Anime Lectio: Sword of the Demon Hunter

                                                           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. 

Why do we do what we do?  What's the reason for it?  And how does it help us?  These are other ways of saying the questions in the first part of this process and thinking about them, as well as taking time to do that, is important.  It's also important before doing anything else, like critically thinking about any anime you watch, which I attempt to do with these Anime Lectio posts, like this one about the series Sword of the Demon Hunter. 

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.

After the girl he's supposed to protect is killed by a demon, a swordsman continues to hunt demons by traveling and helping people he meets by killing demons for them while wondering why he's doing that.  He doesn't do this for free, so he makes a living doing this.  He gains the abilities of the demons he kills, so doing this helps him get stronger.  And he meets various people by doing this, sometimes staying/spending time with them before moving on, so he isn't lonely (or at least by himself all the time), which eventually leads to him ending up with an adopted daughter.  After doing all of this for a while, he realizes that he does all of this, even though he doesn't really understand it, because it makes him happy.

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.

It takes time, as well as various experiences over time, like taking time to think critically about anime somehow (this lectio process is one way to do that - it can be done in other ways too), to think about what we're doing and to understand it at all. This understanding could, and should, change over time too by seeing things, like what you do, differently. What you do can, and should, also change on a daily basis based on things like what happens, where you go to do it, and why you do that each day.

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 take the time to wonder why we're doing what we're doing every day, even if we don't really/fully understand it all of the time.