"St. Benedict is a saint I knew almost nothing about when the following happened to me," she writes. "I was blessed to go on pilgrimage to Rome during the holy year 2000.

"One of the side trips was to Monte Cassino where St. Benedict's abbey was located. At the time I was suffering from Graves disease. Doctors were recommending surgery or radioactive iodine to 'burn out' my thyroid gland since I had been on medication too long (apparently there are only two approved medications for the condition and they are harmful for extended periods of time).

"During the tour of Monte Cassino our guide showed us a 'rock' with an imprint of St. Benedict's arm in it. The legend is that St. Benedict fell on the rock but as he fell it turned into a pillow cushioning his fall... and retaining the imprint of his arm. 

"I was fascinated by the story and touched the rock asking St. Benedict to pray for me. I just meant pray, in general. The last thing on my mind at the time was my Graves disease.

"Well, to sum it all up, as soon as I said the words 'pray for me,' I could feel what felt like a fire in my throat at the location of my thyroid gland. I was amazed at what was happening... and I thought, this couldn't be me receiving a miracle of healing. 

"It was! Doctors confirmed that my thyroid gland was back to normal, which  usually doesn't happen considering the length of time I had the disease. As a second favor, my very bulging eyes (which come with the disease) returned to normal."

If St. Benedict heals, it reminds us of the connection between healing and deliverance. What times are these! What about St. Therese the Little Flower?

Remarkable are the stories about roses that show up miraculously as her "sign." But how do we handle roses that turn color?

"I asked St. Therese's intercession regarding a health problem," noted a woman named Barb from Kentucky. "I was really specific about requesting a sign that she had heard my novenas.

"I had a rose in my garden called 'Double Delight,' which is a combination of red and white. I asked that if she would hear and answer my prayers that I could receive a white rose. Some days later the roses on that bush turned completely white. In fact, they were a pale green-white color. I was amazed and comforted."

With the intercession of saints is often the concomitant intercession of angels. In many cases, they are noticed in close calls involving cars, or in survival of accidents. Protection does work!

"I say my Saint Michael Chaplet every day for protection and to be close to the angels and open to their help," wrote a viewer named Mary Elizabeth Bailey from Portland, Oregon. "One particular morning I was really in a hurry and needed to get going but thought, 'you haven't said your chaplet yet and you can't leave home without it' (as the saying goes). 

"So, I stopped and sat down to recite the usual 15-minute prayer, and something said to me 'ask for extra protection, for you are going to need it.' I prayed for Mary's immaculate mantle to cover me and the Precious Blood of Jesus be upon me and then immediately headed out the door and hurried up the stairs to a walkway overpass and tripped and flew into the street with a car heading straight for me!

"The car stopped within inches of my body. I was in shock. I did break my shoulder but my life was spared. It happened suddenly and taught me that life is indeed fragile and we need to handle it with prayer. It also taught that one has to listen to that ever 'still, small voice' and not disregard it as inconsequential. Everyone: listen to your guardian angel. It may be a matter of life and death!"

"I had an event in my life where I felt my guardian angel's protection," says yet another named Colleen. "I was leaving for my first day of nursing clinics very early. I drove to the bottom of the lane and stopped and heard in my mind:  'Start saying your Rosary, for you could die today.' 

"This was very unusual, so I obeyed and started saying my it. I was going to a friend's to ride with her and got in her pickup and her seat belt would not latch. I tried and I could tell she just wanted to go. I kept trying and then she got out of her pickup and came and latched the seat belt. We were driving the speed limit and a county snowplow ran the stop sign and pulled in front of us. 

"I flew forward and could see the blade of the snowplow right there," Colleen goes on. "I stopped inches from the windshield and flew back, and as I flew back the seatbelt unfastened. My friend's vehicle was totaled and an ambulance took us to the hospital."

But the point: there was no major harm. They were released later that day. Oh, the accidents we avoid due to intercession!

"On the way to my uncle's house, I had to cross a major intersection," writes Marco Mastrocinque of Melbourne, Australia. "When the lights turned green for some reason I couldn't put my foot on the accelerator -- something was stopping me. I heard a voice in my head as clear as someone was talking to me and it said 'Don't go!' At this very instant a woman crossed the intersection at about fifty to sixty miles per hour. She was speeding and she went through a red light."

That "small" and still voice indeed.

And road rage?

Here we come to the season of Divine Mercy.

"A couple of months ago I was driving on the highway with my two young daughters to pick up my son from school," says Kristen DeRosa of Fort Meade, Maryland. "I was saying the Divine Mercy Chaplet when I noticed to cars driving aggressively. 

"At first I thought they were racing until one was forced off onto an exit by the other driver's swerving into him. I watched this all in my rearview mirror over a matter of seconds. The large Cadillac with an unsavory-looking driver who had forced the other car onto the exit started barreling down the road towards me. 

"I accelerated, so as not to be hit, with a peppy little diesel engine to 85 mph. This Cadillac was going to ram me from behind at greater speed and was maneuvering so that I couldn't change lanes. He was laughing all the while. Unconsciously, I continued to murmur the Divine Mercy Chaplet (I was terrified) and braced for him to intentionally hit us. 

"All of a sudden, he slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road after coming within less than a foot of me. I don't know what happened. I sped away and called the state police. I believe with all my heart that God heard my prayers and mercifully protected us from this attack. I feel the Divine Mercy chaplet is one of our great weapons against evil today." And as they say at the end of it:

Amen. 

[resources: St. Benedict Crucifix,  new Divine Mercy chaplet book, and Mercy Minutes]