(For the Greater Glory of God) |
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(Part 1 of 2) |
THE "CONDITIONAL" CHASTISEMENT (PART 1 OF 2 ). What happens after the Warning and Miracle will depend on
the response to the Message. Of the three great prophesied supernatural events
of Garabandal, only the Chastisement is conditional. It can be averted. Whether
or not it will be depends entirely on how the world responds to the Message
after the Warning and Miracle. In biblical times, God used the prophets to warn
His people when their transgressions against the law were reaching the breaking
point. In our time, it is the Blessed Virgin, queen of prophets, who fulfills
that role. At Fatima she foretold the Second World War and the spread of atheistic
communism if the world did not change. At Garabandal, she warns of the greatest
cataclysm in human history since the deluge if mankind does not reform. While
the Chastisement has never been the favorite topic for discussion when it comes
to Garabandal, it was primarily to warn us of this potential event that the
Blessed Virgin appeared. This is supported by the fact that in the first
Message of October 18, 1961, the message of Garabandal, the whole second part,
more than fifty percent of the text of the entire Message, is devoted to the
Chastisement. The first part tells us what we must do to prevent it from
happening. In the second Message of June 18, 1965, delivered to Conchita by St.
Michael on behalf of the Virgin, reference to the Chastisement is again made
when Our Lady says: "Before the cup was filling up; now it is flowing
over....You should turn the wrath of God away from yourselves by your efforts.
" Neither the Warning nor the Miracle are mentioned in the two formal
Messages, but they play an important role nonetheless in regard to the
Chastisement. If it is true that God always warns before He strikes, then the
world should know of the threat of this Chastisement which at the present time
it does not. But after the worldwide Warning and the great Miracle, the
appearances of the Blessed Virgin at Garabandal, with her Message (containing
the threat of a Chastisement), should become common knowledge. It will be at
this point, when the Message is universally known, that the way will be cleared
for the Chastisement to take place if that is what divine justice decrees. In
his book THE APPARITIONS OF GARABANDAL, Francisco Sanchez-Venture y Pascual
includes the following note written by Conchita about the Chastisement : “The Chastisement is conditional and depends on whether
or not mankind heeds the messages of the Blessed Virgin and the Miracle. If it
should take place, I know what it will consist of because the Blessed Virgin
told me about it, but I am not permitted to say what it is. Moreover, I have
seen the Chastisement. I can assure you that if it comes, it will be worse than
being enveloped in fire, worse than having fire above and beneath you. I do not
know how much time will elapse between the Miracle and the Chastisement.“ On the feast of the Holy Rosary, October 7, 1962, Maria
Herrero de Gallardo was in Garabandal and took the occasion to question Mari
Loli about the visions of June 19-20, 1962 (the Nights of the Screams), and
what she and the other visionaries could possibly have seen to cause them to
cry out in such a terrifying manner. Sefiora Herrero reported: "Oh!"
exclaimed the girl. "That was horrible to see. We were really frightened,
and I know no words that could explain it. We saw rivers change into
blood.... Fire fell from the sky.... And something much worse still, which I'm
not able to reveal now." (SHE WENT IN HASTE TO THE MOUNTAIN) Further information from Loli was contained in messages
bearing her signature that were presented to Maria Saraco and published in 1970
by Fernand Corteville in his newsletter L'Impartial (No.31): In spite of
continuing to see the Virgin, (during the Nights of the Screams) we saw a great
multitude of people who were suffering intensely and screaming in terror. The
Blessed Virgin explained to us that this great tribulation, which was not even
the Chastisement, would come because a time would arrive when the Church would
appear to be on the point of perishing. It would pass through a terrible trial.
We asked the Virgin what this great trial was called and she told us it was
"Communism." Then she showed us how the great Chastisement for all
mankind would come, and that it would come directly from God. At a certain
moment, not a single motor or machine would function; a terrible heat wave will
strike the earth and men will begin to feel a great thirst. In desperation they
will seek water, but this will evaporate from the heat. Then almost everyone
will despair and they will seek to kill one another. But they will lose their
strength and fall to the ground. Then it will be understood that it is God
alone Who has permitted this. Then we saw a crowd in the midst of
flames. The people ran to hurl themselves into the lakes and seas. But the
water seemed to boil, and instead of putting out the flames, it seemed to enkindle
them even more. It was so horrible that I asked the Blessed Virgin to
take all the young children with her before all this happened. But the Virgin
told us that by the time it came, they would all be adults. |