1-1d) In the Still of the Evening

Reprinted with kind permission from St. Joseph Publications
from the book She Went in Haste to the Mountain (Book 1)

In Paradise, as soon as Adam and Eve, the first sinners, had eaten the forbidden fruit, they heard the sound of the footsteps of God, walking in Paradise in the still of the evening. (Gen. 3: 8) (Ad auram post meridiem)

On that mysterious late Sunday afternoon our young girls had just heard something, and not without fear. (Could it have been the sound of God's special passage to mankind at Garabandal?) The sun was setting over the horizon. In Spain it was 8:30 in the evening. [Conchita notes the time in her diary.]

Now with the thunder the breathe of a different kind of inspiration comes to our four little sinners, whom the devil's suggestion had so easily lured to a not exactly saintly garden escapade. The young author states immediately after.

Now that we have picked the apples, which didn't belong to us, the devil will be pleased, and the poor Guardian Angel will be unhappy.

Then we began to gather stones and threw them with all our strength to the left side, where the devil is said to be. [A belief that I myself have observed in many villages in Spain where it is thought that the Guardian Angel stands on the right while the tempter or devil approaches from the left.]

The recounting, in childlike simplicity, is noteworthy. The girls react strongly against the spirit of evil that had succeeded momentarily in seducing them. Opposing it, they place themselves resolutely on the side of the good angels whom they thought were watching on their right, leading them to God.

When we got tired of throwing stones, and were more satisfied with ourselves (the relief of conscience that follows a reaction against the devil), we began to play marbles with little stones on the ground.

Suddenly a very beautiful figure appeared to me, shining brilliantly, without hurting my eyes.

PHOTO: "a very beautiful figure appeared to me"

In the language of a young village girl, poor in vocabulary and unaccustomed to the abuse of superlatives that permeates the news media, these concise expressions show extraordinary feelings. The figure that appeared, and the brilliance surrounding it, were beyond everything beautiful and impressive that could be seen here below.

The other girls, Jacinta, Loli and Mari Cruz, (later they would explain this about themselves) on seeing me in that state, thought that I was having an attack, since I was saying with my hands joined together: Oh! . . . Oh: . . . Oh! . . .

As they were going to call my mother, they found themselves in the same state as I was.

And they exclaimed together: Oh, an Angel!

Then there was a short silence among the four of us, and he suddenly disappeared. [The girl informs us as a participant in that visit from Heaven; but we are able to complete her report with some information from an observer, which we owe to the Police Chief Juan Alvarez Seco:

"Some girls who were also playing in the area, on seeing the four girls in that strange attitude, began to throw stones at them. Then the Angel took them about 50 meters higher up in the same calleja. Once there, and while kneeling in their ecstatic position, an inhabitant of the village who was coming downhill from the mountain with a honeycomb wanted to pass between them. Seeing that they weren't moving so he could pass, and not understanding what was happening, he became irritated by the poor training of those girls . . - After having passed by the girls in the direction of the village, the man turned to look back and was amazed to see that the girls were still there, exactly in the same position and posture as before. Mindful of this, he could hardly sleep during the night, thinking that all this was very strange. He told this to his wife, but she answered that it wasn't important, "children's affairs!" (This man's name was Vicente Mazon.)]

And returning to normal, and very frightened, we ran toward the ehurch —on the way passing the dance that was going on in the village.

Then a girl named Pili Gonzalez said to us, How white and frightened you are! Where are you coming from?

Very ashamed in confessing the truth, we said to her, From picking apples.

And she said: For that... you are coming like this?

We answered together: IT IS BECAUSE WE HAVE SEEN AN ANGEL

And she said: Is that true? We: Yes, Yes . . .

And we continued on our way in the direction of the church; and the girl told this to the others.

Once at the door of the church, and thinking it over better, we went behind it to ... CRY.

This portrait of the young girls appeals to me. Needing to express their indescribable feelings, they would find refuge behind the walls of the church in order to pour out their tears. A mysterious instinct in the Christian soul had brought them there. They could not explain what had just happened, but they sensed subconsciously that it was something very great. Perhaps they also had premonitions that this could be the start of something still greater. Where else could they find refuge and protection, if not in the place that especially keeps the presence of God? Is that not also the best place to pray to Her who is His mother and their own, always so ready to help her poor children? But before going inside to pray, they had to pour out their tears on the walls outside.

Those walls, austere, strong, rising up above the little plateau on which Garabandal rests, have withstood the savage storms of the Cantabrian Mountains,[This extends across almost all the northern part of Spain, running along the Cantabrian Sea, separating the narrow band of coastal low lands from the wider and higher expanses in the interior country.] looking on century after century of days and nights, of good times and bad. Generations and generations of Garabandalinos have come there with their greatest joys, their most hidden sufferings, their final hopes . . . But never had those walls seen such ineffable sobbing of children, such exceptional tears as those the four girls shed under their shelter, while the sun set forever on that day of June 18th, 1961.

There was no one there at the time to mount the church tower to signal the hour by ringing the bells; but with the tears of the children, which were not sorrowful ones, a mystery would begin to sound out from Garabandal that would find a great echo in innumerable hearts.

We met some young girls who were playing, and when they saw us crying, they asked us, Why are you crying?

We told them, BECAUSE WE HAVE SEEN AN ANGEL.

They ran off to tell the schoolmistress. [In Garabandal there were two state schools in the same building; one of them was for boys, and the other for girls. The first was taught by the schoolmaster from the garden with the apple tree; the second was presided over by a lady who now comes on the scene and will remain in the village for many years. Her name was Serafina Gomez Gonzalez; she was a native of Cossio; a widow of Raimundo Rodriguez and had a daughter named Tonito.]

When w« had finished praying, we returned to the church door and went inside.

At the same time the schoolmistress arrived very frightened and said to us at once, My children, have you really seen an Angel?

PHOTO: The schoolmistress

—Could this be your imagination?

—No, Senora! We have really seen an Angel!

Then the schoolmistress told us, Let us go pray a Station to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in thanksgiving.[A Eucharistic devotion practiced widely in Spain. It consists of six Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory Be To The Fathers, with the ejaculation Long Live Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. And may He be loved by all. These prayers arc accustomed to be said especially during the exposition of the Holy Eucharist, on making a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, and during Thanksgiving after the reception of Holy Communion.

Said to be originated by the Franciscans, the six Our Fathers of the Station have the following significance: Five are in honor of the Five Wounds of Christ—the wounds of the hands, feel, and side—and the sixth is a prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father to gain indulgences.]

We know that during that unforgettable Station, the girls' words of prayers mingled with their sobs and laughter. «We were in such a state», Loli admitted afterwards, «that we were laughing and crying at the same time.»