You wrote:
“Time and again I have heard similar stories, even from my own wife; prayers before an Icon of Panagia, at an Akathist during Great Lent, always the same and always a miracle.”
My favorite of this sort is:
http://members.chello.nl/~l.de.bondt/ratisbonneEng.htm
“At the moment when the Blessed Virgin made a sign with her hand, the veil fell from my eyes; not one veil only, but all the veils that were wrapped around me disappeared, just as snow melts beneath the rays of the sun.”
“It is well known that I never opened a religious book and had never read a page of the Bible, and that the dogma of original sin, which it is either denied or forgotten by modern Jews, had never for a single moment occupied my thoughts—indeed, I doubt I had ever heard its name. How did I arrive at a knowledge of it? I know not. All I know is that when I entered that church I was profoundly ignorant of everything, and that when I came out I saw everything clearly and distinctly.”
Υπεραγία Θεοτόκε, σώσον ημάς!
A Blessed Feast of the Nativity to you and yours, Vlad!
"Since you abhor superstition and espouse such liberal views," he asks Alphonse, "would you consider submitting to a simple test?" "What test?" "To wear something I'm going to give you. It's a medal of the Holy Virgin. It appears quite ridiculous to you, no doubt. But as for me, I attach great importance to it."Just another way the Panagia says, "Do whatever he tells you ...."
Anybody want to know why I try always to have a spare Miraculous medal to give away?
(Note to self: Get more medals.)