Anime Lectio: Good Night World

                                                             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. 

Everyone has different reasons for dealing with trauma, even if how you deal with trauma is the same as other people.  An example of this is playing the same virtual reality game with others, whether you create a family or party with them, interact with others as friends, and/or are somehow involved in the virtual reality lives of others in other ways, like as enemies/rivals.  A more specific example of this can be seen in the anime series Good Night World.

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 Good Night World starts off with meeting a group of players in a virtual reality game known as the strongest family in the game, both in strength and in connection. This family in the game also happens to be a family in real life, but are not as strongly connected as they are in the game. For example, in real life, the members of the family don't even know that the other members even play the game, let alone are a better family in it, until they end up working together in order to prevent the virtual world and reality of the game take over the actual world and the reality of it. After they prevent this take over, which was caused by their shared trauma of losing one of their family members, this family starts a new life together.

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.

Dealing with trauma is something that everyone does. People usually have different ways of dealing with trauma in the sense of doing different things in order to deal with it, but there's also the possibility of doing the same thing to deal with the same trauma. What makes this possibility different is the people doing the same thing to deal with the same trauma, the experiences they have while doing that, and the other experiences that they have that both relate or not relate to the trauma, how they deal with it, or anything else. Several examples of all of this can be seen throughout this anime series, but what's important is doing all of this for yourself based on what you see.

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 deal with trauma with others, whether that be shared trauma and/or the trauma of others, as well as our own trauma.