A bit of a scary moment

[BlueRain]

This happened a week ago. My dad now has a pizzeria and we’ve been there for about nine months now. I been having problems there and my spiritual side has been suffering, I felt so distant from our Lord. I had that feeling of just giving up, not to pray anymore, etc. but there’s always that one percent, that thread that keeps me going.

Somehow I ended up getting the book “Revelations of Divine Mercy: Daily Readings from the Diary of Blessed Faustina Kowalska”, from my library. It’s helped me very much.

It’s just that there’s another business next door that only opens a few days. Customers sometimes need to make a pickup and so the owner of that business gave us a key so we can give the customers their products when the owner doesn’t open.

Last week, it was at night and a woman came for her pickup, but she also ordered some pasta from our restaurant. My brothers weren’t there and I waited for them to return, but my dad was almost done with the order so I decided to go get it. We were the only business in that strip mall opened at that time.

I went out and as I was opening the door, I saw a man walking on the side walk. It was nothing out of the ordinary, but I got a bad feeling. But I didn’t listen to my feeling and thought that perhaps it’s just my female mind over-reacting.
He was kinda far away and there were piles of snow around the parking lot. I went into the store, and turned on a switch, but it only turned a small lamp so the store was still dark. I thought to myself “This will only take a few seconds.”

Anyways, the woman’s order wasn’t there, I checked the front and back. It all took like ten seconds. I came out of the store and the man was there. He must have ran over there. He was next to the door, but he was acting like he was looking at the other business nex to it. He was about two feet away from me.
At first I was going to ask him what on Earth he was doing there, but I just decided to quickly go back into the pizzeria.

He walked away and acted like he was going into the hair salon (which was closed and no no lights were on).
But it was scary, I knew he had seen me go into the store and he saw that it was dark.

I just can’t comprehend what he must have thought, I mean in a split second he must have thought to run over there.
Also, if I had stayed in there another second he probably would have come into the store. I called the police, but not right away, I was somewhat shocked a bit. I should have listened to my initial gut reaction.

But the strange thing is that I felt kinda calm, even when I saw the guy there. Somehow I knew I was going to be protected.

Sometimes I wonder what it all means. I was feeling distant, I was reading Blessed Faustina’s writings for a couple days before that happened.

It unsettles me because the guy was a young a guy, about my age, and I have the feeling that he was not a stranger there. I think he lives nearby.

It’s weird because my family doesn’t take it seriously. The other day my dad and I went to throw some flyers and then he left me. I walked back to the pizzeria alone, my foot (which I fractured a few years back) was hurting a lot, I was walking slowly and I had to walk on the same sidewalk I had seen the guy walking by. I hope the Lord always protects me.

 

[blessedstar]

You have had a frightening experience. I think you could look at it this way though. The man saw you going into or coming out of an unopen shop, he simply may have run across the road to see what was happening and who was doing what as he may have thought that someone was going to steal from this shop.When he got close and saw it was you he may have felt a little silly and so just made out he was going to another place. Alternatively he could have seen you a woman alone opening an empty shop and thought he would hang around for your protection but didn’t want to scare you and so didn’t approach you but just stayed close by.

I think you being a woman and alone in a dark place is immediately frightening without any other added factor.

Wherever I am and whatever situation happens I am in the care of my Guardian Angel and Jesus is always with me, I am never alone.So I don’t worry.

Don’t you worry either, nothing will happen that God has not ordained for your holiness.

Pray to your Guardian Angel for protection and pray to Jesus that His Peace remain always with you in all times and places.

In my prayers

 

[Sir_Knight]

If you are of age, consider buying a firearm and get training on how to use it.

Even Jesus instructed His followers in Luke 22:36-38 (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:26-27) to protect themselves when He encouraged them to sell their outer garments in order to buy a sword. A plain reading of the passage indicates that Jesus approved of self-defense. Here the “sword” (Greek: maxairan) is a dagger or short sword that belonged to the Jewish traveler’s equipment as protection against robbers and wild animals. Pretty much the equilavent of what a handgun is today.

 

[blessedstar]

If you are of age, consider buying a firearm and get training on how to use it.

Even Jesus instructed His followers in Luke 22:36-38 (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:26-27) to protect themselves when He encouraged them to sell their outer garments in order to buy a sword. A plain reading of the passage indicates that Jesus approved of self-defense. Here the “sword” (Greek: maxairan) is a dagger or short sword that belonged to the Jewish traveler’s equipment as protection against robbers and wild animals. Pretty much the equilavent of what a handgun is today.

I hope you don’t mean this.

Do you know the motive of people or their intent? Can you advise the shooting of a person for fear of crime?

That appears to be an extreme piece of advise.

 

[FuzzyBunny116]

I hope you don’t mean this.

Do you know the motive of people or their intent? Can you advise the shooting of a person for fear of crime?

That appears to be an extreme piece of advise.

Whats wrong with self defense?

 

[tkdnick]

This happened a week ago.

I went out and as I was opening the door, I saw a man walking on the side walk. It was nothing out of the ordinary, but I got a bad feeling. But I didn’t listen to my feeling and thought that perhaps it’s just my female mind over-reacting.

