Manga Lectio: Murder Incarnation

                                                        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. 

 

Stories can usually raise interesting questions depending on what they are about. Whether it be a story about something that happened in real life or a story that you read about, stories have something to say not only based on what they are about, but also the stories within the stories that some people know and tell others versus the other stories within stories that other people know and tell. One such example of a story and stories within a story can be seen in the manga Murder Incarnation.


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.


Murder Incarnation is a manga made up of short stories about people who get a chance to bring their loved ones back from the dead based on what the people think and know about their deceased loved ones. This thinking is also influenced by a mysterious girl (and her sisters in one story, but mostly the one girl) who shows up in these situations and can bring the dead loved one back to life, but only if the person who wants to bring the dead loved one back to life kills three people in 24 hours. The dead person is brought back to life in each story before knowing the full story of why their loved one died or what really happened, which is revealed after the dead person is brought back.


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.


If you could bring back your loved one by killing three people within 24 hours, could you do it? Would knowing what was really happening in terms of knowing the full story behind why the loved one died, what you really know about the relationship, and other factors matter? These are the interesting questions raised by the story of Murder Incarnation. What's also interesting are the conditions of killing three people in order to bring back one and doing that within 24 hours since it implies that some people are more important than others, which would depend on the person, their situation, and other things like their feelings, and that this killing of others wouldn't allow much time for thinking. The fact that people manage to get this killing done for the sake of restoring a loved one, even without fully understanding or knowing why, not knowing what the dead person would think, and having faith in the bizarre restoration process, is another interesting fact. Anyway, a story like this, especially since it has stories within the story, as well as several different stories within each story, is worth both thinking and praying about.


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 fully understand the decisions we have to make based on the choices we have.

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