All the way back in 1917 a famous "miracle" supposedly took place in Fatima, Portugal where three children were ostensibly visited by a Marian apparition -- a vision of the Virgin Mary. These visitations went on for months and culminated in the "Miracle of the Sun,", where thousands of people supposedly witnessed the sun detach itself from the firmament and move wildly in the sky. (not seen anywhere else in the world where the sun was visible) Finally the Virgin Mary left a message for mankind that was not to be revealed for thirty years -- a warning of a punishment on Man by Gawd.

There's a lot more to the story but that's it in a nutshell. I first heard about this many many years ago as a child being raised a Roman Catholic and I was afraid of what the message would be. In the fullness of time, I grew up and became atheist and didn't think much about this stuff but it turns out the message was finally revealed in 2018 and I just had to go find it...and I did.

So here it is, the thing that terrified me as a child when I still bought this shit without question.

"First, a World-Wide Warning that will happen in the sky...like the collision of two stars that do not fall down... it will frighten all humanity regardless of where one happens to be at the time... it will be a thousand times worse than earthquakes... like a fire that will not burn our flesh ... it will last a very short time, although to us it will seem to be a very long time ... no one can prevent it from happening ... It will be recognized as coming from God... it will resemble a punishment ... it is meant to be a purification ... like the revelation of our sins and what we will feel in our hearts will be worse than sorrow. It will not kill us, if we die it will be caused by the emotion within us. The date was not revealed only that it will happen before the announcement of the miracle."

So that's it. Some vague suggestion that something "miraculous" will happen on some undefined date. That was the terrifying warning given to us by the Virgin Mary herself.

How did I ever believe this shit?

CORRECTION: This was the miracle at Fatima, not Garabandal as I originally posted. All this crap just sort of blurs together in memory after so many years have passed.