Fr. Ramon Andreu's Notes: Part One, Post 5

2nd Diary

July 1-27

Summary:

July 2nd—The vision speaks; something about the secret.

There are descriptive dialogues. The Archangel. The Virgin. The Child.

They offer stones. They are even. Kisses.

Medals. The calls. Anesthesia. Reflections.

They enter and leave the trance. Transformation.

They receive the sacrament from the hands of the Angel. The pastor’s behavior in the first weeks. Conchita is in Santander.

July 2, 1961

This July 2nd, Sunday, represents the beginning of a new phase in the rhythm of the apparitions for the four girls. Ceferino’s paper has the last sentence with these words:

“July 2nd: “The Vision speaks.”

Between these references that I could obtain directly from the girls, they say “the other Sunday we saw the Virgin and she talked to us.”

In the document which Fr. Luís Andreu, S.J. coordinated his notes with the ones taken by Fr. Cipriano Abad and Fr. Andrés Pardo, he points out an interview that they made of the girls, with these two responses:

“Did you see the Virgin from the time of the first vision?”

R—“We didn’t see the Virgin for a few days; first we saw the Angel.”

Something about the Secret

P—“They said that the Virgin changed a secret that the Angel had told you, adding some things.”

R—“First we talked about the Angel’s secret and then the Virgin’s secret, but there are two secrets: the Angel’s and the Virgin’s. We never talk amongst ourselves about the secret because one time they heard us.”

(This interview with the girls corresponds to July 31^st and August 1^st).

From this part of the first dialogue it seems that it is necessary to arrange the principal themes.

1st—The Angel told us that he was St. Michael the Archangel. One of the girls laughed when she heard this comment.

2nd—This seems to be the first day that they began to receive the message. The impression it gives, upon talking with the girls about the message, is that they received it in several visions. At least the Vision repeated it in different ecstasies. The manner in which they received it is not only oral, but they also show it. The sentence in which the message appears: “The cup is already filling up,” corresponds, in its visual effect, to this day, or to the following days.

The girls have not talked about this since October 18th passed, so the oral references that I have, I received directly from the girls on October 19th. They told me that they saw a large cup. Drops fell around this cup that could have been blood or tears. The girls could not see to what point the cup had filled. While they saw this the Virgin was very serious, “We have never seen her that serious since, she spoke in a low voice when she said very slowly: ‘The cup is already filling up.’”

The girls didn’t understand the meaning of the sentence: “The cup is already filling up.” They couldn’t ask anyone because that would be revealing the secret that should say hidden until October 18th. Nevertheless, one of the girls, it seems María Dolores, asked the Virgin before this time. María Dolores told the other girls.

On October 19th, Conchita asked me in the morning: “What does ‘the cup is already filling up’ mean?” I told her: “When it is full, the punishment will come.” She responded “This is the same thing the Virgin—(I think she said Loli).”

She responded to my question about the punishment saying: “It will be very large, if it comes, it will be for everyone, for us as well.”

The news that they kept with me in this month of July isn’t as precise as it was in other determined days and hours. I didn’t have news about what happened in San Sebastián de Garabandal until the last days of July arrived. Then I gathered facts directly from the girls, the pastor, and from some neighbors from the village. I pursued some things that could help me to arrive at a clearer understanding of the facts that I saw in the next months, and of the documents that I possess.

(See other notebook for this dialogue)

In an interview that was recorded on a tape, there were three girls who responded to questions made with the idea of obtaining concrete descriptive traits of what the girls saw. The girls were: Jacinta, María Dolores, and Conchita.

(See other notebook for this dialogue).