AN EXPERIENCE IN GARABANDAL

 

José María Pemán and Garabandal

 

 

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Román Martínez del Cerro was an eyewitness of the apparitions at San Sebastián de Garabandal during eleven days in July 1962. His father, Miguel Martínez del Cerro, was a good friend of the prestigious, Spanish writer who cultivated all literary genres: José María Pemán. Both professors worked together in the summer classes at the University of Seville in Cádiz. In this article, Román relates the moment in which his father told José María Pemán about his experience in Garabandal. José María Pemán never stated his opinion publicly on the topic, however it is likely that his friendship and appreciation for Miguel Martínez del Cerro inclined him toward an openness to the possibility of the supernatural character of the events, awaiting the Church’s final statement.

If I had to summarize in one sentence the sensations I perceived at San Sebastián de Garabandal during those eleven days I spent there in July 1962, I would say: “Our Blessed Mother’s happy and delightful visit.”

Continue reading this article here:

https://www.garabandal.it/en/documentation/interviews-and-testimonies/jose-maria-peman-and-garabandal

An interview with Conchita.

Garabandal y la Virgen del Carmen.

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(Excerpt from an interview with Conchita. )

P. Did you "see" the Miracle or were told about it?

R. The Virgin told me and made me understand exactly what it will consist of.

P. Were you alone or with the other girls when Our Lady told you about the Miracle?

R. I don't remember. [Note from the editorial board: According to the notes of Father Valentin Marichalar, priest of Garabandal at that time, Conchita was alone when she received this message. ]

P. What will the Miracle be like?

R. Even if I tried to explain it, I couldn't get it right. It's better to wait and see.

P. Would you like to repeat the information relating to the months during which we can expect the Miracle to happen?

R. From March to May.

P. Some say that the way you will announce a Miracle will itself be a "Miracle". Could you explain it?

R. I think the way it will be announced will be another miracle, because it is a big responsibility for me and it will take me a miracle to say it.

P. If I am far from the village, in the mountains, but I can see the pine trees, will I clearly see the Miracle? If I'm sick, will I heal at that distance?

R. You will be able to witness the Miracle clearly, and God willing, you will be healed.

P. It has been said that elsewhere in the US. and Europe, other Marian sanctuaries can be visited and healed that day. What do you know about that?

R. The Virgin didn't tell us anything about this matter.

P. Those who firmly believe that the Miracle will occur but cannot attend due to their circumstances, for example, for being priests and religious of closing, will they receive any special grace on that day?

R. Personally, I don't know. It depends on the people, their desires, their faith, their sacrifice and obedience.

[Many years ago, Conchita's grandfather planted the pines on a slope that dominated the village of Garabandal. Our Lady told Conchita that after the Miracle, there would be a permanent and supernatural sign in the Pinar that could be seen, photographed and televised but not touched. ]

 

 

The Pines. 

 Conchita today.

 

Conchita's prayer for the new year

 From https://www.garabandal.it/en/

 

Conchita González, one of the Garabandal visionaries, wrote this prayer in her Diary on January 1, 1967. This simple prayer can also become our petition as the new year begins. There are so many things that we can ask Our Lord, but we also have so much to be thankful for.
Let us do the same as Conchita. May we have a grateful heart that asks for what it needs with trust. Notice that she prays for everyone that spreads the message. We cannot keep the message of Our Blessed Mother to ourselves. We have to spread it and make it known so that it may be lived.

Let us pray this prayer.

CONCHITA’S PRAYER—JANUARY 1, 1967

Mother, I pray that this new year
That I not be vain.
I ask you also for sincerity, gratitude and
Love for You.

Lord, this is what I ask of you this year:
Give me the spirit of sacrifice, of prayer.
Let me receive Communion with more fervor,
And visit the Blessed Sacrament more often.

Forgive me, Lord.
Thank you for all of the good that you have given us.
Thank you for all of the good that you have given my family and
Forgive us for not always doing what you ask.
Lord, thank you for this new year and forgive me for last year.

Lord, I pray for all those whom you have commended to me.
Above all for those who need you most.
Lord, I also pray for the souls in Purgatory.
I pray for all of the sick.
For those who spread the message;
And for those who don’t want to know anything about the message.
I pray for everyone.

