be visible to the whole world and from any place where anyone many happen to be. It will be like the revelation of our sins and it will be seen and felt by everyone, believer and unbeliever alike irrespective of whatever religion he may belong to. It will be seen and felt in all parts of the world and by every person.
In an interview in 1973, Conchita further describes the Warning:
The most important thing about the warning is that every person–everyone in the whole world–will see a sign, a grace, or a punishment within themselves. In other words, a warning. They will find themselves all alone in the world, no matter where they are at the time, alone with their conscience right before God. They will then see all their sins, and what their sins have caused.
This idea of a worldwide warning, an “illumination of consciences”, are likewise found in other private revelations, in particular, the Diary of Saint Faustina. In an except from her diary (n. 83), she reveals the following message from Jesus:
Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens of this sort: All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and the feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day.
Likewise, in the “interior locutions” received by Fr. Stefano Gobbi from Our Lady, as contained in the book “Our Lady Speaks to Her Beloved Priests”, Our Lady foretold a “Second Pentecost” (message given October 2, 1992):
What will come to pass is something so very great that it will exceed anything that has taken place since the beginning of the world. It will be like a judgment in miniature, and each one will see his own life and all he has done, in the very light of God.
Furthermore, in her June 28, 1990 message to Fr. Gobbi:
The Second Pentecost will come like a river of grace and of mercy which will purify the Church and make her poor and chaste, humble and strong, without spot or wrinkle, all beautiful, in imitation of your heavenly Mother…The Second Pentecost will come like a dew upon the world and will transform the desert into a garden, in which all humanity will run, like a spouse, to meet her Lord, in a renewed covenant of love with Him.
Finally, in a message to Fr. Gobbi on May 22, 1994, Feast of Pentecost:
The triumph of my Immaculate Heart will coincide with the great prodigy of the Second Pentecost. A new fire will come down from heaven and will purify all humanity, which has again become pagan. It will be like a judgment in miniature and each one will see himself in the light of the very Truth of God. Thus sinners will come back to grace and holiness; the straying, to the road of righteousness; those far away, to the house of the Father; the sick, to complete healing; and the proud, the impure, the wicked collaborators with Satan will be defeated and condemned forever…open your hearts to hope, because there is about to come upon you the greatest prodigy of the Second Pentecost.
When will it happen? In the book “Garabandal – the Finger of God”, author Albrecht Weber narrated a conversation he had with Conchita as to when the Warning could possibly happen. Conchita told the author: “When communism comes again everything will happen.”
The author responded: “What do you mean by comes again?” “Yes, when it newly comes again,” she replied. “Does that mean that communism will go away before that?” “I don’t know,” she said in reply, “the Blessed Virgin simply said ‘when communism comes again’.”
The Great Miracle
Conchita has clearly said that Our Lady has promised a Great Miracle in Garabandal – a tremendous prodigy which, in the words of Conchita, “will be the greatest Miracle Jesus has ever performed for the world.” In a location with Our Lord dated July 20, 1963, the Lord Jesus told Conchita that the Miracle is going to take place “to convert the whole world.” A concise summary and description of the miracle was narrated by Conchita to author Francisco Sanchez-Venture and published in his book Las Apariciones No Son Un Mito:
I am the only one to whom the Blessed Virgin spoke of the miracle. She forbade me to say what it will consist of. I can’t announce the date either until eight days before it is due to occur. What I can reveal is that it will coincide with an event in the Church and with the feast of a saint, martyr of the Eucharist; that it will take place at eight thirty on a Thursday evening; that it will be visible to all those who are in the village and surrounding mountains; that the sick who are present will be cured and the incredulous will believe. It will be the greatest miracle that Jesus has performed for the world. There won’t be the slightest doubt that it comes from God and that it is for the good of mankind. A sign of the miracle which it will be possible to film or televise, will remain forever at the pines.
The Chastisement
While the Warning and the Great Miracle are events that will definitely occur as prophesied by Our Lady in Garabandal, the third great event, the Chastisement, is conditional and can be averted by mankind’s repentance. Conchita describes it as follows:
I cannot reveal what kind of punishment it is except that it will be a result of the direct intervention of God, which makes it more terrible and fearful than anything we can imagine. It will be less painful for innocent babies to die a natural death than for those babies to die because of the punishment. All Catholics should go to confession before the punishment and the others should repent of their sins. When I saw IT (the punishment), I felt a great fear even though at the same time I was seeing Our Blessed Mother. The punishment, if it comes, will come after the miracle.
In his book The Apparitions of Garabandal, Francisco Sanchez-Venture y Pascual includes the following note written by Conchita about the Chastisement:
The Chastisement is conditional and depends on whether or not mankind heeds the messages of the Blessed Virgin and the Miracle. If it should take place, I know what it will consist of because the Blessed Virgin told me about it, but I am not permitted to say what it is. Moreover, I have seen the Chastisement. I can assure you that if it comes, it will be worse than being enveloped in fire, worse than having fire above and beneath you. I do not know how much time will elapse between the Miracle and the Chastisement.
In an interview in April 2006, Marie Cruz, referring to the Chastisement, she said that “the Virgin never was threatening, it was a warning- like a mother who advises a son, be he takes a bad road.”
Conchita said:
The Blessed Virgin Mary told me before that Jesus does not want to send the punishment in order to distress us but in order to help us and reproach us because we pay no attention to Him. And the warning will be sent in order to purify us for the miracle in which he will show us His great love, and in order that we may fulfill the message.