Dr. Ricardo Puncernau, Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Ricardo Puncernau was [at the time] the Vice-president of the Spanish Society of Sophrology and Psychosomatic Medicine, and the President of the Spanish Association for Parapsychological Research. "I have taken into consideration, pondered, and carefully observed [the events], and have reached the following conclusion: There has never existed nor does there exist any acting cause for what is happening in Garabandal other than the Most Holy Virgin." I am obliged as a Christian to strictly tell the truth, without adornment, at least in the essence of the narration. However, I have given a faithful account not only in the essential components of the narration, but also in its adornment. I have not consciously left out the slightest detail of what I remember. They are my personal experiences related to the story of Garabandal. They are things I have never told before, and things that I believe should be said. Barcelona, December 1974. Dr. Ricardo Puncernau.
I been asked again, if you are unable (for whatever reason) to attend the "Miracle" at Garabandal, can you still be healed if you view it on television (or on the Internet) ? Conchita speaks of the Miracle cures in “The Apparitions of Garabandal:” by Francisco Sanchez-Ventura, "It will be visible to all those who are in the village and surrounding mountains; that the sick who are present will be cured and the incredulous will believe. It will be the greatest miracle that Jesus will have performed for the world. There won't be the slightest doubt that it comes from God and that it is for the good of mankind. A sign of the Miracle, which it will be possible to film or televise, will remain forever." Now , As per Conchita's statement I feel you must be present at Miracle for the healing, but I will say ,no one can put limits on God’s healing grace to those watching, should he chose to. I can only state what has been promised by Mary, through Conchita. I guess we wait and see.
JACINTA on the "Warning". February, 1977 Q. Can you tell us what the Warning will be like? A. The Warning is something that is first seen in the air everywhere in the world and immediately is transmitted into the interior of our souls. It will last for a very little time, but it will seem a very long time because of its effect within us. It will be for the good of our souls, in order to see in ourselves our conscience, the good [Conchita says we will only see the bad] and the bad that we've done. Then we'll feel a great love toward our heavenly parents and ask forgiveness for all our offences. Q. Will the Warning be felt by all people regardless of their beliefs? A. The Warning is for everybody because God wants our salvation. The Warning is for us to draw closer to Him and to increase our faith. Therefore, one should prepare for that day, but not awaiting it with fear because God doesn't send things for the sake of fear but rather with justice and love and He does it for the good of all His children that they might enjoy eternal happiness and not be lost. INTERVIEWS WITH THE SEERS Reprinted with kind permission fromthe magazine GARABANDAL International October-December 2004
Humility "What God loves above all is humility. What displeases Him above all is pride." She Went in Haste to the Mountain, p. 479 These words, spoken by the Blessed Virgin Mary to the visionary Mari Loli in a locution in 1963, so sublime in their simplicity, are the key to a true understanding of Garabandal. For all its amazing phenomena and unexplained events, the essence of Garabandal is not found in its apparitions but in its message, which is above all of a message of practicing humility in daily life. The visionaries themselves pointed out repeatedly that belief in the apparitions means nothing without believing - and living -- the message. Conchita and Loli have written many times "There is no point in our believing in the apparitions if we do not heed the message.” "Star on the Mountain", p. 118
FEBRUARY 1963 Joey Lomangino meets Padre Pio Joey Lomangino was born on June 27, 1931, in Brooklyn (U.S.A.) from Italian-American parents. He was the eldest of five boys and one girl. In 1947, while he was watching a truck tire being inflated, it exploded and Joey was hit by the rim in his face. The bones of the forehead were crushed, the optic and olfactory nerves were severed. He was in a coma for three weeks before he woke up . . . on the 16th of July (Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel) ! In 1961, he traveled to Italy and met St. Padre Pio for the first time, at the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo. Although they had never met, the famous Capuchin greeted the American with these words: "Ah, Joey, how happy I am to see you!" February 1963, Joey made another trip to Italy. He went back to see Padre Pio, who heard his confession and . . . miraculously restored the