The Warning

 

 

To be read as though the Warning had just come

 

 

(Published with ecclesiastical permission)

by Father Philip Bebie, C.P.

 

The Warning

 

 

(Cum permisso superiorum)

 

by Father Philip Bebie, C.P.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explanation of This Book

 

A great struggle between good and evil is going on.  Pope Paul VI did not hesitate to call it "apocalyptic."

The ultimate result of this struggle was told to us specifically at Fatima:  There will be a triumph of love...a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary..."Russia will be converted and an era of peace will be granted to mankind."

Before that triumph we may have a terrible chastisement in which "several entire nations will be annihilated."

According to Garabandal, Medjugorje, etc., to make it possible for the world to avoid that chastisement, the Queen of Peace has obtained for us THE WARNING.

Holy prophets (St. Edmond Campion, Blessed Anna Maria Taigi) predicted this same warning at the very beginning of the historical religious catastrophes:  The Reformation conflicts (St. Edmond) and the rise of Marxism (Bl. Anna Maria) which have brought our world to its present state of estrangement from God.

At the time of the publication of this book in 1986 Father Bebie (who wrote this in 1981-82) was suffering the final stages of a terminal cancer, which, to the surprise of his doctors and most of all, himself, had not yet taken his life.  He had previously entrusted the manuscript to a friend to be published when the Warning occurred.  During a "good-bye" visit early in 1986...shortly after he had returned from a hospital intensive care unit, it was decided that publication after the Warning might be ineffective.  It might be too late for people to know the importance of what had just happened to them...and to the world!

THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS WARNING CANNOT BE EXAGGERATED.

It will be an act of God...an act of His Mercy.   Whether the world will avoid annihilation of several entire nations will depend on how each of us reacts to this act of His Mercy.

At a time when the world has lost its sense of sin, we will suddenly see ourselves as God sees us.  We will recognize our sins.

IF WE REJECT THIS ACT OF MERCY...if we then persist in our sins...will we not deserve to see the whole world purged with fire...or by whatever purging Divine Justice may elect?

It is possible that many will reject the warning out of ignorance.

That is why it seemed both prudent and advisable to make this book available in advance, entrusting to those who receive it, the responsibility of communicating with newspapers, television, radio, Church leaders, government officials, in a word, to all who will be able to inform the greatest number of people just what the warning means as soon as it happens.

It may be a year away.  It may happen tomorrow.  There are many indications that it will come soon.

 

NOTE: Father Bebie died in 1986, when, at the very time, this little book (written by him in 1981) was being printed.

 

 

 

Foreword

 

Blessed Anna Maria Taigi spoke of a great chastisement which would come to the world before which there would be an illumination of the conscience of men by which suddenly everyone would see themselves as God sees them.  She indicated that this illumination of conscience would result in the saving of many souls because many would repent as a result of this "Warning"...this miracle of "self-illumination."

Beatified in 1920 as a model of women and mothers, Anna Maria Taigi was not only a prophetess of our time, but one of the most extraordinary mystics in the history of the Church.

From the time she was 20 years old, until she died at the age of 63, the Beata was accompanied by a mysterious light in which she saw past, present and future events...some relating to struggles among nations; some relating to individual souls.

Blessed Anna Maria gazed into that light only when she felt an interior impulse...a sort of direction from Our Lord and the Holy Spirit...to do so.  And usually when she looked into that light she was asked to offer some special suffering for a special need in the Church or in an individual.

In that light Anna Maria saw a great chastisement coming upon the world in the future...but at the same time a great blessing:  "The Warning" which would be an illumination of the consciences of men, just as though suddenly every man was given the same kind of light that accompanied her...in which they would see themselves as God sees them.

It is interesting that 300 years before Blessed Anna Maria this same revelation was given to St. Edmund Campion who went to his death affirming the same prophecy.

One is put in mind of the prophecies of the Old Testament...some of which were close to the time of Our Lord, and some of which were hundreds of years before.  And no one ever knew with any exactitude when those prophecies would be fulfilled.

But we now have cogent reasons to believe that this prophecy of the warning and the chastisement...which we have heard from the lips of various good persons and canonized saints...will take place very soon, for we recall that St. John Bosco, an authentic prophet of our time, was told by Our Lady that She would obtain a victory for Christianity before the year 2000 which would be greater even than the victory of Lepanto (which in 1571 was a turning point in the history of the world over seemingly hopeless odds).

Father Philip Bebie, a Passionist priest who became nationally celebrated for his book "Proclaim her Name" (A.M.I. Press) was a founding member of a Passionist House of Solitude and was Administrator of the first two Charismatic Priests' conferences in Steubenville, Ohio (1975-1976). He then preached Parish  Missions until his sickness (1983).

The year 1985 was the jubilee (25 years) year of his priesthood.  During this recent time of grace Father Philip became convinced that the foretold warning (and at the same time great miracle of grace) would find most people unprepared.  He felt a need to explain the Garabandal prophecies so that when the world experienced the Illumination of Conscience people would better know what it meant and be prepared for the Great Miracle. 

Father Philip began this book in October of 1981 and completed it January 1st, 1982.  He did not intend that it should be published until after the Warning took place.  But he shared the manuscript with a few friends.  One of them allowed Father Philip himself to set the manuscript into print so that it would be ready for immediate printing and distribution when the Warning occurred.

