THE PUNISHMENT

Nature of the Punishment

In the Garabandal events, one night stands apart because of how terrifying it was not just for the girls themselves but for all those who witnessed the apparition.  Known now as "the night of the screams", on the night of July 19, 1962, the girls experienced as vision of the Punishment or chastisement which awaits the world if we persist in our sin.   In 1967, Mari Loli described what she saw to Father Morelos:

"Then she showed us how the great Chastisement for all mankind would come, and that it would come directly from God . 

There will come a time when all motors and machines will stop; a terrible wave of heat 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 earth. Then it will be understood that it is God alone Who has permitted this.

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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 in place of putting out the flames, it seemed to enkindle them even more."

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Conchita, is quoted on the topic of The Punishment in the first book on Garabandal The Apparitions of Garabandal by Francisco Sanchez Ventura. She says: 

"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."

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Several months after the night of the screams, Maria Herrero de Gallardo spoke to Mari Loli and asked about what the girls had seen that night.  Loli replied:

"Oh!—exclaimed the girl—'That was horrible to see. We were really frightened. And I know no words that will explain it.'

We saw rivers change into blood, Fire fell down from the sky,  And something much worse still, which I’m not able to reveal now.

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The message that we gave at the time said that we don’t expect the Chastisement, but that, without expecting it, it will come,

The Virgin asked everyone to confess and receive Communion."

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It's worth considering for a moment the testimony of one of the witnesses of the apparition of the "night of the screams".   Pepe Díez, a farmer in Garabandal described his experience:

"Look, I don’t want to brag, but I’m a man, it might be said, who doesn’t know fear. I go out to all parts of the village, and over the distant trails in the night just like in the day. I have never been afraid. But on those nights of the screams, with everyone together in the darkness, in silence, hearing the girls’ sobbing and screeching in the distance, I shook so that my knees knocked against each other so much I couldn’t stop them.

You can’t imagine what that was. I have never experienced anything like it."