CONCHITA’S DIARY- 2

The Calleja leading up to the Pines.

1961-1963

The 20th of the same month came.

We led our daily lives the same as we did before.

The people continued making the same comments even though things had changed. They said that at best it was our imagination. Since we had not seen anything on June 19^th, they thought that the Angel wouldn’t appear to us again. But they didn’t know what had happened to us during the night—what we hadn’t told anyone.

On the afternoon of the 20th, the other three girls and I did our chores and we went to school. When we came back to our homes, we told our mothers that we were going to pray at the Calleja.

My mother said I wasn’t allowed, that if I wanted to pray in the Calleja, then I should go to the Church.

My mother, and also the parents, brothers, and sisters of the other girls, were worried. They had a very great conflict, because even if they were inclined to believe the truth, they also thought the opposite.

When I was telling my mother thi,s the three girls arrived at my house: Loli, Jacinta, and Mari Cruz, and they shouted:

─ “Please, Señora, let Conchita go. Let her go!”

─ But why do you want to go makes fools of yourselves?

─ We said at the same time:

─ “We aren’t going to make fools of ourselves! We are going to pray, and to see if the Angel comes!”

─ No, Conchita isn’t going. You can go if you want, my mother exclaimed. They left, but very slowly, until they could no longer be seen because of a wall in the way. I remained, very sad.

My mother changed her mind suddenly, and with a loud voice called:

─ Loli, tell the other girls to come here.

Soon they arrived, and my mother said to them:

─ “If you do what I tell you, I’ll let Conchita go.”

They were very happy and answered:

─ Yes, we’ll do it!

─ You three go alone now, as if you were going to play there, without saying anything to anyone. When you arrive at the Calleja, Conchita will go secretly so that no one will notice.

They went but they were a little afraid because they thought that my mother was joking, so they went very slowly. I said to them:

─ Go and then I’ll come!

After a little while my mother let me go, and I went and found that they were upset because I was late. When we were all together, we were very happy, and we arrived at the Calleja where we began to pray the rosary.

When we had finished, the Angel hadn’t come. We decided to go to the Church. And when we got up—we had been kneeling—we saw a very brilliant light surrounding the four of us. We saw nothing else except the light. And we screamed with fear. Then the bright light disappeared and we went to our houses because it was already nine thirty. We didn’t go to the Church because it was already very late. We didn’t say anything to anyone when we reached our houses.

The priest from the village warned us that if we saw something again we should tell him quickly, but this priest lives in a village called Cossío, which is seven kilometers away from our village. Our parents would not give us permission to go to Cossío alone after we told them that we wanted to speak to the priest. On all of these days, there was no one in the Calleja except the five of us: the Angel, Loli, Mari Cruz, Jacinta, and me.

The 21st arrived.

It has been an ordinary day. The people already believed a little more.

In the evening, after having done what we had to do, we asked permission from our parents to go to the same place where the Angel had appeared to us. But while going to the Calleja, seeing that the people did not believe, we told a woman named Clementina González that if she wanted to come with us... But she didn’t want to come alone since she had her doubts, and she called another woman named Concesa.

Noticing us going together, other people joined us also, and arriving at the Calleja, we began to pray the rosary. We finished it, and the Angel had not come. The people were laughing very much and said to us:

─ Now say a “Station.”

And so we did, and on ending it the Angel appeared to us... It was a Friday [This seems to be an error on Conchita’s part. In reality, this happened on a Wednesday; the original text has an attachment, which makes it evident that the girl had some doubt when she was writing the day].

We asked him who he was and why he had come. But he didn’t answer us.

When the apparition ended, the people were very nervous and exclaimed:

─ Oh, my children, when you see the Angel again, tell him to forgive us for not believing! And some people began to cry. A woman named Clementina wanted to call all of the people in the village, and she went to do so when the Angel disappeared.

A woman said to my aunt, who was among the people:

─ Did you see the Angel?

My aunt answered:

─ No, I haven’t seen him, but if you don’t believe in this, you don’t believe in God. The other women asked this so that my aunt wouldn’t be so influenced, but she continued believing.

All those who saw us went down to the village telling everyone about it, since they were very impressed. No one in the village had ever seen or heard anything like it.

The 22nd arrived.

We continued the same as always and the priest from Cossío as soon as he found out what the people had seen and heard, said that he was going to tell everything to the Bishop, but the people said that he should see it first and that he should stay in the village.

On this same day at eight thirty at night we went to pray in the same place. The people went with us, including the priest. We prayed the rosary and when we finished the Angel appeared to us.

