Anime Lectio: Berserk of Gluttony

                                                             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. 

There are times when we wish we had the abilities of others because they look more useful than the ones we have.  Our own abilities can also be useful if we first figure out and truly understand what they really are, not just what we initially think and understand they are without thinking more about them, accept them for what they truly are, and use them to not only help ourselves, but others as well.  This can be seen in our own lives in various ways based on who we are, what we do, and other experiences.  The anime series Berserk of Gluttony also offers an interesting example of this. 

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 Berserk of Gluttony starts off with a young man who thinks he doesn't have an ability as useful as others and because of this thinking, he sticks to a simple guard job in order to protect a female holy knight that he cares about, even though the other holy knights don't like the young man and do what they want to do for their own sakes. One night, some thieves break in and the young man ends up fighting and killing one of them, which results in the young man gaining the abilities of the person he killed. This gaining of abilities also satisfies his constant hunger, which he initially thought was all his ability could do, meaning make him hungry a lot. When the young man comes across a talking sword, he learns more about his ability, what he has to do because of this ability, and where this ability can take him, which leads to him having many adventures in order to control this ability and use it to help others, like the female holy knight he still cares about, as well as himself since controlling his ability is how he controls himself.

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.

When figuring out what our abilities really are, it's important to understand what they can actually do in order to help us with the problems we think we have because of them. For example, in the anime series Berserk of Gluttony, a young man goes from thinking his ability is just the ability to be hungry a lot to being able to steal the abilities of others in order to stop his hunger by defeating these others. Instead of gaining experience by defeating his enemies and leveling up, which his sword can do instead, he grows by learning new things based on who, or what, he defeats, which is also how he can satisfy his physical hunger. We also need to figure out what our abilities are in order to understand what we can actually do instead of thinking that we can only do certain things due to what we initially think our abilities are without giving it much thought to what they can be.

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 understand what our abilities actually are and not limit ourselves to what we think they are, as well as understand how to actually use them for not only ourselves, but also others.