Four years later, Father Philip himself was dying of an advanced state of cancer of the liver.  And while constantly thinking of his imminent death, he also began to sense the possibility that he himself might still be alive to experience the Warning and the great Miracle that is to follow.  It then occurred to some of his friends that since the predicted time between the Warning and the Miracle would be less than a year, it might be best to have some copies of this book printed in advance and in the hands of at least some people in different parts of the world so that it would be more readily available if and when these prophecies are actually realized.

It must be borne in mind that this book is intended to be published generally only after the Warning.  For that reason, it reads as though the miracle of Illumination of Conscience had already been experienced by the reader.  Even if read before the Warning, we believe it will be of deep interest and edification for all who read it.

 

Ask the 101 Foundation about the

--Garabandal Miracle Flight --

Price of this book is $3

Call 908-689 8792 or write to:

 

The 101 Foundation, Inc.

P.O. Box 151

Asbury, NJ 08802-0151

 

This book does not anticipate the judgment of the Church on the events of Garabandal.  It is intended for publication only AFTER the final major prophecy of Garabandal -- The Warning -- will already have taken place.

To be ready for that event a limited number of copies is being distributed in advance.  They are not for sale.  However, an offering for postage (tax-deductible) would be appreciated.

 

Printed with permission of the ecclesiastical superior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***(PLEASE NOTE: PAGE NUMBERS HAVE BEEN REMOVED AS THEY DO NOT APPLY TO THIS VERSION OF THE BOOKLET.)

 

Contents  

 

Foreword.......................................................................................

Introduction: We have felt the Warning.........................................

 

TODAY

(The Warning)

 

Chapter One: The Warning.......................................................

 The Warning...predicted by Our Lady of Mount Carmel...was like the conversion of St. Paul...made us aware of God...shows us our sins...was a taste of eternity...was a mercy from God...is a sign of the future...is a direct intervention of God...calls us to choose...calls us to prepare for the Miracle...is inseparable from the Miracle.

YESTERDAY

(Mary's Past Warnings)

 

Chapter Two: Review of Marian Apparitions..........................

 Paris 1830...LaSalette 1846...Lourdes 1858...Fatima 1917...Garabandal 1961.

 

TOMORROW

(After The Warning)

 

Chapter Three: The Miracle......................................................

 One person knows the date...one person has seen it...millions will see it...will be a revelation...will be Eucharistic...will be ecclesial...will be Marian...will convert the world...will be sacramental...will be a warning...will be for the glory of God.

Chapter Four: The Punishment................................................

Will take place after the Miracle...will be directly from God...will purify the earth...will be the last punishment...will not be the end of the world...will not be a ware...no one will escape it.

Chapter Five: The Permanent Sign.....................................

 A reminder of the Message...it calls us to holiness...it will point us toward Heaven...it will guard the era of peace.

 

 

THE NEXT DAY

(The Triumph)

 

Chapter Six: Triumph of the Immaculate Heart................

"My Immaculate Heart will triumph"...it is victory over evil in hearts...it has already begun...it will glorify Mary...it will be a conversion event.

Chapter Seven: What Will Hasten the Triumph?..............

 It has been delayed...prayer hastens it...penance and reparation hasten it...amendment of life will hasten it...Consecration will hasten it.

Chapter Eight: Consecration and devotion to the Immaculate Heart.......................................

 Consecration is a form of devotion...consecration is a simple matter...Consecration opens us up to God's power.

Chapter Nine: The Era of Peace..........................................

 "There will be peace"...The Era of Peace awaits the Triumph...The Era of Peace can come soon.

 

THE NEW TIMES

(The Evangelization of the World)

 

Chapter Ten: "All Will Love Our Hearts.............................

 The whole world will be converted...this has happened before...a third world-evangelization will begin soon...the Church is being prepared...the whole world will be evangelized...The Warning prepared the Church    For evangelization...the Churches will be reunited...God will unite us...Russia will be converted...the new Church will be humble...the reunited Church will be the sign of evangelization...conversion takes time...what will the new Church of the Era of Peace be like?

Conclusion: We Wait for the Miracle.................................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

A short time ago, abruptly, all on earth felt the intervening of God.  To each one of us He unveiled the innermost secrets of our heart.  His inexorable light seared our consciences and showed us to ourselves as in a flawless mirror.  The truth was vivid in our minds.  We saw the awful blight of our sinfulness, the excruciating pain of it, and knew in an instant what our eternity would be because of it.  The Lord's mercy scoured away all pretension.  By His merciful intrusion, we knew ourselves --- oh, how we knew ourselves, in His light.  We felt the Warning.

Over twenty years ago, it had been predicted by the Mother of God, who communicated her message to us through four young girls from the mountain village of Garabandal, Spain, remote and rude, rocky and high among the clouds.  The message was plain as well, and not really new in content.  For she had been repeating it generation upon generation as she visited one place after another for what is now a span of one hundred and fifty years.  Yet at this moment she had spoken it with special urgency.  Time was running out.  These would be the "last warnings" the world would receive.  People would have to change their lives and stop offending God, or else they would suffer the most terrible consequences.

The four children who saw her were informed of great events that would overwhelm the world.  These occurrences were to happen, by God's great mercy, so that the whole world would be converted.  They would bring about the conversion of humanity.  But unless we heard the message and changed soon, this would happen only after great suffering.