Upon seeing us in “ecstasy,” the people began to yell and to say that it was true. A professor was there also; his name is Marín. Some people in the village said that he had prepared us to do this and they wanted to put him in jail. The people repeated this to the guards [Almost from the beginning numerous members of the Civil Guard protected the girls from the strangers that came to the village to see the girls in ecstasy] who had come at the beginning. When the apparition ended, the professor brought us to the home of a man in the village in order to question us about how we had seen the Angel.

The 23rd arrived.

We went to the same place to pray the rosary, but there were many people there. Those from the village had told the people in Cossío, Puentenansa, Rozadio, etc.

At eight forty-five the Angel came and the people from the village were as impressed as those who had come from neighboring villages.

When the apparition ended, all of the people kissed us. That day the guards did not want the professor to take us for questioning. We went with the parish priest to the church sacristy, where he questioned us by calling us in one by one to see if we agreed.

We told him how we had seen the Angel.

Then when he finished questioning us, we all left together, and he said to the people:

─ Up to now, everything seems to be coming from God, and all four girls have the same story.

When the people heard this, they were very happy that it had come from God.

The 24th arrived.

It was Saturday and people came to the village from many different places. We did the same as on the other days, that is, we prayed the rosary in the Calleja. All of the people from the village accompanied us.

When we arrived at the place, the visitors were already there; they had come early to get a spot near the front where they could see well.

On this day, we didn’t have time to begin the rosary. As soon as we arrived at the place where the Angel had appeared to us, we saw him. We had never heard him talk. On this day, we saw a sign underneath him that said: IT IS NECESSARY TO... and on the second line there were Roman Numerals. [In a letter written by Conchita to Mr. William A. Nolan from Illinois, she specifies the description in the following terms: “The first time that we saw him, he didn’t say anything, and he continued in silence until July 1st. Before July 1st he carried a sign beneath his feet and we didn’t understand what it said. The words we understood are these: in the first line it said, there is…and in the last line XVIII—MCMLXI, and this is all we understood.” This is an allusion, as we will see later, to the message of October 18, 1961].

We asked him what this meant, and he smiled… but he didn’t tell us.

When the apparition was over, the young men of the village took us away in a cart so that the people would not crush us or kiss us. They took us to the church, and Fr. Valentín, the parish priest, took us into the sacristy one by one so that we would tell him what had happened.

We said that we had seen a sign and he asked us what it said, or what letters it had, but we told him that we had not concentrated on the sign.

The priest was impatient to go to the Bishop to tell him everything. Then he asked us to go to the professor and tell him to write it down if we remembered any of the letters.

Sunday, the 25th, arrived.

Each day more people come from different places, and the people are still enthusiastic.

Among all of these people there were five priests, but they did not believe. A teacher from Cossío also came.

We arrived at the Calleja and we began to pray the rosary. The people from the village had made a square with stakes and rope so that the people could not approach us. Only the priests, our parents, siblings, and the doctors could come near us. On this Sunday, many doctors came, and, as I already said, five priests. [At the beginning of the apparitions no mention was made of a prohibition or restriction that impeded the priests from coming to the village. On one occasion, more than a dozen priests witnessed the ecstasy: this produced great happiness in the girls, because they felt a special predilection towards priests. They were happy that priests and religious believed in the reality of the apparitions. (It is interesting to note that many times priests dressed in civilian clothing were recognized by the girls as priests. We remember at least five cases like this; some were really amazing)].

When the Angel came, the teacher from Cossío was there. That day, he didn’t believe and he said that it was all a comedy. He said to my brother—“your sister does this very well.”

But my brother did not respond at all.

That day, while I was seeing the Angel, our family doctor grabbed me, lifted me up, and let me fall from a height of about a meter. And on hitting the ground, my knees made a sound as if they were broken. [We heard this from an reliable witness who conversed with the doctor. He alluded to Conchita with interesting exactness regarding this fall. Conchita said that “she didn’t notice.” This explains that the actual height of the fall was overestimated by excited witnesses. According to the doctor, it was not more than 75 cms. It is also true that they didn’t let her fall voluntarily, but she fell because she suddenly weighed more. The phenomenon of increased weight, which is related to levitation, is known in the history of the mystics. An increase of weight happened frequently during the ecstasies at Garabandal.] My brother wanted to stop him from doing this, but a force inside him kept him back. I was unaware of all of this but the people told me about it later. When the apparition was over, the people were very excited and they all wanted to see my knees. And I didn’t know why.

Then it was about eight thirty at night. We went to the Church to pray to Jesus in the Sacrament. [As seen through the messages, the teachings and the history of Garabandal is very connected to the Eucharist. These apparitions contain an invitation from the Virgin to the worship and devotion to Jesus in the Sacrament.] Then they brought us to the Sacristy where we met many doctors and priests. They asked us a lot of questions. Some of the priests didn’t believe; some did. After awhile, we looked at our legs, and they were full of punctures and marks from those who had scratched us. But they didn’t hurt us, although the marks were there.

