1-7d) The Veil Does Not completely Fall

The seers of Garabandal saw and heard what we ourselves now, in the time of faith and hope, can only hope to witness.

But what the girls saw and heard was not the perfect fullness of face to face [We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face fo face, now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. (Cor. 13:12)] contact with heaven. The mysterious veil was not pulled completely away even for them. PHOTO: "I see her, surrounded with great light."

Plácido Ruiloba, a businessman from Santander, one of the witnesses who has seen many things in Garabandal, recalls those times in 1961:

«One day I asked Mary Loli what it was that she saw during the ecstasies and visions in her home, since the ceilings were rather low and would not permit anyone to be in ecstasy above her.

— When I see the Virgin, I don't see the ceilings of my home. I see her, surrounded with great light.

I also asked her if the Virgin leaned over to kiss the articles that they offered to her. And the girl told me that the Virgin did not lean over, but descended gently from her high position until the articles were in front of her lips.

    Another time I asked her whether, when they held the infant in their arms as they had stated many times, they felt his weight like other infants. The girl answered that when the Virgin handed her the infant she felt a great pleasure in holding him; but that she noticed no weight, and neither could she press against him. And that she had a similar sensation, very difficult to explain, when the Virgin kissed her.»[Taken from a June 28, 1969 article in the weekly Que pasa? written by González-Gay.
    In a report by Father Andreu, we have another illustration on this subject that apparently belongs to the ecstasy of August 31, 1961:
    «Father Valentin indicated to the girls that they should ask the Virgin if she was appearing to them in body and soul. . . The girls asked her, and the Virgin answered that she was not appearing to them in body and soul, but in another way: but that it was she.»
    Father Valentin had asked this as a proof, since he had read that apparitions are not accustomed to be in body and soul, and the girls were not capable of understanding these things; they knew only to say that they saw the Virgin.»]

Let the theologians see if all this does or does not agree with what has been taught in the Church about the reality of visions and apparitions.

Can such extraordinary concordance with Church teaching, in matters that even many priests are not cognizant about, come from the girls' environment? Can it be the result of the girls' abnormal psyche, or their genius for invention?

And let the theologians look at other evidence, collected by this man who questioned the girls intensely:

«Having learned all this from Jacinta's mother (that the Virgin at times gave them the Infant), I took advantage of an occasion to question Conchita.

— If you held the Infant Jesus in your arms, then you would have touched Him.

— No. One can never touch either the Virgin or the Infant.

— Yes, we hold Him in them, and because of lhat we are not able to bring our arms more than to a certain closeness to our chest.

— Is He heavy?

— And when you kiss the Virgin, do you feel the freshness and the softness of her face?

PHOTO: "the sensation that we surely have her there — in front of our hand."

As an answer, Conchita took the hand of one of the spectators and raised it toward her face so as to cover it without touching her mouth and her eyes. And she said. Do you understand now? As if you would kiss your own hand, without feeling it on your lips. Well it is something like that; one sees that he kisses, that he embraces, and nevertheless he feels no touch. Certainly it is she whom we kiss; but we cannot say that we feel either the freshness or anything from her face.

— We don't know; but it's definitely that way. If we wish to reach her with our hands, our hand reaches a point beyond which it can't go, for she is there. But we don't feel anything, outside of the sensation that we surely have her there — in front of our hand.»

Moreover, we know that when the children offered the Infant pebbles or caramels that they had saved for Him, both the pebbles and the caramels were found afterwards lying on the ground.[Material taken from Star on the Mountain.]