use of his olfactory sense . . . while the nerve still remains severed! Joey tells the story : "when I knelt down to receive Padre Pio’s blessing, and got the fragrance of roses that came from the wounds in his hands, I was startled and went against the wall with my arms up to protect myself; I didn’t know what it was. Padre Pio pulled down my hand and said in Italian, “Joey, don’t be afraid.” He then touched me on the bridge of my nose and my sense of smell was restored to me after being without it from the day of my accident in June 1947, which was 16 years." Joey asked Padre Pio if the Virgin was appearing in Garabandal ,and was it true. Padre Pio would encouraged him to go to San Sebastian de Garabandal, after he had assured him very clearly that, "Yes, it is true, the Blessed Virgin is appearing at Garabandal!" Joey was far from being the only one to whom the great Italian stigmatist would confirm the authenticity of the apparitions: in addition to Conchita herself, may we mention, among others, Frs. Pel and Marcelino Maria Andreu, Padre Gustavo Morelos ( from Mexico), Mr. John Haffert (then President of the "Blue Army" of Fatima), Miss Eloisa Deguia. When Joey returned to NY, he started spreading the news of apparitions of the Blessed Mother in Garabandal. From 'Garabandal' Book, by J. Serre, pages 166-167
Letter to Fr. Ramón Andreu by Dr. D.C. Ortiz Pérez, from Santander, February 2, 1962 Reverend Father Andreu: I am going to tell you about the impressions of my last trip to Garabandal on January 27th. For this date, the Marquis of Santa María had already given more facts. He told me that he would see you on the next day. The event that caught my attention is that after 7 consecutive months of “marvelous ecstasies,” the four girls continue with the utmost normality, although many people “who don’t see” maintain that this is the result of a pathology. The girls continue their ecstasies the same as always, running through the streets of the village praying, with this precious transformation on their faces and movements that seem to be images. On the afternoon of the 28th, with the difference of approximately 10 minutes from one to the other, María Dolores and Conchita had ecstasies in their houses and left directly for the Church. When they met each other, they were very happy and they ran through the streets of the village singing the rosary. They visited the houses of the sick where they prayed and gave the crucifix to be kissed. It made a great impression on me when they visited a sick old man (Uncle Leoncio) who was blind, deranged, had the flu, and was in agony. They knelt at the head of his bed, praying Hail Marys without interruption, and everyone answered except the dying man. After 15 or 16 prayers, the sick man responded with ‘Holy Mary’ in a clear voice and added: “I pray because I have faith.” In this moment, they put the statue of Christ to his lips, and he kissed it. The girls had expressions of immense enjoyment. They returned to the normal state after approximately 2 and a quarter hours. These are the facts of what happened on the 28th in Garabandal. Respectful greeting from my wife—she tells what this good friend always offers. I salute you affectionately. D.C. Ortiz Dr. Ortiz taking Conchita's pulse below, while in ecstacy.
Did Conchita or any of the other visionaries ever directly state that the Miracle will not take place on a feast day of Our Lady? I see many pages about the apparition mentioning this information, but I can never find the direct quote it is based on.
An interesting thought regarding Joey and his eyesight and that the mystery of his seeing on the day of the Miracle is ... Joey died in 2014 at the age of 83 yrs old. The Miracle has not yet happened. People don't die without it being part of God's Will and the Virgin Mary definitely knew when Joey would die in relation to when the Miracle would happen. So either Garabandal is completely false (not!) or we have yet to fully understand the mystery of all of this. I do not believe the "requirements" of Our Lady mean anything in relation to the final "seeing" on the day of the Miracle because Joey is already dead by then. There is more to this that will be revealed and be fully understood then. My personal belief is that like Fr. Andre will be found to be incorrupt (his remains are corrupt right now but it is not impossible for them to be made whole as part of the Miracle, especially since there will he healings and incorruptibility points to the final resurrection and being made whole in God) I think that the Church will look at Joey's remains and find him to be incorrupt as well and that that his face and eyes will be whole. Note that when Padre Pio died, his stigmata vanished. The same can be true of Joey's eyes being restored. So the issue of whether Joey said all those prayers or offered up his blindness is completely moot because he died long before the occurrence of the Miracle.