She told them of "The Warning", a "correction of the conscience of the world", which all would experience as a kind of disaster in their lives, but none of them would die of it, except perhaps from the shock of it.  She also spoke to them of a "Great Miracle" to be worked by the Lord at Garabandal so that we all might come to believe, but she would not permit the disclosure of the exact time this would happen (although one of the girls knows the date and must announce it eight days before it happens).  Lastly she revealed to them "The Punishment",  which would descend upon us "directly from God", if people did not repent in time to avert it.

The Punishment must be avoided.  Because the Lord wants to protect us from it, He gives us The Warning and The Miracle.  They are meant to help us respond to the message of Mary so that we can avoid The Punishment entirely.  We must understand what to do to be saved, and then we must do it.  Our fate hangs in the balance.  There will be peace; Our Lady of Fatima has promised that it will inevitably arrive.  What we do between now and that "Era of Peace" will determine whether or not The Punishment will first have to be undergone. 

But for now, we know that The Warning has pierced our hearts.  We have known it with greater clarity than anything else has ever been known.  We must heed it, and look again at the repeated messages and warnings of the Mother of God.  Looking again and more deeply is the burden of this book.  We will recall and reflect upon what she said over the long years of our forebears, consider the present situation, and open up to her promises.  There is danger, greater danger than humankind has ever faced before, but there is also hope.  She asserted, "There will be peace."  "In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph; the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me.  Russia will be converted, and an Era of Peace will be given to the world."

This book will attempt to answer many of the questions in your mind since you felt THE WARNING.  What was the Warning?  Is a miracle coming too?  Why has the whole world been involved in such a powerful, direct way?  Is it the end of the world? 

Read and be instructed.  All the material presented has been around for twenty years, but we have not heard it, or been prevented from hearing it.  God has broken through the darkness.  Read now.  It is time. 

 

 

 

 

 

TODAY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter

One

 

The Warning

 

The Warning was predicted by Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Garabandal, where she prophesied three great events that were to come: The Warning, The Miracle, and The Punishment.  The last would occur only if the world would still refuse to repent after the first two made God's mind plain to all.  We have just experienced the first; the second and the third are still in the future.  The Miracle will come within a year of The Warning, so that we will be prepared to receive the grace of The Miracle.

The Warning was like the conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle, who was penetrated by the same light we have recently endured.  He was on the Damascus road, journeying to that town to persecute the newly converted Christian Jews who lived there.  In a glorious vision it was revealed to him that he was assailing not only the members of the Church, but Jesus Himself, the very Lord of heaven and earth!  The blinding light of the Risen Christ convicted him of sin.  Paul heeded the warning Jesus had given him; he repented and became his faithful follower, and left his former life behind.

Has not the same enlightenment been accorded to us all in The Warning?  The grace once granted to an individual has finally penetrated every human heart in a single, sudden burst of divine light.  We have felt the same grace, the same light, that Paul did.  God would have the whole world respond just as Paul did.  We must now repent of the sin the Lord has shown us in ourselves by The Warning, and amend our lives, following Jesus.

The Warning made us aware of God.  Everyone, unbeliever as well as believer, now can declare that God has touched us with His immeasurable power.  He has intervened in an unprecedented manner to make all people aware of His existence, His mercy, His sovereign rulership, His love for us and His concern for our salvation.  There is a God, and He is good.  No one can now any longer deny Him unless he chooses to fling the truth back in God's face.  The Warning has made God evident.  We have felt His power in our bones.

The Warning shows us our sins.  It was predicted as a "correction of the conscience of the world."  The scriptures foretold long ago that Jesus would send the Holy Spirit to "convict the world of sin."  If we did not fully understand before what that meant, we do now, by the power of The Warning.  Sin, our resistance to becoming the loving kind of person God is, results in many unloving deeds, decisions, and attitudes.  These were all vividly clear in the brilliant light God shone in our souls.  Our consciences were thoroughly illuminated at that moment, exposing all the self-deception we are so clever at, pulling out the dead memories that have never been leavened with love, uncovering the lies we told ourselves, the compromises we made.  We saw so blatantly the many harsh, stubborn, and unkind decisions we have made, the times we cruelly trod on the feelings of other people, coveted their possessions, envied their good fortune and rejoiced at their failures.  Then we groaned with anguish when God revealed to us the neglect, the refusal to help, the undone deeds and the unfulfilled plans.  We have heard Him say to us, "Why have you persecuted Me?"

The Warning was a taste of eternity.  Time stopped for a moment during The Warning, and the truth of timeless existence tumbled in on all of us.  It was no longer possible, because of The Warning, to hide from ourselves.  All we ever did was before our eyes, seen all at once, in a single glance.  We knew then how God's gaze crosses all barriers and grasps the uttermost secrets.  He shared with us, for our conversion, how He sees us, and we beheld, in an instant mercifully brief, whatever in us was displeasing to Him.  What we understood was our eternal state, should we have died at that time.  We suffered for a moment the pain of our sin, the pain of separation from God, the pain of purgatory or hell.  God let us see it all, in The Warning.