I also pray for those who write to me now,
And for all who have written to me telling me about their needs.
Lord, I tell You about them,
Although I cannot tell you about all of them,
Lord, you already know.

Mother, listen to all of us,
Tell your Son
And help and give them what they pray for,
If it is for your greater glory and Jesus'
And for the good of our souls.

Lord, forgive those you have entrusted to me.
Lord, I pray so that your message will spread more and more
And that all who spread the message
Will do it for You.
Lord, thank you for them.
Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Hail, Mary Most Pure,
Conceived without sin.

Amen.

 

GARABANDAL PROPHECIES 2026 : CONCHITA's Clues that Reveal the Date of the GREAT MIRACLE [video]

 

Don’t Fall Asleep!

 

This Advent we offer you a word to listen to and to live: Wake up.

We are often asleep in our practice of faith, charity, and hope. We have nearly forgotten that the Lord told us to keep watch because we do not know the day nor the hour of his return. Advent arrives to remind us of this. Christ promised that He would return, but we do not know when. Meanwhile, He has told us to keep watch and pray. We can take seriously these words of Christ, and really make an effort to put them into practice and not waste time this Advent.

In Garabandal, we know that many times the girls, and all those who were with them, used to wait for the apparition late into the night. They stayed awake and waited for the Virgin Mary. Maria Jose Alvarez, witness of the apparitions, gives us this information: “After going from house to house where apparitions were going to take place, we sat on a bench in front of the window of Conchita’s house. The kitchen was full and the door open. The Rosary was being prayed and we answered from outside. At 6:00am the people who were in the kitchen decided to go outside so that we could go in case we were cold.
Conchita and her mother were sitting at both sides of the fire. Aniceta was more awake of the two, and I said to her: “Why don’t they go to bed, knowing that the Virgen Mary won’t come until later?” Aniceta answered me, “Knowing that the Blessed Virgin is coming, the least we can do is stay up to wait for her.”

This is the attitude that we should have now and always before the Lord’s coming: remain interiorly awake, that is, be prepared.

“The exhortation to watch and pray so as to be ready to meet the Lord sounds as vibrant and timely as ever” (Homily of St. John Paul II, 1st Sunday of Advent, 1997).

The Lord is coming and hopes to find the doors open. When he comes to our heart, may what happened on the day of his birth not be repeated: “There was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). “Open the doors to Christ, your Savior” (St. John Paul II).

We ask the Virgin Mary for her aid. “Turn your gaze to Mary. Her whole life tells you that nothing is impossible for God. By imitating her and constantly invoking her, you will be able, like her, to bring joy and love” (St. John Paul II).

From  https://www.garabandal.it/en/

Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory

 

Here we offer you an old prayer to the souls in Purgatory that the now elderly at San Sebastian de Garabandal learned from the lips of their elders. Generation after generation has prayed to aid the souls of their relatives and friends suffering in Purgatory. Hopefully this prayer helps us to interiorize the important teaching that each one of our words, actions, and omissions has eternal consequences. No one enters heaven without having purified him or herself perfectly. Moreover, it is a spiritual work of mercy to pray for the souls in Purgatory. Let's spread this prayer. One day we might need others to pray it for us.

 

As in all the Catholic Church's tradition, at San Sebastian de Garabandal it was a very ingrained custom to pray for the souls in Purgatory. The Virgin Mary herself would take the girls to the cemetery to pray for the dead during the ecstasies. The witnesses remember very moving scenes, like the time when Conchita and Mari Loli walked upon the holy grounds and laid the crucifix they were carrying upon each tomb and then gave it the Virgin Mary to kiss. They also remember when Conchita put her cross through the iron gate giving the impression that she was offering the cross to be kissed by souls that only she could see. "The hardest hearts were moved," Maximina Gonzalez remembers.

