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By Richard Foley, S.J. Taken from the 'GARABANDAL' magazine January - March 1997

A noted lecture gives his reflections on the great supernatural events prophesied at Garabandal.

"THREE TIME-BOMBS HAVE BEEN ticking away non-stop in Garabandal ever since 1961. They are time-bombs of a very special and sacred kind, for they belong to the supernatural world of prophecy; that is to say, they focus our gaze on divine events still hidden in the future. We have been told about these three events by the Queen of Prophets herself; they are commonly referred to as the Warning, the Miracle, and the Chastisement.

So for over 30 years now this trio of prophetic time-bombs have been ticking away, steadily and unstoppable, in the sleepy little mountain village. Each passing second brings them closer to their respective terms when they will detonate with awesome results for all the world to see and hear.

The first of these time-bombs is the Warning. Of it we can say that never since the Incarnation itself will the God of Providence have intervened so dramatically, compassionately and universally in the human story. Our Lady of Mount Carmel of Garabandal assures us that the Warning will bring to every single person alive on earth at the time a truly prodigious gift from heaven, a mega-grace. It will take the form of a brilliant illumination of conscious; this will enable us to see our sinful selves as we truly are in God's sight and to reform accordingly.

For all without exception that experience will be a moment of truth, and doubtless something of a salutary shock as well. On beholding in the divine light that shadowy sin-scape within our inner selves, we are bound to feel, as never before, the most heartfelt contrition together witha an abhorrence of sin and a fervent commitment to its avoidance in future.

Clearly, then, the Warning time-bomb is calculated to produce a holiness explosion on a scale nothing less than global. It will even amount to something approaching a planetary Pentecost. For every single one of the 4 billion-plus human beings living at the time will receive from the Spirit of God a super-grace coming as fallout from the world wide explosion of divine mercy.

But how, we may wonder, will mankind at large react to the Warning? Undoubtedly some people will be hard-hearted and cynical enough to resist that gem of a grace. We can further assume that your more arrogant resisters will even attempt to rationalise and rubbish the whole Warning scenario in terms of collective hallucination or pan-fantasy or pseudo-conscientization or the like. You can be sure that psychological jargon will be enriched with some bizarre neologisms.

But for the majority of people the Warning will surely and in various ways prove to be the equivalent of a Damascus Road experience. That is, those in a state of grace will be spurred by the Warning's mighty inspiration to reach for the heights of holiness, while prodigals not in God's friendship at the time will be powerfully drawn back to their Father's house.

Indeed, we can confidently expect a large-scale return to God and His kingdom. Churches will be full as never before. Priests are likely to be heavily in demand for confession and counselling. And, please God, many of those prelates, priests and lay people who sin so grievously against the virtue of faith by dissenting from Catholic doctrine will submit humbly and fully to the Church's teaching authority.

The Miracle

Now to consider the second time-bomb ticking away second by second in Garabandal-the Miracle. It will take place, the visionaries tell us, within twelve months of the Warning. In mathematical terms this could mean anything from one to 364 days.

What we further know about the Miracle is that it will take place in Garabandal itself at 8:30 p.m. on a Thursday falling between the 8th and the 16th of March, April or May.

Moreover, the date will coincide not only with the feast of a Eucharist martyr but with an important day in the Church's calendar.

What form will the Miracle take? We really have no idea beyond that it is bound to be absolutely stunning, going on Conchita's statement (she was quoting Our Lady) that it will be Our Lord's greatest miracle. We may reasonably conjecture, however, that somehow it will feature both the Eucharistic Jesus and Mary - the joint principals, so to call them, in the Garabandal drama. St. Michael the Archangel, too, played a big auxiliary part therein, and could therefore be included alongside the principals in the tableau.

Anyhow, this particular time-bomb, which for sheer spectacle, let alone its effects, will out-miracle by far its Fatima counterpart, is designed to produce a spiritual explosion of unimaginable proportions the whole world over. It will act on multi-millions of human beings as a sensational and virtually irresistible sign of God's presence and power, a sacrament of His compassion and loving kindness.

Though only those within sight of the Garabandal Pines at the time will actually witness the Miracle, it will be captured on numerous TV cameras and flashed across myriad screens in every continent on earth. For we can safely assume that initially most of the major TV networks throughout the world will even risk looking a little sheepish by sending crews to Garabandal "just in case there could be something after all in the crazy prophecy put out by a certain young girl-now a housewife in New York- Conchita Gonzalez Keena."

Thanks, therefore, to modern instant global communications, Our Lady's assurance that the Miracle will convert Russia takes on a very concrete and realistic significance. So does Our Lord's enlargement on her prediction, which He made in a subsequent locution to Conchita: the Miracle, He said, would help to convert the entire world.

Our faith stands to be powerfully reinforced by the Miracle, especially as regars one of the key elements in the Garabandal message- Jesus in His Eucharistic mysteries. Similarly our love for His mother will bedeepened, while our prayer-life generally is certain to receive the tonic of a lifetime.