Monday, the 26th, arrived.

We didn’t have an apparition that day, but we did have apparitions on Tuesday and Wednesday. We didn’t have apparitions on Thursday or Friday even though many people came.

Saturday, July 1st, many people came, including many doctors; they came up to the village in cars. We had an apparition very early that day, at seven thirty. Of course, it was almost day, so the people saw very well.

That day the Angel told us that the Virgin Mary would come on Sunday, under the title Our Lady of Mt. Carmel [The apparition of the Virgin of Mt. Carmel to St. Simon Stock took place, according to history, on July 16, 1251. St. Simon Stock was part of the Carmelite Order. The Virgin told him that there would be a special protection over those who wore the scapular or the Carmelite habit. In 1726, Pope Benedict XIII extended the celebration of the feast of this apparition to include the whole Church.] The Angel brought the sign again and we didn’t know what it said. This day happened just like the others. They brought us into the Sacristy to question us, and we were accompanied by the young people from the village [The young people from the village, especially their relatives and brothers, were charged with defending the girls from the indiscrete enthusiasm of the people.] until we reached the same place as on the other days.

The 28th arrived, (24).

[Conchita finished explaining to us what had happened on Saturday, July 1st. Now the narration jumps to the previous Wednesday. She arrives at Tuesday, the 27th, to give us some supplementary explanations and then she continues talking about the 28th a little more below.]

We continued, very enthusiastic about what we had seen: the Angel with his sign, smiling.

We did everything the same as always. The people who had seen us told those who had not seen and of course, more people came.

On Tuesday the 27th we did not have an apparition, but many people came. In the afternoon we went with the others to pray the rosary in the Calleja and we prayed together with the people. When we finished praying, we didn’t see anything, and we were very sad since we thought that we would never again see anything. The people were very disillusioned “but when God wants it a certain way, it will be that way.”

After praying the Rosary we went to the Church to pray a Station to the Blessed Sacrament, and then we went to our houses. The people from the village were sad because they believed. On the other hand, the strangers who had come and had not seen anything returned laughing and they said: [It is interesting to emphasize that Conchita does not seem to worry about the public’s opinion. She says the same thing whether the public’s opinion is favorable or not; in the objective narration she speaks the pure truth, which she defends with an unalterable firmness] It’s obvious! Since there are many of us and the people in Garabandal are not used to this, they didn’t dare do these things in front of us!

The 28th arrived.

We were a little sad because we had not seen the Angel. We went as usual to the school. When we got out, the people in the village, seeing us so sad, wept and kissed us, saying:

─ Pray so that he will return!

When the evening came, we went to the Calleja and did as usual. The people prayed the rosary with more faith than ever so that the Angel would appear to us. And on finishing the litany, he appeared to us and came smiling more than ever. We asked him, why have you come? He smiled and did not answer us. We began to see him around nine and it ended at ten. It seemed to us a minute or less, because we were so happy with him [During the ecstasy, the time seems very short because of the intense happiness they experience. Frequently, we have heard them ask the Virgin after a long apparition: “Oh, you’re going already?... Wait a minute more…”].

Thursday, the 29th arrived.

We saw him, same as always, and we did the same thing as always.

Friday the 30th everything was the same.

Saturday the 1st arrived.

That day many people came since it was the Virgin’s day. Perhaps she would appear to us.

We went to the Calleja as always to pray the Rosary and the people accompanied us. At the end of the Holy Rosary, the Angel appeared to us, smiling, and said:

─ “I come to announce to you a visit by the Virgin under the title of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, who will appear to you tomorrow, Sunday.”

We were very happy and we said to him:

─ Let her come right away!

He smiled, and then we said to him:

─ What does this sign you brought mean?

─ The Virgin will tell you about it.

This day, he spoke to us about many things.

He told Jacinta, Loli, and Mari Cruz how the first day they were going to call Conchita’s mother because they thought she was having an attack [The angel commented to the girls about the events that took place during the first apparition on June 18th].

They laughed...

─ Because they were ─ I don’t know what that day.

He was there two hours, but it felt like two seconds to us. After he said to us:

─ I will come tomorrow with the Virgin. And he left.

How sad for us! The people were very happy and they asked us:

─ What has he said to you?

And we told them what he had said.

The people from other places believed and were very happy and wanted to tell those who hadn’t seen.

The Angel was dressed in a long, flowing blue tunic without a belt. His wings are somewhat long, very beautiful, and pink in color. His face was neither long nor round; his nose was handsome; his eyes dark; and his face tan. His hands were fine with short nails; his feet weren’t seen. [In this portrait, we can admire the coloring, the precision and the rich literary shading that is shown through the simple style in which this is written].