The Spanish Civil Guard brigadier, Juan Alvarez Seco, notes in his memories of the Virgin Mary's apparitions at San Sebastian de Garabandal: “The inhabitants have very religious customs. They never forget, under any circumstances, to pray the Angelus as soon as the clock strikes noon. In the afternoon, they pray the holy rosary, led by the parish priest, or in his absence, by the schoolmistress or Maximina, a widow. Upon nightfall, Simon’s wife (Jacinta’s mother) goes out through the village with a lantern and rings a bell to remind everyone to say the last prayers of the day.”

Among these last prayers mentioned by the Brigadier, there was a very special memory for the souls in Purgatory in all of the homes. We have retrieved one of these prayers from the lips of Manolita Mazon. It is a truly beautiful catechesis about Purgatory and the very close connection we ought to have with the souls who dwell there. The ancient principle, "Lex orandi, lex credendi," is right. It means that what we pray is what we believe in, because prayer instills in us the eternal truths that our lips proclaim. "The Church believes how she prays," the Catechism of the Catholic Church says in number 1124.

Here we offer you an old prayer to the souls in Purgatory that the now elderly at San Sebastian de Garabandal learned from the lips of their elders. Generation after generation has prayed to aid the souls of their relatives and friends suffering in Purgatory. Hopefully this prayer helps us to interiorize the important teaching that each one of our words, actions, and omissions has eternal consequences. No one enters heaven without having purified him or herself perfectly. Moreover, it is a spiritual work of mercy to pray for the souls in Purgatory. Let's spread this prayer. One day we might need others to pray it for us.

 

Prayer for the Souls in Purgatory
Prayed at San Sebastian de Garabandal for many years.

Very dear spouses of the Lord,
enclosed in the prison of Purgatory,
you who suffer unspeakable pains while in want of God's presence
until purified, like gold in the crucible,
of the remains of your faults.
How rightfully do you cry out to your friends
from those voracious flames, begging for mercy!

I sympathize with your pain
and would like to supply enough [merits]
to satisfy for you before the Divine Justice.
Yet, being poorer than you,
I appeal to the piety of the just,
the prayers of the blessed,
the unfathomable treasure of the Church,
the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and the infinite price of the Blood of Jesus Christ.
Grant, oh Lord, these poor souls
their longed for consolation and rest.

I also trust, grateful souls,
that I will have powerful intercessors in you,
who will obtain from the Lord [for me]
grace to detest my sins,
advance in virtue,
subdue my passions,
and reach the eternal beatitude
for all eternity. Amen.

From  www.garabandal.it 

Hands Full, Not Empty

 

Finding ourselves once again close to the date of the last apparition in Garabandal, we experience a new invitation to go deeper into its beautiful content. In her diary, Conchita relates that she, "had a great desire for that day to come, so that I could once again see the one who caused God's joy [to grow] within me!" A question arises: What is my desire to encounter God and Our Lady like? Is it great? Many times, we rejoice at vain and passing things that do not bring us true joy. Conchita speaks of God's happiness sown in her soul in this passage. Loving God and being loved by Him is where true happiness is found. We often seek happiness where we are not going to find it.
The entire narrative is worth reading, but today I invite you to focus on one detail, one word from Our Mother. "When you present yourself before God, you must show your hands full of good works done for your brethren and for the glory of God. Now your hands are empty." No comment is necessary because the Virgin Mary explained perfectly what we have to do. I say what we have to do, because although she was speaking to Conchita, Our Lady had said, "I come, not only for you, but for all of my children." Everything she says applies us because we are her children. Being Mary's child is yet another cause of joy, but it comes with a responsibility. What good child does not listen to the words his mother addresses to him? And how much more when the mother is this Mother in particular! Therefore, we must understand these words as if they were said to us and put them into practice.
They invite us to do works in favor of our brethren and for God's glory. The greatest good we can do for someone to help them draw close to God. That is giving glory to God, since God is glorified in man fully alive, the man who lives close to Him. In the end, we can say that it is an invitation to charity, to love. Our hands have to be full of love, love for God and for neighbor. We return to this great desire. If I truly desire to see God and the Virgin Mary, I will be willing to do everything they ask me to do. Today they ask that I love - just this - to love and let myself be loved by Them.
Today look upon the Virgin Mary. Ask Her to help you fill your hands with these works of charity, so that when you present yourself before God, you can show Him your hands full, not empty.

From www.garabandal.it