The First Vision

Veronica: I would like to briefly go back to the date of August 1968, when I saw my first vision. I was walking down Springfield Boulevard, and I just chanced to look up into the sky, when before my startled eyes there appeared this large iron cross. Through the last year I found that cross quite by accident in a Bible of a neighbor. And it was called a reliquary cross in Rome. But anyway, as I looked at this cross, there appeared in the center of it the upper part of a chalice, just the cup. Soon the cup disappeared and in its place, in the center, there was Jesus. I could see just His face down to the area and above His chest, like where His chin area was. And oh, I saw Him as living as you—I would be looking face to face with you or I.

And I do remember His face so vividly; I will never forget it. He had a beautiful face for a man, not just because He’s God, but the beauty on His face—there was no hardness, no anger, none of these earthly feelings that we find on the faces of those around us. But He had a face just radiating love and emotion. Oh, He must be very sensitive to what’s going on here on the earth now, because as I watched He looked to the side, to His right and sort of downward. And the expression on His face was so heartbreaking. Oh, the only way you could explain it was He was saying, “I can’t believe it; I can’t believe it.”

I do notice that His hair was very dark and long, and in fact I really can’t be sure just how I ever got up so close to Him. But at one point I was so close, as though He was kissing me on the forehead, and I could see where the stubble, the black stubble was growing into His skin. And then I noticed, too, that He had—this beautiful white light seemed to come out from under His skin, just like Saint Theresa did. And this light, as it grew brighter it seemed to obliterate everything but His eyes, so that you couldn’t really distinctly explain to anyone the shape of Our Lord’s nose or His mouth, as with Theresa, unless you had seen a picture of Theresa after the vision. Because the light seemed to obliterate everything but the eyes, and that always makes me feel that the eyes are a mirror of the soul.

Well, when I first saw Jesus it’s surprising that the first thing that entered my mind was, I said to myself, “Oh, He looks so young to be God!” I don’t know what I expected—oh, you know, somebody looking like a prophet. But He was very handsome. Then also I noticed He had something on His head that was quite different from what we see on the statues or in pictures of Jesus’ crown. Now I would assume, from what I saw, perhaps the thorns were underneath this basket weave affair He had on His head. It was very heavy—more like a cap, and it was like woven wood, sort of a reddish brown wood, but it covered His whole head even to the back, down to His back of His neck and down to His eyebrows. It looked so big and heavy.

The Second Vision

Well, then I was forced to look to the right and I saw the figure of what I thought was a young boy at first—a very slim, tiny figure. But then I noticed it was a woman, because when the person turned to the left I could see her hips and the way her gown was belted very high with a belt on the top. But she was wearing a—like a scarf, or this like mantle over her head, which looked to me white from where I was standing. But she also had that very—oh, that anguished appearance of her chin was hanging down on her chest in terrible sorrow. But she disappeared and I could see her as a very tiny figure way off in the distance on a hillside looking down, but in terrible sorrow again.

The Third Vision

Well, then she disappeared, and in her place—so life-like, the clearest picture of the whole vision—was this bald white eagle. Its feathers were so beautiful and white and it was peacefully sitting there, I guess in the west, I would say. And then I looked over to the eastern area, the other side of the eagle, like say the eagle’s right side, and oh, my goodness! There—I was almost frightened to death because there was a figure there that looked like something from the children’s Mad magazine. Oh, it was a monster! But then as I watched this grotesque looking glob of whatever it was—monstrous being, I noticed it turned into an owl with two huge, outsize eyes, and the eyes were staring over at the eagle. And that was the end of the vision.

Now Our Lady and Theresa have often told me not to try to understand what’s given to me, but just pass it on. But being human I sometimes try to figure things out; that’s one of my human weaknesses. And oh, I certainly don't—I do hope that what that appears to be doesn’t actually be a reality that the bald white eagle is the United States, and that there’s some kind of a monster watching it with eyes, in from the east. But that remains to be seen.

Audio recorded by Veronica of the Cross, July 1970