Our Lord explains on October 1, 1988: “The Warning will soon be upon mankind. You ask Me, My child, can it be stopped? Only by prayers and sacrifice shall it be held back, but the time is long overdue.... It is not to be asked for, because you know it is coming, My children. It is to be prayed against, for there will be those who will die in this Warning.”

There is no question that you, along with the other Baysiders, were the driving force behind this temporary stay.

Your prayers and sacrifices and courage and faith in distributing this critical message moved the Eternal Father to exercise, once again, even greater compassion and mercy, if that is possible, upon the human race.

Millions of Rose Notes, No. 23, “The Warning in ’97," were distributed globally in many languages and a sampling of its good fruit was printed in Rose Notes, No. 24.

With this Warning locution igniting an outpouring of prayer, renewal, and conversion worldwide—we were never busier—with thousands of enthusiastic letters, phone calls and orders, especially for sacramentals—it is little wonder that this locution became an object of satan’s fury.

However, we understand for some there has been mixed emotions with this Warning delay. As human beings, this tug-of-war is natural. Jonas, the prophet, had difficulty, too. But such is the nature of prophecy that it is always subject to the freewill response (positive or negative) of all human beings, hence always conditional as we pointed out in Rose Notes, No. 24: “All prophecy given to you, My children, is conditional to man’s response. Remember this in the days ahead” (Our Lady, September 28, 1976).

Heaven can change their mind and often does, if the response of mankind merits it. We see this in four prominent examples that Baysiders and others prayed away:

• 1973 Warning: On December 29, 1973 Veronica announced to the pilgrims attending the Vigil that the Warning scheduled for December 28th had been delayed. “You had won a reprieve.... Your prayers and your sacrifices rose to Heaven” (Our Lady, February 10, 1974)

• monetary crash: “within two years or less” (Our Lady, June 18, 1988)

• antichrist pope: “He [Pope Paul VI] is not the antichrist pope. The next one shall be he” (Our Lady, May 30, 1978)    [Note: Pope John Paul I and John Paul II are not the Antichrist Pope.]

• AIDS: “There shall not be a cure found” (Our Lady, October 6, 1988) “There will be a cure for mankind” (Jesus, June 18, 1990)

The conditionality of prophecy is expressed at least 20 times in the message.

Also, an excellent example of this is found in the Book of Jonas in the Old Testament. The Eternal Father sent Jonas to the great city of Ninive to preach the word that “yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed” (Jonas 3:4). Upon hearing this the inhabitants repented, did penance, and turned away from their sins: “And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which He had said that He would do to them, and He did it not” (Jonas 3:10).

St. Paul enlarges: “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?” (Romans 11:33-34)

Veronica has said more than once: “Boy, They sure do change Their mind up there a lot, don’t they?” And thankfully They do, because we know the Great Warning will not be entertainment but, in fact, a solemn and intimate visit to each and every soul from our Maker—a mini-judgement. If for the godly there were some misgivings, what would it have been for the ungodly who did not know or care that it was coming? We know for them it would have been tumultuous, or even fatal. Certainly any true Marian devotee knows this delay was a gift from the Eternal Father Who is boundless with patience and kindness.

All the Good Lord ever asks of us as latter day disciples is to promote His Mother’s message of truth and grace unconditionally, to the best of our ability, and especially free from the fetters of human respect and opinion that always frustrates God’s Will: “Let them call you fanatics. Let them try to break you down. There’s only one thing to say to them: I have my eyes on Heaven. Where do you cast yours” (Jesus, April 14, 1984).

We do our job, and the rest is in God’s hands. And, in this case, the Good Lord deemed that a postponement was in order and merited. The Eternal Father’s family is six billion children, a bond with each soul so intimate and profound that a mother and child relationship can not match it. In His Infinite love He saw the mass of humanity and moaned. And perhaps He didn’t want the Pope’s January pilgrimage to the long-suffering Cubans, that was so fruitful, disrupted.

Nonetheless, we didn’t know that God would change His mind until January 1. As Faithful and True disciples we believed and transmitted this Warning locution to the very, very end. We did not guess or assume anything but what the prophecy said. To do otherwise would have dishonored and offended Our Mother who commands a simple and humble obedience from Her children.

Besides, we would not want to be like the foolish and presumptuous virgins that were left stranded when the Bridegroom came (St. Matthew 25:1-13).

Stand tall and proud. By prayer and deed you have demonstrated to Heaven your worthiness as a disciple of the latter days (Our Lady, June 13, 1981). And although we know this Great Warning has not been canceled but only postponed, you helped secure for Our Blessed Mother more time to reach more souls, especially those of Her beloved children who are sincerely open and searching for the truth in a very unstable world.

Deo Gratias!