The Warning was a mercy from God.  By The Warning we became aware that we are not yet what He wants us to be.  We felt the pain of being unlike Him, far from Him.  His will is for us to become like Himself, happy in all that He is, and to become close to Him.  Sin is the only impediment to that.  It prevents us from achieving perfect, even eternal happiness.  God unveiled our sinfulness to us in The Warning, not out of revenge, for vengefulness is foreign to His heart, but rather out of love and mercy.  He wants us to never have to suffer again the pain we felt in The Warning.  His mercy allowed us to sample the pain that sin bequeaths to us.  The Warning was truly a mercy from God.

The Warning is a sign of the future.  It is the major turning-point in world history, the most important "sign of the times."  The Warning tells us that all that has gone before in the entire course of world history now focuses on the years just ahead of us.  Our age is absolutely critical for the salvation of the human race.  A large proportion of all the people who have ever lived are actually living on earth right now.  They must have the opportunity to hear and know of God's plan of salvation for them.  They need to learn that Jesus has come to take away their sins.  All must understand that sin alone deprives us of happiness and the glory of God.  Sin in our only real enemy, the only adversary that can destroy us forever.  The Warning has prepared all the world's people for the message of the Gospel, prepared them all for Jesus and His life.  By The Warning we all know of our sin.  We know we need a Savior.  The Warning is the first step for the conversion of the entire world.  Without knowing our own sin, we would never understand how much we need Jesus and His forgiveness.

The Warning is a direct intervention from God.  Never before has God acted directly and universally to make everyone in the world completely aware of their sinfulness before His holiness.  The preaching of the Gospel through the witness of the Church has been available for centuries, so it is not as if He had never made such a revelation of this kind before.  But it has not happened in history before that He has acted with such power, such precision, such instancy.  The times must be very special.  There must not be much time left for repentance.  As a race we have repudiated the Gospel message so often and responded to it so sluggishly that what God meant the world to be, in peace, never came to be.  The constant pleadings of Mary for us to turn back to God, and her remonstrances over the years while we listened not, are, for believers, sufficient evidence, that the present age is even worse than earlier ones.  But time is running out.  "The times" are about to end, and a new age of peace is promised.  The Warning is the first dramatic sign to all that the old age is ending.  It is not God's wish that we be among those who refused to repent in time.  Not in all the ages is it ever His wish that even a single one of His little ones be lost.  For this reason He has intervened, so that the danger would be manifest, the evil of the present age unmasked, and the darkness of false "enlightenment" be exposed.  If the world has not wanted to listen to the truth, and the Father's little ones are being misled, He, in His sovereign majesty and power, will compel it to listen.  With The Warning, He sweeps away all the sophistry and deception with which Satan has obscured the  light of the Gospel.

The Warning calls us to choose.  We know now, by the grace of The Warning, that each of us has a fateful choice to make.  We can choose either to flee from our sin or remain in it.  Despite the power of The Warning, we still have our freedom to choose --- we possess a free will.  If God took that away from us, we would no longer be human, able to love or to refrain from loving.  We have the ability to say "Yes" or "No," and The Warning confronts us with that responsibility.  There is no middle ground.  The only choice we have is to be for God or against Him.  The situation is just as it was on Mount Carmel, when Elijah called God's people to stand with him and the Lord or with the prophets of Baal and Ashteroth.  Like them, we have a choice: choose God, or no-gods; life, or death.

The Warning has made it impossible to delay a decision any longer.  To delay is itself a choice for sin.  To obtain everlasting life with God we have to amend our lives as disciples of the Lord Jesus, who alone knows the Way to the Father.  The alternative is to be lost forever in the pain we fleetingly felt when we knew The Warning.  Bliss, or agony --- heaven or hell --- that is the dilemma.  Everything for us depends on which path we select for ourselves.

The Warning calls us to prepare for the Miracle.  A "Great Miracle" has been foretold by Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which will happen in the little village of Garabandal.  The Warning is a preparation for it, is directly connected with it, and assures us that from the time of The Warning, there will be less than a year's time until the "greatest Miracle of the Lord has ever worked for the world" will take place there.  A similar, lesser miracle, also predicted in advance, was granted us at Fatima in 1917, in what has come to be known as "The Miracle of the Sun."  The sun spun in the sky, and hurtled toward earth.  70,000 spectators saw it happen!  Marvelous as that may sound, it is even more wonderful that The Warning has been seen and felt by every inhabitant on the globe!  How great indeed is the "Great Miracle" going to be at Garabandal!  Millions intend to journey there to behold its glory, to be healed there, converted, and comforted.  They will travel there because they have known The Warning and been prepared by it to accept The Miracle with faith.  The Warning is sending multitudes to that remote Spanish mountain village.  It has alerted the entire populace of the earth to the impending event of The Miracle, and opened hearts to the message and the action of God that will be revealed there.

The news about Fatima took many decades to spread throughout the world.  When the "Great Miracle" bursts forth at Garabandal, television, radio, films, newspapers and the countless witnesses viewing The Miracle will spread the story speedily to the farthest corners of the planet.  The Warning has prepared us to hear God together at Garabandal, where His people will be gathered once again by God, just as they were on Sinai, to see the fie and the cloud and hear the thunder.  By The Warning, God calls the world to the mountain where Our Lady of Mount Carmel appeared in Garabandal.  We have been prepared to hear, to heed, and to proclaim the word God will speak to us there.

