Anime Lectio: Naruto

                                                            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. The only device you need is the one you use for this blog.

3. Deep Breathing - Open yourself to God’s Presence

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. 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 people you

know and don't know are like signs of God’s presence. 

4. 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. 

Like the series DBZ that I mentioned before, Naruto is also a popular series due to having a lot of fighting in it.  However, like the series DBZ, the fights, as well as other moments in Naruto, can also be meaningful if you mainly focus on the early parts of the series before when powering up doesn't really mean anything and it gets too complicated, as well as the fact that more than just fighting happens in it (and ones like it too).  The main thing that I get out of the Naruto series has to with my life as a Benedictine monk and an important idea from the Rule of St. Benedict, the rule that guides Benedictine monks written by the founder of Benedictine monasticism St. Benedict.  This idea is one of the tools of good works, from the chapter The Tools for Good Works, that has to do with how your way of acting should be different from the world's way, which is also an idea seen early on in the series Naruto at the conclusion of his team's first mission.

5. Brief and written explanation of the anime

Pay attention to how the brief and written explanation of the anime seen on this blog, as well as seeing the anime for yourself since I think that's better than any explanation, might “speak” to you or shed light on the things that have been on your minds.

A boy learns to be a ninja with others at a ninja academy led by a more experienced ninja, which involves learning about the way ninjas are supposed to live known as The Way of Shinobi, or using people as literal tools.  After learning about the importance of teamwork by working together with two of his other ninja academy classmates and another more experienced ninja teaching them, this new team goes on their first mission together, which is when they see an example of The Way of Shinobi.  This mission is escorting a bridgebuilder back to his village in order to complete building a bridge that the village already started.  This mission seems simple enough until they run into opposition, represented by a man who doesn't want this bridge to be completed and the mercenaries he hires to help him ensure what he wants.  After one of these mercenaries is killed while protecting the other from an attack from the more experienced ninja, the boy who sees what happens gets mad about it and tells the other mercenary he should be too, as well as other things like why.  The boy also doesn't understand what's happening, and even though the mercenary tells him that this boy doesn't understand the Way of Shinobi, the mercenary not only accepts what the boy says, but also kills some of the other mercenaries and the man who hired them, even though he's killed in the process.

At the graves of these two mercenaries, the younger ninjas on this newly formed team ask the more experienced ninja about the Way of Shinobi, which he just says is how things work for them in their lives as ninjas, but not surprisingly, the boy who changed the one mercenary's way of thinking doesn't accept this.  After thinking about it for a little, he decides to live in a way that is different from the Way of Shinobi, which is what he tries to do in the rest of this series when facing any obstacle, the biggest one being the beginning of bringing one of his friends and teammates back to the village after running away from it to seek power elsewhere.

6.  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 way of acting should be different from the world’s way.”  This isn’t only my favorite verse from Chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict, my favorite chapter in this rule, about the tools for good works, but it’s also my favorite verse in the Rule as a whole.  When I read this chapter in the Rule of St. Benedict as part of my prayer in the morning, I like to remind myself that I think the way of acting that should be different from the world’s way is seen in the Rule as a whole, but is explained in this chapter.  This thinking not only helps me understand the Rule, but also what I do as a monk, which includes using anime to teach.  In this case, the specific example of anime that I would use here is an idea from the series Naruto about the difference between The Way of Shinobi and the Way of Naruto.  The Way of Shinobi involves treating people like tools in terms of tools as material objects, meaning seeing people as things that can simply be used to help you with what you want and/or need to do.  The Way of Naruto involves treating people like tools in terms of tools as more like tools for good works, meaning seeing people as individuals who can help you, be helped by you, and doing, as well as allowing that to happen, by being a better person.

The previous paragraph in this step is based on a reflection I give in the school whenever I reflect on certain verses in Chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict. While there's definitely more to Naruto then what I talk about here, which continues with Naruto Shippuden and Boruto (sort of I guess - never watched that one and don't plan to: not a huge fan of Naruto Shippuden either), I also think it's definitely clear what I focus on with Naruto, as well as why. I also think the idea of "your way of acting should be different from the world's way" is important for everyone, not just someone who's a Benedictine monk, in terms of being mindful of it.

7. 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 be more mindful of the idea of "your way of acting should be different from the world's way."