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The apparitions of

GARABANDAL

BY
F. SANCHEZ-VENTURA Y PASCUAL

Chapter Twelve

CONCLUSIONS

Page 170

   "The Angel has given me a message for the world."

   "Can you tell us what it is?"

   "No, not now."

   "Is it good or bad?"

   "What comes from God is always good."

   "I mean, is it pleasant or unpleasant?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

   "Can't you tell us straight away," I insisted.

   "He told me to give it out in writing."

   "Will we know what it is tomorrow?"

   "Yes."

   Watching the rapture had left us with an immense inner joy, and this, I could see, was general. That night, there was many an embrace and many a kind word of friendship between complete strangers. It was in this same spirit that I found myself embracing Fr. Bernardino Cennano, a Franciscan who had come from Italy.

   In my view, the ecstasy of June 18th was the confirmation of Garabandal. Let us analyze the facts.

   Conchita had a rapture on New Year's Day. She was alone. Two young shepherd boys saw her in ecstasy. By the time they had run to inform people in the village and had started back up the mountainside to see her, Conchita was descending the lane. Taken by surprise, she had no alternative but to tell her story.

   "I saw Our Lady, and She told me the Angel is going to appear to me on June 18th, to give me a new message."

   The news spread round Spain like wildfire, across the frontier and throughout the Catholic world. With her usual naturalness when recounting her visions, Conchita confirmed the news to everyone who asked. She calmly awaited the day announced by the Vision. She never lost her assurance and gaiety. She allayed my own fears, saying that she "knew all the details". At the time set for the Angel's apparition, she happily set off for the appointed place. And, the instant she reached the spot, she went into a rapture. Doctors checked that her trance and state of ecstasy were genuine. The powerful spotlights did not harm her eyes; her face was transfigured; her breathing and voice acquired the measure and tone proper to a state of ecstasy. All of a sudden, she rose to her feet and then crashed back, to her knees, a jarring blow that left her skin without so much as a graze. After twenty minutes, she emerged from her trance in a totally normal state. She spoke of a message that she would communicate in writing, and this message, composed by a young girl lacking anything more than the most elementary schooling, proved to be a piece of perfect theology. Is all this not

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