Finally, we note that The Warning and The Miracle are inseparable.  They are two aspects of the same intervention of the Lord.  Neither can be understood properly without our knowing the other.  The Warning prepares for The Miracle, as we have just mentioned, but we can penetrate the mystery of The Warning more profoundly only when we have discovered what The Miracle has to say to us.  The Warning has been an extremely painful encounter with the relentless truth of our wretchedness and sin.  It needs to be counterbalanced, if we are not to lose hope, by a luminous sunburst of God's mercy in the experience of The Miracle.  On the other hand, knowing only the limitless merciful love of God may lead us to complacency; The Warning was necessary to prevent such aberration.  Further, we can only appreciate the measureless love of our Father for us when we see how He loves us in spite of ourselves.  The Warning had to come before The Miracle, so we would understand that we cannot earn nor do we deserve His mercy.  He gives it to us because He is by nature Merciful Love.

The Warning was Today, just a moment ago, for all of us.  We must look now at Yesterday, and Tomorrow, to be able to respond fully to our God and His love for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YESTERDAY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Two

 

Review of the Marian Apparitions

 

1830-1986

 

Paris: The Miraculous Medal(1830)

1980 marked the 150th anniversary of the first modern appearances of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  On July 18th, 1830, to Saint Catherine Laboure, then a young novice of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul in Paris, Our Lady spoke these telling words: "The times are very evil...The whole world will be plunged into every kind of trouble."  In that instant she opened to Catherine and to us the long corridor of modern history, wherein so many calamitous events have stricken our globe.  By what she said to her, she clearly taught us to connect such misfortunes with our own sinfulness.  She had come to call us back to her Son, Jesus, away from the darkness.  Just as she led Catherine from the sleep of midnight to the chapel where the Light of the World dwelled in the Eucharist, so she was calling us from our slumber to new life in the Lord.

Later, she again appeared to Catherine to present her with the image we are familiar with in the "Miraculous Medal."  On its face she stands astride the earth in dominion, Satan himself beneath her heel, her hands streaming light upon the world.  She said the rays represented graces given by her intercession to those who asked for them.  Around the oval perimeter of the image we can read the words, "Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you."  Her victory over evil is signified by this prayer, since her Immaculate Conception is total conquest of sin in a human heart.  She leads us into the same victory by her example, and helps us by her prayers to attain it.

In this medal, Mary gave us the outline of the final battle between Satan and the Church which was then about to commence in the historical events of modern times.  Already, the Church had been weakened by the darkness of the "Enlightenment" in Europe.  The French Revolution had devastated her and torn so many believers from her embrace.  Blood was about to flow throughout the continent in further revolution (in 1848); and later there was more tribulation in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, not to mention further conflicts in 1914-1918 (World War I), and more recent disturbances beginning with World War II (1939-1945).  Truly the times were very evil, if the pain and sorrow of war is any indication that such was the case.

She came again to a small town called "LaSalette" in Southern France.  This time she appeared to two children who were decidedly ungifted, and not particularly religious either.  They were herding cattle when she revealed herself in glowing vision, as a sorrowful queen.  It was the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, September 19th at that period.  She was weeping as she moaned to them over the sins of her "children," complaining that she could "no longer hold back the arm of my Son."  Dressed in royal fashion, her robes were adorned with the instruments of the Passion, embroidered on her garments in light.  In correspondence with her prophecies, a great potato-famine and wheat-blight struck Western Europe, and a convulsive sickness afflicted little children, who died in their mother's arms.  In this visitation, her words again clearly assert that the people's sins bring on them such misfortunes.  She demands repentance.  Her people must obey God and His commandments, or punishment will descend upon them.

 

 

 

Lourdes: 1858

In 1854, Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Four years later, Bernadette Soubirous, a fourteen-year-old girl whose family was the poorest in Lourdes, France, declared she had seen a Lady in the village dump, where she and two other girls had been gathering firewood.  The vision had issued from the heart of a massive rock formation next to the river Gave, in a place called "Massabielle," which literally means "old rock."  After several visits, the Lady asked Bernadette to return fifteen times, which she faithfully did, whereupon she and the whole world received a message and a gift.  The message was simple and direct: "Repentance!  Repentance!  Repentance!"  The gift was a beautiful clear spring, coming forth from the base of the rock at a point where Bernadette had obediently dug with her bare hands in the mud, for the Lady had directed that she drink at The Spring.  The waters soon displayed miraculous healing properties, and pilgrims began their journeys to Lourdes to bathe in the water and drink at The Spring.  Ever since The Spring appeared, countless millions have found living waters at this spot where the Blessed Virgin spoke to a little girl of no account.  When Bernadette at last asked the beautiful Lady who she was, the vision confessed, with awesome simplicity, "I am the Immaculate Conception!"  Free from sin from the beginning, she showed what the Lord wants for us at the end.  Her battle is ours, a fight against sin.  If we would only repent of our sins, the calamities that threaten the human race would never occur.  There would be healing and peace that issues from the heart of God, like water from The Rock.  Like Mary, we dwell within the "old rock" of the Church, the Rock of Christ.  The waters flowing from it in the mystery of Baptism would cleanse us and refresh us with grace.

The miracles at Lourdes continue until today to confront us with the message of Mary and the constant availability of God's healing and forgiveness.  The Spring is a reminder that the springs of "living water" are waiting for the people of the world, that they may come and "drink freely, without pay."  The weight of sin upon us will be lifted, its stain washed away.  The message grows more emphatic with Lourdes.  Sin is the core of the problem.  The world must change.  The Darkness is gathering.

