It's that time of year, there is mystery in the air, and there are miracles. To hear about one takes only an open mind. Around us, events are happening with greater frequency. There are all kinds of manifestations. Some are blatant. Some involve the alleged healing of incurable disease. Some are subtle -- God tapping us on the shoulder with a snowflake.

Or a rainbow. Pam Nicholson of New Jersey says that during a trip to Rome last October, she saw this for herself above a church.

"One of the first places we went to was Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and somebody had noticed that there were upside-down rainbows in the sky," recalls Pam. "I myself had never seen anything like that before in my life. We were all taking pictures and all excited, knowing that God was definitely with us. We were feeling that in our hearts. The rainbows were right up above the church. It was amazing, at least two of them up there. To me, it was bizarre."

Pam, who was hobbling around with a cane (due to a serious car accident), entered the church with fellow pilgrims for a quick visit before moving on to the next site. "I went in, blessed myself, and tried to kneel to pray," she tells us. The tour leader was keeping everyone on schedule, she says, and so she wasn't able to pray for long. "Just as I was leaving, there's a fresco on the left side as you're walking out the door and it's amazing -- because it's a fresco of Jesus with the rainbow, an all-encompassing rainbow above him and below him, two of them. It was just incredible. It was one of His smiles. What a honor that God did that."

Coincidence? This is often how God works -- in coincidences, and in the confluence of events. But for Pam, it quickly went beyond that. After taking a few more pictures and hobbling down the stairs, the American pilgrim caught sight of an interesting man. "All of a sudden there was a priest coming toward me down the stairs," she says. "Later on I realized he didn't come through the door. He never came out of the church. He just appeared there. It was something that I just knew not to question. As it turned out, he came toward me and his hair was as blonde as mine. I thought, 'Isn't that funny?' I wondered if he spoke English, and all of a sudden he looked up and walked directly toward me. He was so handsome it was incredible. I just said to him, 'God is really good to us. Look at the sky. Have you ever seen any rainbows like that in your life?' He said something to me like, 'Yes, it's possible.'

"Just then I had this thought, I wondered if he would shake my hand. He was speaking English to me and sounded like he was from my neck of the woods -- High Bridge, New Jersey! As it happens his right hand comes from his side and quickly I grabbed it and he shook my hand and I said, 'Oh, father, God bless you, and thanks for stopping by and saying a few words to me.'"

Was it an angel, she wondered? In recent times angel accounts have become legion and often involve a handsome and mysterious stranger. Two years ago at this time of the year we brought the story of a priest in Maryland who encountered an angel in front of his entire congregation -- a 'man' who brought him a picture of the Creation and set it right there on the altar without saying a word [see account].

This year, it's Pam Nicholson.

That night, she tells us, she realized her hand was sore, where the fingers join the palms. The following day they went to St. Peter's Basilica and that night the hand still hurt. Nothing helped. They were on their way to Split, Croatia, and the shrine of Medjugorje. It was then that she noticed the miracle. "I'm in the airport and I'm like dancing through the airport," she recalls. "I am dancing! I'm a person with a cane and I am dancing through the airport and running past most of the people in our group. I was running!"

This was a woman who had seriously injured her spine in 1999 but who no longer uses the cane.

[Resources: The Trumpet of Gabriel (in the Spiritdaily book store]