Anime Lectio: Hell's Paradise

                                                           1. Why do Anime Lectio? 

Anime 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 watching this anime? 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 Anime

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

What's your reason for living and fighting to live?  Even if you think there's no reason and you want to die, there's most likely a reason that you don't know because it's one you can't see until someone else points out that reason to you.  Part of this reason could also involve others due to a situation that you are involved with others.  An interesting example of all of this can be seen in the anime series Hell's Paradise.

6. Brief and written explanation of the anime

Pay attention to how the brief and written explanation of the anime seen on this blog, or seeing the anime 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 anime series Hell's Paradise starts off with a criminal who is supposed to be executed, but can't be killed.  This criminal says he wants to die, but one of his executioners, a female samurai, notices that he really doesn't want to die at all.  When she asks him about this, it's because he wants to get back to his wife who he actually does love, even though he seems not to because she isn't a shinobi like him.  Because of all of this, this criminal is given a chance to be pardoned for his crimes by finding something called the Elixir of Life on a mysterious island.  However, he has to fight other criminals in order to get a chance to be able to go to this island, where he still has to fight some of the other criminals, as well as the other dangerous creatures on the island.  After fighting some of these dangerous creatures with the help of other criminals and the executioners assigned to guard them, they all learn that the Elixir of Life doesn't exist and that the one criminal's wife might not even be real, but their fight still continues as they realize they have to work together in order to survive.

7.  Reflect on the anime

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

Your reason, or reasons, for living and fighting to live can change over time due to changes over time. For example, in the anime series Hell's Paradise, or at least in the first season of it, the reason for the main character goes from fighting to survive in order to see his wife again to fighting to survive the situation that he's in. What also influenced this change was going from just caring about himself and what he wanted to caring about what he has to do with others since they need to help each other in order to survive the island, even if the Elixir of Life they are looking for doesn't actually exist and the main character's wife doesn't exist either. What matters is what you have to do now, not what you have to do eventually, since what you have to do now leads to what you have to do eventually.

8. Final Prayer

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

Let us pray that we can focus on what we have to do now so we can use this focus to get to and do what we have to do eventually.