 

Fatima: 1917 May 13 to October 13, the thirteenth of each month

Again it is to children that the Virgin reaches out, on this occasion, in Fatima, Portugal.  An angel first visits them in 1916, to prepare their hearts to commune with the Mother of God.  When the Lady arrives, brighter than the sun in her beauty, she introduces them into the secret of her Immaculate Heart, which she offers as the solution to the problems the world is suffering.  In her Heart there is no sin, and therein lies the victory that she predicts, "My Immaculate Heart will triumph!"  She points out to the children (and to us) the consequences of sin, and shows them "Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go."  This vision displays to their innocent eyes a sea of fire in which they behold the damned.  A dire prophecy follows foretelling what will happen on earth if people will not amend their lives: famine, wars and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father, the martyrdom of many good people, and even the annihilation of some nations.  Russia will continue to spread her errors throughout the world.  But, she asserts with authority, "If people will do as I ask, there will be peace."  She declared to the children that the peace of the world has   been confided into her hands.  And, despite what may befall humanity if we refuse to listen she announces that, "In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph, the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, Russia will be converted, and an Era of Peace will be given to the world."

Instead of a spring such as she left for us at Lourdes, "Our Lady of the Rosary" (for that is how she identifies herself) promises, months ahead of the event, that on October 13th, at the last appearance, she herself will work a great miracle, "so that all will believe."  When the day arrives, 70,000 pilgrims are assembled at the "Cova da Iria," a natural amphitheater seemingly designed for such a spectacle.  At noon, sun-time, the clouds part after an all-night rainstorm, and every eye is able to view the sun directly without strain.  Shafts of rainbow-like light spin from its orb, dazzling and delighting the onlookers.  But suddenly the multitude is appalled as the sun seems to lose its moorings in the heavens; it lurches downward, threatening everyone with obliteration.  They are convinced it is the end of the world.  Their relief when the sun bounds back to its ordained place in the firmament is beyond expression.  But express it they did.  There are those still living who were present at that wonder, who continue to render their moving testimony.  Not all were professed believers who saw, but even the confirmed skeptics were compelled to speak.  The secular and atheistic chronicles of the time recorded in print the witness of those who came to scoff and went home stunned by what had happened at the Cova da Iria.

Fatima is pivotal.  It plunges the message of Mary into the sphere of world-wide events.  No longer is it only France or some other particular country that receives specific attention.  The whole world must listen.  In the course of the Second World War, Fatima prophecies were released which, in 1917, had predicted that conflict; soon afterwards the now famous Pilgrim Virgin statues began to travel to every corner of the globe.  In the late fifties, the Western World was hearing the message of Fatima from every side.  A major motion picture on the subject was distributed.  Television programs highlighted the story of Our Lady of Fatima.  All waited with anticipation for the "secret" of Fatima to be revealed, for there were tales of a letter sealed with a secret that could not be disclosed until 1960.

By the time the Fatima events had become known throughout the Catholic world, the Second World War was already in progress.  No further proof of their authenticity was necessary, for that war had been foretold as a punishment, and we were right in the middle of it. It was clear that we were not amending our lives according to her requests.  There was not enough response in prayer and penance to bring about the peace Our Lady of the Rosary had promised, "If people do as I ask." Peace had not come.  The war ended with the explosion of two mighty bombs which introduced us into the nuclear age of annihilation.  The situation was deteriorating rather than improving, and the moral fabric of society began to disintegrate badly.  Great fissures opened up between the "Third World" and the rich nations, and Communism continued to "spread her errors throughout the world."

What did the "Secret of Fatima" contain?  The curiosity of so many was disappointed when Pope John XXIII, according to the story, opened the sealed letter from Lucy (the sole remaining visionary of Fatima) in 1960, and chose not to reveal what was written in it.  Just a year previously he had announced, on January 25, 1959, the convocation of an Ecumenical Council at the Vatican.  As this history making gathering of the world's bishops unfolded, the Fatima "secret" was gradually forgotten, and somehow, despite the solemn exhortation of the Council Fathers to maintain devotion to the Mother of God, and even though Pope Paul VI proclaimed her as "Mother of the Church" (with the immediate acclamation of the Council), not only did devotion to the Blessed Mother decline; a general disappearance of expressed love for her ensued, as changes in theology, liturgy, and devotional practice flowed from the Council.

 

Garabandal: 1961

Lucy of Fatima has testified that Our Lady appeared to her a "seventh time" at the Cova da Iria, where the sun had whirled in the sky.  Our Lady of the Rosary was fulfilling a promise she had made to her during the apparitions of 1917, when there were the three of them, Lucy, Francisco, and Jacinta.  But now the latter two had gone "to heaven," as the Lady had promised they would, and Lucy was leaving Fatima for school and a new life.  She visited each of the sacred places where they had met their heavenly visitors, the Angel of Peace and Our Lady.  It was night, and that very morning, before the sun rose, she would leave Fatima for good.  When she at last reached the "Cova" Our Lady kept her promise.  Lucy saw her there a seventh time.  It was June 18th, 1921.

Forty years later to the very day, on the evening of June 18th, 1961, the apparitions of Garabandal began.  As at Fatima and Paris, an angel prepared the way.  In this case he identified himself as Saint Michael the Archangel.  Soon Our Lady of Mount Carmel arrived, on July 2nd, the Feast of the Visitation.

