She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Page 11)

In front of Conchita's house

Years later on April 8, 1967, during the great tests, doubts, and contradictions, Aniceta said to the Argentine priest Julio Meinvielle, who had come up to Garabandal with Jaime García Llorente from Seville:(26)

«I recall seeing Conchita when she came back to the house after her first apparition. She came completely transformed. Even the voice had changed, and this struck me greatly. It was like another voice, a very soft voice. And she smiled with a gentleness in her face.»

· · ·

Loli came home with her sister Amaliuca, who was a year younger. They were afraid, expecting a scolding for returning late. In San Sebastián homes there was strict discipline with young girls, and especially about returning home before dark.

When they arrived, their mother was already in bed since the poor woman had worked hard all day long. They went upstairs to her bedroom and knocked softly on her door, Loli behind Amaliuca.

26. Reverend Julio Meinvielle, a prominent figure among Argentine Catholics, had heard and read about Garabandal in his country. As soon as he could, he took a plane to Madrid and Jaime García Llorente picked him up at the airport and took him straight to Garabandal. There the perspicuous priest contemplated, prayed, and listened . . . And his impression was decidedly favorable. He said to his companion Jaime on the return trip, Garabandal will be the banner of the counter-revolution.

—Mama, they whispered.
—Yes, mama, mama, Julia answered sharply, What time is this to get back home? What do you think this is? I ought to give you a beating.
—We are late because Loli has seen an angel.
—An angel? Not a devil? You ought to be ashamed of yourself! Get going, eat your dinner and get to bed. I’m tired. Don’t bother me.

The girls went downstairs and ate. Then Loli, as was her custom, went to the house of her maternal grandmother who lived next door to sleep with her since the woman lived all alone. (This is the house now occupied by the remaining members of the Mazón-González family.)

Before going to bed, the grandmother and her granddaughter were in the habit of saying together the prayers of the Scapular of Mount Carmel, and they started this again on the night of June 18th, 1961. But the grandmother soon noticed something unusual in the child who was on her knees leaning against her, trembling like a frightened little bird. (Loli was quite small at that time.)

—Child! What’s happened to you?
—Grandmother, I’ve seen an Angel.
—What? You’ve seen an Angel? Are you all right? Come on now!

The little girl insisted, and with such a tone of excitement that the grandmother, although not yielding her entire belief, was partly convinced.

The recitation of the Our Fathers and Hail Marys continued, and everything ended as usual with the ancient and beautiful invocation that had to resound like never before on that night:

GRANDMOTHER: Be our consolation. The way most powerful.

LOLI: Give us your loving protection, Mother of God, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.(27)

· · ·

That was at 9:30 at night.
Later that night we didn’t speak any more about it.
It was an ordinary night, just like any other.
Conchita states this in her diary, but we can be sure that for the four girls of Garabandal that night could not be an ordinary night, just like any other. It might have been that in the external aspects of eating, bedtime, etc., but within the hearts of the four girls, that night had to be quite different, stirring up their feelings and desires. They could still remember the beautiful vision of the calleja, and it filled them with such joy. But with it there was mixed the anxiety of many unanswered questions—these two above all:

Would he return?

What did he want from us?

27. I was finally able to learn also from Jacinta how the meeting with her parents took place on the night of the first apparition:
«On returning home, I couldn’t hide our seeing the Angel . . . My mother and my brother took it as a joke. They couldn’t believe it, and tried to convince me that the best thing to do was forget it . . . When I said that the Angel had wings, my brother replied that it has surely been one of the big birds that he has seen at times in the Peña Sagra mountains--not being used to them, we had been frightened, and the scare had made us see strange things . . .

My father interrupted to say, I don’t want to take a serious matter like this for a joke. I don’t know what occurred, but I know Jacinta well. And I know that if she says that she has seen an Angel, something like this happened.
We didn’t discuss the thing anymore that night. When I was alone, I couldn’t stop thinking of what had happened in the Calleja.»