Manga Lectio: ReCollection

                                                            1. Why do Manga Lectio? 

Manga Lectio is a time for us to stop and take a breath. Between work, activities, family life, and social media, our minds are always moving. We rarely take time to contemplate and ask, why am I reading this manga? What’s the point of all this? And, how is this making me feel? 

2. Put away all distractions 

(phones, work, etc.)

We are so enslaved to things that stimulate our minds. Let this be a moment for us to free our minds, look inside of ourselves, and be at peace.

3. Deep Breathing

Take several deep breaths. Let your mind relax. If you’ve had any questions, desires, or struggles that you’ve been hiding or stuffing away, let them rise up to the surface. 

4. Open yourself to God’s Presence

Remember God places all our thoughts and desires inside of us, and He uses them to draw us closer to Himself. God gives us a community to help us understand who we are and what He is calling us to do. The faces of other people you know and don't know are like signs of God’s presence.  

5. Think About What’s on Your Mind in Relation to the Manga

Think about what’s been on your mind in relation to the manga.  The following is an example of such thoughts written by me.  

For a possible panel idea that I'm thinking about doing with my anime club at an anime convention that I want to bring them to, I'm thinking about basing it on the idea usually seen in anime, and I guess manga too, of 'being built different.'  You usually hear, or see/read, this phrase when trying to understand why one character is not like others in terms of what they do, who they are, how they act, and/or other reasons.  I also think it depends on seeing things differently and that is what I try to do with my interest in anime and manga with my idea of Anime and Manga Lectio (mostly Anime Lectio), even if it's with manga that aren't finished, which is usually the case for the ones I've been talking about here so far, like the manga series ReCollection.

6. Brief and written explanation of the manga

Pay attention to how the brief and written explanation of the manga seen on this blog, or reading the manga for yourself since that's better than any explanation, might “speak” to you or shed light on the things that have been on your minds.

The manga series ReCollection starts off with a teacher with a bad case of amnesia and not remembering anything about himself, like the fact that being a teacher is something that he really wanted to do. He's followed around by someone who claims to be God, but only this teacher can see him. This someone, who looks like an adult male human, also claims he can help this teacher get his memories back, but only if the teacher does what he tells him to do. One of the students of this teacher happens to be his younger childhood friend and she also tries to help him by being closer to him, but the God character tells him that won't really help him with his amnesia problem or in general for that matter. Other students don't think much of this teacher since he doesn't do much with and for them since he's trying to figure out who he is, but one of these students can see the God character since he can see dead people.

7.  Reflect on the manga

Has this brief and written explanation of the manga shed any light on what's been on your minds?  The following is an example of a reflection on the manga from me.

What interests me most about the short, and clearly not finished, manga series ReCollection is the character that claims to be God for several reasons. Why can only the teacher with amnesia initially see him? Can God only be seen by people with amnesia? Does only God know how to help people with amnesia really get their memories back? And what about the student who can also see the God character, which is revealed where the manga currently ends? He says he can see dead people, so is God a dead person? There are probably other things I could say about this series in the form of questions, like why isn't the story finished yet, where is it going, and other questions like that, but focusing on a certain aspect of the story, as well as the story in general, is an example of what I'm trying to with my interest in anime and manga based on the idea of 'being built different.' It's an idea that can explain why people see things in a certain way, even if they can't really be understood by others. You don't need to understand others in order to accept them. Listening to others is how you accept them and accept the fact that they are 'built different.'

8. Final Prayer

Please voice any prayer intentions for friends, family, or people around the world that relate to this manga.  The following is an example written by me.

Let us pray that we can listen to others without worrying about understanding them.