It was time to remind us of the message again.  After forty years of tumult in history and in the life of the Church, Fatima was failing to keep the interest of the new generation.  Our Lady of Mount Carmel repeats herself with dramatic intensity in a little village in the hill country of Spain.  She calls these "the last warnings," and foretells catastrophe if, in this, the final hour, the world still refuses to listen.

The Garabandal apparitions continued for four years in a great profusion of phenomena never seen before in previous visitations she had made.  At last the visions became less frequent, until they ceased in 1965.  A final message was given in that year to the world, again on that mysterious date, June 18th.  Some estimate that during those years there were about 2000 meetings between Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the four young seers: Conchita, Loli, Jacinta, and Mary Cruz.  The Lady was very beautiful, according to their reports, and quite motherly, kissing the children on each occasion that she visited them, especially whenever she bid them goodbye.  She taught them to pray, guiding them in the recitation of the Rosary, chided them about their conduct, chatted, and played with them as a mother with her young children, and she even allowed them to play with the Infant Jesus, whom she frequently carried with her.  She affirmed in various ways those doctrines and devotions that would shortly come under attack or be abandoned, such as the devotion to herself that had long been traditional, love for the Eucharist and visits to the Blessed Sacrament, the importance of prayer, the validity and power of blessings, particularly of religious articles, which she kissed and gave back to their owners to take home.  She also stressed the importance of frequent, even daily reception of Holy Communion, the power and dignity of priests and the Mass, the necessity of obedience to Church authority (emphasized as a key point), and belief in and reliance on the ministry of angels and saints.  Above all, she repeated the injunction to repent of our sins and seek forgiveness, especially in confession.  She recommended we perform much penance, and make many sacrifices.  She said we should sacrifice ourselves more.  She warned of punishment to come, worse than any that had yet been experienced, if we did not amend our lives.

Many all over the world received the faith to believe in the visions and the message of Garabandal, and sincerely reformed their lives.  The religious articles carried from town to town after having been "kissed" by the vision wrought healings and conversions. 

For those who felt Our Lady's kiss touch them in the power of her love, the reality of the appearances and the importance of the message have never been in doubt.

But Our Lady of Mount Carmel had also revealed that confusion would assail the Church, and that "in the end, few would believe."  This statement of hers seems to have been amply fulfilled at the time we are writing this book (1982). It appears that all the visitations and the messages of Mary have been practically forgotten or are ignored by most Catholics, including the clergy.  Until The Warning stuck us, confronting us relentlessly with the truth of her words, we seem to have put them all aside as past and pointless history.

The Warning pulls the veil of Satan's deception away from our eyes.  God now demands that we listen.  Up to now we have not chosen to do so, especially when Mary has called on us to change our lives.   The Warning is God's mercy to us, showing us that we must change, we must repent, we must listen --- or we perish.

The finality of the Garabandal series of apparitions is underlined by her words to the visionaries, "You are now in the last warnings!"  Garabandal recapitulates all the previous Marian apparitions as it focuses in on the "end of the times."  Her self-designation there as Our Lady of Mount Carmel digs back into history over 730 years to her meeting with Saint Simon Stock.  She gave him the Brown Scapular, since then a traditional symbol associating salvation with her protection.  Guadalupe (Mexico: 1531) presents her as the one who crushes the serpent's head.  Her intercession releases grace for world conversion.  The Miraculous Medal given in 1830 depicts her as "Mary, conceived without sin," and again recommends seeking graces from her intercession in order to battle the sinful times we were then entering.  LaSalette in 1846, Lourdes in 1858, Fatima in 1917 each explicitly identify sin as the source of the "troubles" the Virgin predicted to Saint Catherine Laboure would afflict the "whole world."  When she begins to appear again at Garabandal, she reminds us of all the lessons she taught in foregoing ages, and then applies them precisely to current evils soon to infect the Church's life.  The high point of these encounters at the tiny mountain village of Garabandal is a mid-night rendezvous in 1962 between Conchita and the Archangel Michael, who gives her Holy Communion in the street, in pitch darkness.  It is July 18th, 1962, the very anniversary of Saint Catherine Laboure's first visit with the Blessed Virgin in 1830.  The Eucharist is visible on her extended tongue and luminous, so that the bystanders, huddled around her in the dark, can see the miraculous host.  Again Mary reiterates the teaching that the Eucharist is the light that conquers the darkness engulfing the world, repeating what had been indicated to Saint Catherine  Laboure, brought to the alter in the brightly illuminated chapel at midnight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOMORROW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Three

 

The Miracle

 

Since we have not yet experienced The Miracle, we know only what the Blessed Virgin told us about it.  She has revealed enough for us to prepare for this world-shaking occurrence, which will take place at Garabandal within a year of The Warning.  We can therefore expect it to happen soon, since we have already felt and seen The Warning.  The Miracle is only a short time away from us.

Its exact date is not known, except by Conchita, who knows the day, the date, and the year.  She has been forbidden by the Blessed Virgin to disclose it until eight days before it is to happen.  At that moment she will announce it to the whole world.  She has never revealed the date to anyone.

