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DIVINE WILL SNIPPET
(Extracts from the Book of Heaven by Luisa Piccarreta)
Compiled by Ann Ellison
January 30, 2021
WARNINGS AND PROPHECIES FROM
OUR LADY OF GARABANDAL
Dear Divine Will Family,
I promised to send you some information on the Warnings and Prophecies from Our Lady of Garabandal. In my humble opinion, these are the best prophecies and warnings to give us a peek at where we might be in human history.
I cannot help what other “modern prophets,” say or not say…that is between them and God and has nothing to do with me or what I believe. You have every right to listen to them, believe them, and follow what they say. I am not asking you not to believe or follow them. That is totally your decision.
But I believe in what Our Heavenly Mother reveals, who lives totally, completely, and deeply in the Will of God. I am not saying others are wrong either! How would I know?? What I am saying is that I am an avid believer in Our Lady of Garabandal. I learned about the apparitions back in the early1960s when they were happening. My mother had a great devotion to St. Padre Pio and learned about Garabandal through this devotion. Plus, there was even in a small article in our local newspaper, The Montgomery Advertiser! That is Montgomery, Alabama…a Bible Belt area if ever there was one! Yet there it was, an article about the apparitions in San Sebastian de Garabandal, Spain…such a tiny little village of only 300 inhabitants and located in an area that was so remote that you had to ride a donkey to reach it back then.
Anyway, I have loved Our Lady of Garabandal ever since. I was raised in a Catholic School, was a Daughter of Mary, was a member of the Sodality of Our Lady, and I loved my Faith with all my heart growing up.
Then, after my children were grown and I was a widow, Divine Providence brought me to Tom Fahy, who also was devoted to and loved Our Lady of Garabandal. He was an official promoter of Garabandal for years. He was also the founder and president of the Luisa Piccarreta Center for the Divine Will. This Center raised enough money to build a “House of Sanctification” in San Sebastian de Garabandal, opening in June of 2000. Tom realized that after the Great Miracle of Garabandal when a Permanent Sign will be left above the Pines trees, that millions of people would be coming to this holy place to see the Permanent Sign left by Heaven. People’s souls will be ripe to learn about Luisa and the Book of Heaven at that time. (The Pine trees are located above the village where Our Lady told the children that the Great Miracle would happen, and the Permanent Sign would be left)
Tom asked me to run the House of Sanctification in Garabandal. I could not believe this! I have never done anything to deserve such a favor from God, but Praise His Immense Mercy, God does not look at what we have done or not done!! He has a plan, and we are all a part of that plan. He teaches us to just do whatever He asked of us until He lets you know it is time to pass these blessings on to others who can continue the mission. I was blessed to be there in Garabandal for 20 years.
I have learned so much about the apparitions, which make it easy to be an avid believer in them. Now let us get to the warnings and prophecies of Our Lady of Garabandal. There will also be several parts to this email letter!
Part One is to get to know San Sebastian de Garabandal and how the apparitions began. I want you to know what I know so you can understand why I believe so firmly in these apparitions. There is proof that they are from God! Plus, no matter what anyone says, they have never been condemned, ever!! They have not been given the full approval from the Church, but the Church has opened Garabandal to visitors and Priests, and you are free to believe in these apparitions.
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In the years between 1961 and 1965 the Mother of God appeared to four little girls in a small, mountain village in Spain. She made Herself known as Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and gave many, many personal messages but left us with two formal, public warnings. The first of these formal warnings made known on October 18th, 1961, states:
“We must make many sacrifices, perform much penance, and visit the Blessed Sacrament frequently. But first, we must lead good lives. If we do not, a chastisement will befall us. The cup is already filling up, and if we do not change, a very great chastisement will come upon us.”
The second warning was received on June 18th, 1965, four short years after the first message, and six months before the end of Vatican II. Our Lady was so saddened by the second warning that St. Michael was sent to tell the world the following:
“As my message of October 18 has not been complied with and has not been made known to the world, I am advising you that this is the last one. Before, the cup was filling up. Now it is flowing over. Many Cardinals, many Bishops, and many Priests are on the road to perdition and are taking many souls with them. Less and less importance is being given to the Eucharist. You should turn the wrath of God away from yourselves by your efforts. If you ask His forgiveness with sincere hearts, He will pardon you. I, your Mother, through the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel, ask you to amend your lives. You are now receiving the last warnings. I love you very much and do not want your condemnation. Pray to us with sincerity and we will grant your requests. You should make more sacrifices. Think about the Passion of Jesus.”
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The full name of the little pueblo is San Sebastian de Garabandal. Many people get it confused with the large, coastal city of San Sebastian. But it is just a small village located in the rugged and beautiful mountains of northern Spain and simply called Garabandal, by everyone except the villagers. They call the village San Sebastian. No more than 300 people live there, and it is a quiet and peaceful village. The villagers have chosen to keep it as un-commercialized as possible. There are only two religious shops. The village has no resident Priest, yet Fr. Rolando, who has 7 other Parishes, comes from several miles away every day to celebrate Mass. Most of the people are devout and love their faith. The holy Rosary has been prayed in the little village Church every evening for the past 500 years. This may explain a little the reason for the events which began to unfold in the late afternoon of Sunday, June 18th, 1961.
