Anime Lectio: The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl

                                                           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. 

Blessings are usually given to people when they ask for them, like before they do something in order to do it.  Good things people get in other cases are usually considered blessings, either things that are considered good right away or things that aren't initially seen as good, but can be seen as good based on your thinking, like a cancer diagnosis (as a cancer survivor, I understand this).  An interesting example of this can be seen in the series The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl. 

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.

At an academy for children of nobility, one of the things the students there do is select a card with a blessing based on an animal god.  A shy girl who doesn't want any attention ends up selecting a card with the gorilla blessing, which gives her an increase in strength.  Due to this blessing, she's selected to join the knights that protect the school.  Instead of not wanting any attention, she attracts attention because of her blessing, in good ways and bad (mostly good), but she also learns over time that she can help others with this blessing, which she does in various ways throughout the series.

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.

Blessings are a good thing depending on how you use them. Even if it you don't want the blessings you get, whether you asked for it/them, but got something that you didn't expect, chose one (or more) because you had to, or got them in some other way (blessings in disguise), how you use them is important. Blessings in this series come from an animal god. All good things that are in you are considered blessings and they come from God, not yourself, according to the Rule of St. Benedict (Chapter 4 "The Tools for Good Works"). Using these good things over time, since it also requires learning how to do that, like with prayer, is also important.

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 use the blessings, or good things, that we somehow get in order to not just help others, but also ourselves, over time.