For twenty years we have waited for the "greatest miracle the Lord has ever worked for the world," during which "the sick" who are at the site "will be cured" and the "unbelievers will be converted."  This long waiting-period strikingly distinguishes Garabandal from Fatima, where the predicted miracle of the sun was worked during the course of those apparitions.  Also, there was no promise of wholesale healing and conversion at Fatima, but at Garabandal this promise is made.

Only one person has seen The Miracle, in vision. His name was Father Luis Andreu, a Jesuit seminary professor who came to the village in 1961 less than a week before the Feast of the Assumption.  He never returned home from his visit to examine the situation.  He was unexpectedly swept into the children's vision of Our Lady, and then caught up by himself into the experience of the coming Miracle.  Of course, this convinced him of the authenticity of the apparitions.  His heart was so full of joy that it overcame him.  On the way back to the seminary, in the early morning hours of the next day, he quietly expired.  He did not live to describe The Miracle.

The Blessed Virgin assured the children that "nothing bad would happen" on the day of The Miracle.  Presumably this is an assurance that no one else will die from seeing it, as Father Luis did.  But his experience of such joy and the remarks he made afterwards about what he saw, taken together with statements by the other visionaries which repeat what Mary told them about The Miracle, reveals that it will be a glorious manifestation of God's love and mercy for us all.

Millions will be able to see it on that day, for Garabandal is perched among hills forming a broad natural amphitheater well able to accommodate the vast multitude which will journey to that remote place when it happens.  Somehow, despite the fairly primitive circumstances, their needs will be provided for.  A great assembly will converge on the village from everywhere, and all who manage to reach its environs will behold the same vision of joy that sent Father Luis to heaven.

The Miracle will be a revelation.  The Marian visitations, like biblical events, are revelatory in every respect.  They convey a message, not only in the verbal communications of the Mother of God, but in the events themselves, the persons involved, the circumstances, the surroundings.  The symbolism, for instance, of The Spring at Lourdes obviously presents a Baptismal message, a revelation that reinforces the Church's teaching on that Sacrament.  God's healing power is clearly evident in the many miracles that occur at the grotto.  The Rock of Lourdes is the Church in which Mary dwells and from which the living waters flow, giving life to the whole world.  Study of the Marian events uncovers so much meaning hidden away in what at first glance may appear inconsequential.

The Miracle will be a clear revelation of God's mercy. We must prepare ourselves for this, so that when it happens we will fully grasp it significance and absorb its power.  Even now we can begin to meditate fruitfully on the information already offered us by Our Lady about The Miracle.  These hints are for our benefit, so that we will be more ready to fully appreciate The Miracle when it happens. 

The Miracle will be Eucharistic. The emphasis on devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist is so strong at Garabandal that a Eucharistic theme for The Miracle would be in perfect consonance with everything that happened in the village during the apparitions.  We can also expect a Eucharistic event because it has been revealed that The Miracle will take place at 8:30 on a Thursday evening (about the same time as the Last Supper), and that on the day of The Miracle the Church will be celebrating the Feast of a young Martyr of the Eucharist.  We must be ready to receive an unmistakable proof from God, through The Miracle, that the Holy Eucharist is the center of our life in the Church, and that Jesus is truly present to us in the Eucharist, in His living Flesh.  We are to avail ourselves of this Sacrament as frequently as we can.

The Miracle will be ecclesial, that is, it will support the truth that through the Body of Christ which is the Church, Head and members, all graces come, and that all men and women are called not only to follow Jesus personally, but also to enter His Church and to submit to its discipline, teaching and sacraments.  For this reason, The Miracle will happen in connection with a "great ecclesiastical event."  God's timing is the Church's timing, and the Church's authority will be reinforced and authenticated by the fact that the "ecclesiastical event" and The Miracle will occur on the same day, perhaps at the very same instant.   Also, the Pope, the visible head of the Church, will see The Miracle from wherever he is. 

The Miracle will be Marian, that is, it will in some way so assert the glory of the Mother of God that all Christians will know that God is commanding that they give up their objections to her role in the Body of Christ and that they pay her the honor that God Himself gives her.  The message of Fatima will be brought into high relief, namely, that only when the world gives the Immaculate Heart of Mary the honor and devotion due her, and only when we consecrate our hearts to that Heart as individuals and as nations, will peace at last spread through the world.  Through this great Miracle, all will learn to love "Holy Mary, Mother of God."

The Miracle will convert the whole world.  This assertion was made by Our Lord Himself to Conchita.  He answered a question of hers about Russia's conversion by assuring her that The Miracle was not only for the "conversion of Russia," but "for the conversion of the whole world," and that "thus, all will love our hearts" (the hearts of Jesus and Mary).  It would seem by His words that somehow the Miracle will show us all how closely the hearts of Jesus and Mary are united, as a symbol of the kind of peace-giving love that should unite our hearts.  Perhaps the two hearts on the reverse side of the "Miraculous Medal" were a prophecy as well as a lesson, foretelling an age ahead where all hearts will be reconciled as are the hearts of Jesus and Mary. Reconciliation of hearts is what conversion is all about, and it would seem that all the Marian appearances concern themselves with it.  God wants to unite all hearts in His Church.  The Miracle will make that plain to everyone, and it will summon us together from the four winds to make it clear that we belong to each other.  By the power of The Miracle, we will be bound together in the same fiery love that forges perfect communion between the hearts of Jesus and Mary.

The Miracle will be sacramental.  The healings and conversions at Garabandal will come through experiencin