Four young girls were playing on the outskirts of Garabandal. They were Conchita Gonzalez, Mari-Loli Mazon, Jacinta Gonzalez and Mari Cruz Gonzalez. Mari Cruz was eleven and the others girls were twelve. None were related, but all were from the little pueblo of Garabandal.
Suddenly they heard a loud noise, like thunder, and Conchita fell on her knees, her head snapped backwards. The other girls were startled and started to run for their mothers, when they found themselves in the same position. All were seeing a beautiful Angel before them, looking as a young boy, wearing a white gown with rose-colored wings and holding a sign with a message that the girls could not read. He did not say a word. For the next several days the Angel appeared to them without speaking, but always carrying the same sign. Towards the end of June, he finally spoke to the girls and told them that on July 2nd, they would be visited by the Mother of God, which in 1961 was the Feast of the Visitation. Thus, began the events of over 2000 appearances of Our Lady to this tiny village of northern Spain.
The news spread quickly through the region and on Sunday, July 2nd, the little village was very crowded with all types of people. At six in the evening the girls went to the place where St. Michael had appeared to them and in an instant the girls were in ecstasy. Our Lady appeared to them accompanied by an Angel on either side of Her. One being St. Michael, the other Angel was unknown. It was during this first visit that Our Lady told the girls what the sign said that St. Michael was holding. It was Our Lady’s first public message, but the girls were not allowed to reveal the message until October 18th. Conchita described the Blessed Mother as follows:
Our Lady “……was dressed in a white robe with a blue mantle and a crown of golden stars. Her hands are slender. There was a brown scapular on her right arm. Her hair, a deep nut-brown color, is parted in the middle. Her face is long, with a fine nose. Her mouth is very pretty.... She looks like a girl of eighteen. She is tall. There is no voice like hers. No woman is just like her, either in the voice or the face or anything else.”
At times the girls could see the wind rustling her waist-length hair. The girls spoke to her with complete naturalness telling her about their everyday happenings and of the duties that they had accomplished. She would smile at them and she showed great interest in every detail of their day. Her maternal attitude gave them great confidence to speak to her in the same manner as they spoke to their earthly mothers.
In 1961 and 62, Our Lady appeared many times each week, at different times of the day and night. When the girls were awake during the night for apparitions, sometimes lasting several hours, they could still easily get up the next morning, go to school and attend to their duties without showing any signs of fatigue.
During the apparitions, many things happened that were extraordinary. The girls levitated, had ‘ecstatic falls’ in which the girls fell together in ecstasy forming beautiful sculpture-like figures, always in a modest manner. Allow me to list several other external wonders which happened during these apparitions!
1. When an apparition occurred, the girls would fall instantaneously on their knees, striking the sharp rocks, making cracking sounds. People within hearing distance would wince with the imaginary pain they thought the girls were experiencing, yet the girls were never injured. Their heads would snap back to a position which looked impossible to hold for any length of time and yet they stayed in these positions for hours. One doctor said it seemed very difficult to him for the girls to be able to breathe with their heads tilted-back so far, especially Conchita.
2. The girls said they knew when the Virgin was going to appear to them because they received three interior feelings which were referred to as the ‘Three calls of Joy.’ These feelings, or calls, would become stronger the closer the time came for the apparition. No matter where the girls were, if they were together or apart, each knew exactly where to go and the time to meet for the apparition. Many times they were seen running from different parts of the village and coming all together they would go into ecstasy. Their look became extraordinarily beautiful, sweet, and profoundly mystical. Their whole demeanor would change in an instant, and their faces seemed to glow with love and joy. At the end of the ecstasies, they never showed any signs of excitement or nervousness, but only deep profound peace and joy.
3. In a 1980 interview with BBC, Conchita said that Our Lady would come to them in a light so bright that it would eclipse everything else around them and they could not see anything other than Our Lady and the light. They would become so completely absorbed in their vision that they did not react to pricks, burns, or blows. Powerful beams of light were focused on their faces, yet their eyes did not even flicker, blink or show any signs of discomfort. In fact, their eyes remained wide open, expressing a look of intense joy.
4. Weather had no effect on the girls during their ecstasies. There were times they were even barefoot in the snow for hours, with no pain or damage to their limbs.
5. There were times when people would give the girls various sacramentals, such as Missals, Bibles, Rosaries, Medals, wedding rings, etc., for our Lady to kiss. During the ecstasy, Our Lady would kiss these objects and then guide the girls to the rightful owners, sometimes through thick crowds. Most of these objects belonged to people the girls had never met, and some people who were skeptical would try to trick the girls by giving them their sacramentals through a friend. These objects kissed by Our Lady have brought special favors to many owners, occasionally emitting a scent of Roses. Our Lady told Conchita that her Son would work miracles and prodigies through these kissed objects. Also, those who carried or wore them with faith and confidence would suffer their purgatory on earth.