As a self-defense instructor let me say that it is ALWAYS better to go with that reaction than ignore it. Even if it means being rude. You can always apologize later if there was a misunderstanding, but there’s no way to apologize if you’re injured or dead. Always, always, ALWAYS listen to that feeling. God gave it to us for a reason. Use it!

If you are of age, consider buying a firearm and get training on how to use it.

I would not recommend this. So many people think they’ve been trained when in fact they’ve just got the basics. Unless you train under adrenal stress situations and are taught how to function in high adrenaline/high stress situations there is a much greater chance of you being injured than you actually protecting yourself. And now your attacker has something else to use against you.

 

[Sir_Knight]

I hope you don’t mean this.

Of course I am.

Do you know the motive of people or their intent?

No I don’t. Which is why we HOPE for the best but PREPARE for the worst.

Can you advise the shooting of a person for fear of crime?

I’m not advising anyone to shoot anyone. I’m advising someone to take steps to be in a postion to protect themselves IF the need arises.

That appears to be an extreme piece of advise.

Not at all. As I pointed out above, even Jesus instructed us to take steps to protect ourselves. Additionally, the CCC tells us that not only do we have a right, but a gave DUTY to protect ourselves from death and harm.

 

[Sir_Knight]

I would not recommend this. So many people think they’ve been trained when in fact they’ve just got the basics. Unless you train under adrenal stress situations and are taught how to function in high adrenaline/high stress situations there is a much greater chance of you being injured than you actually protecting yourself. And now your attacker has something else to use against you.

If you advise against using a handgun for self defense purposes, what do you recommend a person do when faced with a bigger and/or stronger attacker? Be a helpless victim? That goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church.

 

[water]

Although I don’t know what the man’s intention was, but I am glad that you are ok. Moreover, I am happy to see that you are reading the diary of St. Faustina. Please keep reading and do pray for her intercession before reading. It has helped me a lot. Of course, I won’t exclude reading the Bible.

 

[tkdnick]

If you advise against using a handgun for self defense purposes, what do you recommend a person do when faced with a bigger and/or stronger attacker? Be a helpless victim? That goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church.

I would suggest learning self-defense 1st. I’m not against guns in general. I love guns. Have several of them. But there is a HUGE difference between knowing how to aim at a target on a range and hit it, and having someone attacking you and being able to draw, unsafe the weapon, aim, and fire all in a situation where your mental capacity either shuts down or is severely hindered by adrenaline. Regardless of what a person learns or uses for self defense (hands, gun, mace, knife, taser) if a person hasn’t been trained in an adrenal-stress type of situation, there’s a good chance they will never be able to effectively use it. And in that case it can cause the person harm if the attacker can use it against you.

 

[Sir_Knight]

Learning self defense techniques is all very well and good and the more training a person has the better but there will always be somebody out there who is either bigger and/or stronger and/or faster and/or better trained placing you at a disadvantage.

But no matter have well trained the other individual is, a gun in your hand will level the playing field. In 9 out of 10 situations just seeing the gun causes the attacker to end the confrontation without a single shot having to be fired and nobody being hurt.

 

[InLight247]

It’s weird because my family doesn’t take it seriously. The other day my dad and I went to throw some flyers and then he left me. I walked back to the pizzeria alone, my foot (which I fractured a few years back) was hurting a lot, I was walking slowly and I had to walk on the same sidewalk I had seen the guy walking by. I hope the Lord always protects me.

My advice to you is to keep yourself alert and avoid such a situation in the future.
It is good to pray for protection and have faith, however, that does not exclude our own cautiousness. We have to do everything to avoid putting ourselves in danger. If your family doesn’t take this seriously, you need to make them pay attention to this. Don’t go to places in the dark without someone else accompany you. Or just let the men of the family go to the store.

 

[Catherine_Grant]

The discussion on self-defense is an appropriate topic for Moral Theology. Since it was not the intended purpose of this thread, I am not moving this thread to Moral Theology. Instead, I ask that the conversation on self-defense end now. Any future posts on the topic will be deleted.

Comments should focus on the spiritual aspects of BlueRain’s experience and how her reading of a saint’s writings might have played a role in the situation.

 

[cheeto1]

Remember when Jesus was tempted in the desert at the beginning of Lent? One of the temptations was that He
should throw Himself off a building and God would protect
Him from getting hurt. There is no emergency why you have
to be a woman out alone at night in this situation. You might
at well be throwing yourself off a building and expecting God
to save you. He may save you, but remember the words of
Jesus: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

 

[catholicmessage]

If you find yourself in a similar situation, bring a friend or family member with you. This will prevent a majority of the bad things that could happen to you.

If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, pray the St. Michael the Archangel prayer. It is very powerful.

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

You have chosen a great book to read. St. Faustina is a wonderful saint to learn about and imitate.

 

[BlueRain]

Now we get the orders thru the back doors and I usually don’t go. I never really thought of learning self-defense. I don’t think I could use a gun, I think you have tp have some sort of control in your emotins. I know shock and panic are the first emotions I feel in a situation like that.