Another factor specifically stated by Our Lady with regard to the Miracle is that the sick who are present to witness it will receive healing. We must be very generous, therefore, in planning ahead and doing everything feasible to get any sick relatives or friends to Garabandal for that wonderful day of days.

Connected to the Miracle prophecy and due to follow in its immediate wake, a further prodigy has been promised. We refer to it as the Sign. It will appear above the Garabandal pine-grove and remain there perpetually and indistructibly in testimony to the apparitions and as a striking sacrament of God's power and redeeming love.

Nothing is known about the nature of the Sign. One extremely interesting guess is that it will be a sort of pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. If so, this would have a magnetic drawing power for the people of Israel in particular. Let us not forget that no less an authority than St. Paul prophesied their eventual conversion to the Christian faith before the end of the world.

Now to return to the Miracle. We shall learn when it is due thanks to Our Lady's arrangement with Conchita, who alone knows the details; she will publicly announce them eight days in advance.

Most people intending to go to Garabandal for the occasion will obviously need every precious minute within those eight days to make one hundred and one preparations regarding domestic arrangements, travel bookings, etc.

To help in this direction, here is an important practical point relative to Conchita's announcement. As we know, the Mother of God made her prophesy in Garabandal itself, the future site of the great Miracle event. Moreover, the Miracle will take place there on that golden Thursday at 8:30 p.m., according to Spanish time.

Now finally to consider the third of the time bombs ticking away the faithful seconds in Garabandal.

It is called the Chastisement. Its function will be to punish our sinful, ungrateful world if it responds inadequately to the graces flowing from the Warning and the Miracle. So this prophetic time-bomb has the switch-off device structured into its mechanism. In other words, the Chastisement is conditional upon how well or badly the human race receives and acts upon the two gigantic grace - explosions that
preceded it.

Conchita and her fellow visionaries were actually given a glimpse of the Chastisement (if in the event it does come) and were stricken with horror. Words failed them afterwards to describe the extent and degree of punishment that God will visit upon our world if it persists in its sinfulness and gross ingratitude. The Chastisement scenario happens to chime in with what Our Lady said warningly in Fatima.

will avail to stay the hand of Divine Justice-and will persuade that same hand to switch off the third and unthinkable time-bomb."

Acording to the messages of Garabandal the WARNING occurs:-
1) after the schism - when the apostasy within the Roman Catholic Church becomes general,
2) when the pope (might) seeks refuge in another land,
3) when the sacrifice of the mass is made difficult to celebrate or when mass and the Holy Eucharist are not considered a sacrifice any longer (considered just a sacred ritual),
4) when the bishop of Santander lifts the ban and invites people belonging to religious orders to visit Garabandal,

"From all signs, it would appear that the Warning promised by Our Lady at Garabandal cannot be too far away. We also know from what the visionaries have told us, that it will be a terrible and awesome thing. It will be the confirmation for everyone that the events that took place in that Spanish mountain village are true.

Once the Warning has occurred, what should we, the workers of Our Lady, do? To help answer this question, GARABANDAL Magazine suggests the following procedure.

As soon as we have recovered from the shock of experiencing the Warning and are able to act, we should spread the word about the Great

Miracle to come. The first person to be notified should be your local bishop. After that, the media should be given all pertinent information. To make this task as easy as possible, the accompanying news release has been prepared. When the time comes, just cut it out and either mail or take it to your local newspaper, TV or radio station."

NEWS RELEASE

"The whole world has just experienced a terrifying warning from God. This event was foretold several years ago (and can easily be proven as there are millions around the world who knew of its coming) in a series of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, to four young girls in the mountain hamlet of San Sebastian de Garabandal located in northwest Spain during the years 1961 to 1965.

This Warning was not meant to be an isolated experience but to serve as purification ("to correct the conscience of the world") for another great event soon to come. This other event, also prophesied at Garabandal, is a Miracle, -the greatest miracle that Jesus Christ will have ever performed for the world. The spot chosen by God for this is a group of nine pine trees situated on a bluff which overlooks the village of Garabandal. It will occur sometime between the eighth and sixteenth of March, April or May within 12 months after the Warning, on a Thursday evening at 8:30. The exact date of the Miracle, entrusted by the Virgin Mary to one of the visionaries, Conchita (Gonzalez) Keena, will be announced by her eight days in advance. The Miracle will be seen by all those present either in the village or surrounding mountains and will be able to be televised and photographed. The Virgin said of those in attendance that "the sick will be cured and sinners will be converted." All the incredulous who witness it will believe. There will be no doubt that it is something from God and not of this world. After the Miracle, a permanent sign will remain at the pines until the end of time. This "sign" may be photographed and televised but not touched.

Through the Warning we've just experienced, we all know the power of God. The purpose of the Miracle therefore, is to convert the whole world so that souls may be saved and peace exist. Please publicize this information as soon as possible so that people may begin preparation for the most unforgettable journey of their lives -to Spain-to witness the great Miracle of Garabandal!"

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DIVINE MERCY THE