6. Each girl always carried a crucifix in her hand kissed by Our Lady and the Blessed Mother would direct them to extend it for observers to kiss, blessing them with it at the same time. Sometimes when just seeing the girls approaching them with the Crucifix visitors experienced such a tremendous spiritual awakening, that it produced a profound interior emotion in them.
7. Soon after the apparitions started, the ecstatic walks began. The girls went throughout the entire village – up and down stairways, in and out of homes, at all hours of the day and night, avoiding obstacles without faltering, guided solely by the vision. They ran at great speeds down steep and rugged terrain, even running backwards, and running so fast that it was impossible for the people to keep up with them. Their bodies did not seem to be subject to the laws of gravity but had a beautiful and awe-inspiring spiritual agility. The four girls were seen by many as they walked over a bridge arm in arm that was only wide enough for two. The other two girls walked across on air.
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What I have just described are some of the external manifestations that were witnessed during the many apparitions of Our Lady at Garbandal. These sights were incredible to behold, much less to try to comprehend for the thousands of witnesses who came to see and experience what was going on in this tiny, mountain village! Our Lady told Conchita that God allowed these manifestations because it was so important for the Church to get involved in what She had come to tell the world! As much as we enjoy the sensational external miracles, the most important aspect of any apparition is what happens in our souls! The exterior is only to get our attention. It is the interior fruits that will help us understand if it is from God or not! It is the interior (our souls), not the exterior, that will bear holy fruit from a true apparition!
So, with this in mind, I would like to discuss an aspect of the apparitions of Garabandal to which no one, not even the Church can deny it is from God, and this phenomenon is called the ‘Reading of Hearts’! Allow me to quote from the Garabandal Journal, a magazine published by Barry Hanratty, dated November/December 2003.
“Of all 19 types of mystical phenomena listed in the Catholic Encyclopedia, ranging from ‘apparitions’ to ‘bodily incorruptibility,’ there is only one that is exempt from the possibility of either diabolic activity or natural occult powers and that is the ‘Reading of Hearts’, or some call it the ‘Reading of Souls.’
“The clear definition of this gift is as follows: ‘It is the knowledge of the secret thoughts of others or of their internal state without communication.’ The certain knowledge of the secret thoughts of others is truly supernatural since the devil has no access to the spiritual faculties of men and no human being can know the mind of another unless it is in some way communicated.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 7, pp 173-179)
Maximo Forschler, of Germany, was a dear friend of the Andreu family. The Andreu family held a very prominent place in God’s plan during the apparitions of Garabandal. (We will speak about them later.) Maximo, an engineer and a devout Protestant, came to Garabandal only because of the influence of the Andreu family. He had made several visits there, but it was from the reading of his soul on this particular day in Garabandal that he found the true Faith. I will quote him on his experience.
“One day, after Mari-Loli had come out of ecstasy, she called me aside and told me what the Blessed Virgin had said about me. She told me about my life, what I had done, and what had happened to me from my early youth until the present date. Absolutely no one in the village could have known all those details (not even my wife!), and many of them I was able to recall after hearing them from the girl. In spite of the timidity that the girls had and though they were only 12 years of age at the time, Mari-Loli talked a long time to me with the greatest naturalness.”
From this experience Maximo became a very devout Catholic!
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Then there is the story of a young woman from South America who was an Atheist, and an exotic dancer in Paris. She was estranged from her family because of her beliefs and behavior. She told Dr. Ricardo Puncerneau, a much respected, internationally known Neuropsychiatrist that she had come to the village purely out of curiosity that she didn’t believe at all. She had met the good Doctor that evening in Ceferino’s tavern. Ceferino is the father of Mari-Loli. They walked outside to watch the girls in ecstasy praying the Rosary. They were leaning up against the wall and was hidden in the shadows. Suddenly Conchita broke away from the other girls and rushing, came over and with great strength put the Crucifix up to the young woman’s lips three times for her to kiss. Conchita then went back to the other girls, still in ecstasy. When Dr. Ricardo turned to the young women, she was crying uncontrollably. He took her over to a bench for her to sit and calm down. She related to the Doctor, and to a crowd that had gathered, that she had mentally thought,
“If it is true that the Virgin is appearing, then let one of the girls come and give me a sign. Hardly had I thought this when Conchita came running toward me to give me the crucifix to kiss. I didn’t want to kiss it, and I held her hand back. But with exceptional strength she forced the crucifix against my lips and I had no other choice but to kiss it once, twice, and a third time.”
She continued, “I, the unbeliever, the atheist, who believed in nothing. This shook me intensely.”
Later when Dr. Ricardo saw this young women on a train going to Bilbao, she told him she was going back to South America to unite with her family!
A statement was made by the girls that “The Virgin likes Priests, and also people without faith, to come.” It seems to me that this statement was made by Our Lady because communicating to the girls the hearts of Priests and people without faith, many conversions occurred, and hearts were changed. Many, many vocations were saved and realized through the reading of hearts!
We love you all so much and keep each of you in our daily prayers. Please keep us in yours. May God reveal to you the truth about Garabandal and where we are in human history through this information about Our Lady of Garabandal!
Ann Ellison
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