Anime Lectio: To Your Eternity Seasons One and Two

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. You can write them down too.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do and need to do where I work and live, which for me is the same place. The reasons that I've been thinking a lot about this lately include what we are trying to do with our school and monastery as we continue this pandemic.

6. Brief and written explanation of the anime

Pay attention to how the brief and written explanation of the anime seen on this blog might “speak” to you or shed light on the things that have been on your minds.

The anime To Your Eternity starts with a God-like figure dropping some sort of weird orb down to the Earth.  This orb has the ability to change into what it comes into contact with once what it comes into contact with dies, whether it gets to know what dies or whatever dies happens to touch it.  This leads to an interesting journey for this orb as it's influenced by who and what it comes into contact with in both good and bad ways, including the God-like figure, usually referred to as its Maker, that started this journey and acts as a guide for this orb being.

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.

I think what makes To Your Eternity different from most other anime is its focus on the journey instead of the destination. In other anime, there's usually more of a focus on a particular destination/goal and the journey to get to that destination/goal ends up being more important/significant than the destination/goal itself. In To Your Eternity, the destination is wherever the main character goes. It doesn't matter where the destination is as long as there's one to go to. The journey is important because it involves learning about yourself, what you can do for yourself, and what you can do for others, as well as what others can do for you, meaning how you can help each other, despite all of the flaws involved. Doing this is important for everyone, not just for the main character of this anime, despite the flaws in others, our feelings towards others, and other problems we face as we live our lives, or journeys.

8. Final Prayer

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

Let us pray for everyone around the world as they continue their own journeys of learning about themselves, learning about others, and learning about what they can do to help others, as well as how others can help them, in order to figure out what they do in their lives. And to also pray for remembering that the journey is part of he destination. We ask for our Maker, like the one for the main character of this anime, to help us with this by guiding what we do.