WALKING BACKWARDS One of the most ridiculous arguments by the opponents of the apparitions is the girls walking backwards. If you get this question thrown at you, here’s my answer. The Girls always watched the Virgin Mary as they walked, sometimes forward and sometimes backward over the rocky cow paths. The walking backward especially (which is more impressive) has been suggested as diabolical by opponents of Garabandal. When in fact ,the girls always walked backwards away from the blessed sacrament, rather than turning their backs on it, as it's the case today for many in our Churches. Just because the girls walked backwards does not indicate anything demonic,
From the book : The Final Hour (Michael Brown ) page 137 “and the Virgin stipulated, said Conchita, that the great Miracle will not occur on one of Mary’s own feasts. “
The Girl's bodies were rigid during ecstasy! Witness Pepe Diaz: “ I touched them many times…protecting them from the many people who wanted to lay hands on them, not with bad intentions, but with the crushing and avalanche of people…that was when I felt something very extraordinary, so extraordinary that it didn’t seem like flesh, like a human person; it seemed , let’s say, like block, something rigid…I don’t know…it very difficult to explain”. Another Villager, Prudencio Gonzalez, who passed with his sheep among the girls in ecstasy in the beginnings, when they were still alone in the Calleja, tells how “he had to lean on the shoulder of one of them, and got an enormous fright, as if he had touched the mystery. The shoulder seemed not to be flesh, soft and warm, but so rigid an s cold that he shivered”. Prudencio, who up to then had given no credit to the apparitions, suddenly changes his opinion in the face of this ”change of consistency”. “Garabandal:Message of Hope” by Fr. Luis Saaverdra, pg 127
FEBRUARY 5 TO 19, 1968: CONCHITA'S SECOND TRIP TO ROME The Vatican covered the expenses of Conchita's second visit to Rome again with her mother and Fr. Luna, complete discretion being then asked to Conchita. The visionary again went to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to be questioned but, this time, no longer by Cardinal Ottaviani. We hardly know anything more about the new encounter: Conchita, in fact, was even more discreet about this second trip than about the first. The archives of Fr. Luna, now deceased, will someday doubtless be of great use to us to know, at last, the nature of the conversations that took place then between the visionary and the Church authorities. It will a "fortiori" ( an argument that's based on a previous argument that's even stronger) be the same for what the Archives of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are preserving about this matter. From 'Garabandal' Book, J. Serre, page 215
I know ppl say so much still has to happen before The Warning occurs, but I wish I was living it now. I'm spiritually, emotionally, mentally & physically exhausted lol. I'm being a bossy boots to God begging or telling Him to hurry things up lol.
MARTHE ROBIN (MARCH 13, 1902 - FEBRUARY 6, 1981) & Garabandal Marthe Robin was a French Roman Catholic mystic and stigmatist and foundress of the Foyers de charité association. Paralyzed since the age of twenty-seven, and also stigmatized, Marthe Robin would spend some fifty years of her life without sleep or food, nourishing herself uniquely with the Eucharistic Bread. Fr. Combe decided to ask Marthe, whom he knew well, for her advice. The famous woman mystic welcomed him in the first months of 1971, in her house of La Plaine . . . Here is the account of her meeting as reported by Fr. Combe himself: Marthe Robin: “ Keep working for Garabandal without fearing what you have to suffer. Tell the 4 girls that I pray for them everyday” From 'Garabandal' Book, J. Serre, pages 228-229 Pope Francis declared her “ Venerable “ on Nov. 8,2014. The recognition of a person as “venerable” is one step in the process leading to canonization.
FEBRUARY 7, 1966 3 Girls went into convents. Many people have commented over the years “ Why didn’t the girls go into the religious life, become Nuns after the apparitions ? Most people don’t know that actually 3 of the 4 girls did enter convents ! Conchita, Jacinta, and Mari Loli did for a short time, then left for different reasons, and became boarding students instead. Mary Cruz did not go at all. On February 7,1966 Conchita (on her 17th birthday) enters the Discalced Carmelites Missionaries of Pamplona. On February 13,1966 she has a locution from Jesus. Jesus said to Conchita: “ I choose you in the world, that is, in the normal condition of the faithful, so that you would remain in it. “ Both Jacinta and Mari Loli were 16 at the time they decided to enter a convent. On September 30, 1965 they left for the Sisters of Charity of St. Ann, in the Aragon town of Borja. I guess our Lord had other plans and vocations for the girls, to remain in the world, and not hidden away in a convent. How else would we know all that we do about the apparitions and messages. ' 3 Sources : “A decisive hour for Conchita” by Fr. Alfred Combe “Garabandal: Message of Hope”. Pg 227 GARABANDAL JOURNAL JAN.-FEB. 2022 PGS 4-6
I want to wish a most Happy & Blessed 76th Birthday today to Conchita ! Her example of humility, grace, spiritual wisdom, and sacrifice , is an example for all of us to follow and emulate. May God continue to bless her, and I ask you pray for her intentions today, thank you.
Happy birthday to Conchita. God bless her she reminds me of Anna the prophetess and Simeon the God-bearer of the Old Testament who both prayed faithfully in the temple and were assured by the Holy Spirit they would see the Messiah. They did so in the twilight of their lives in the presentation of our Lord. Likewise in the twilight of her life Conchita will bear faithful witness to the Blessed Mother by announcing to the world the great news of the Miracle of Garabandal eight days in advance. May God bless her for her faithful witness.