Anime Lectio: The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity Season One

                                                           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. 

Loving people in general is something that you shouldn't choose to do, but loving people in a romantic way is something that you should be able to choose to do in the sense of being able to choose a romantic partner for yourself.  Situations can influence that, but they should be situations that you and your romantic love interest should be able to control.  In this sense, it doesn't matter if the two people who love each other romantically are from different backgrounds or do other different things that can create tension for the people around them.  An example of this can be seen in the first season of The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity.

5. 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.

A boy meets a girl at a cake shop that he works at sometimes since his parents own the shop (they also live there).  The two end up getting closer, but after realizing that that they attend schools that hate each other, they figure out how they can still see each other.  At first, a friend of the girl asks the boy to stop seeing the girl he likes after she happens to find out what's going on between them, but the boy says he can't do that and the girl tells her friend that she wants to keep seeing him too, so the friend of this girl also helps them with this.  Eventually, the boy's friends also figure out what's going on and they also get involved in this relationship in order to help make it work instead of stopping it.  After they all spend time with each other, which includes opening up to each other, the boy accidentally confesses to the girl he likes, but after meeting up with her to talk with her about it, he finds out that she feels the same way about him.

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.

While I still think that The Dangers in my Heart is better than this series in terms of romance, this series is definitely my second favorite one since it also makes me think about what love means. For example, loving people in general isn't just something that you shouldn't choose to do, but it's something that you can't choose to do either, at least according to one of the admonitions sung in our school's morning assemblies, or convocations, sometimes. However, I think this doesn't include romantic love as this is something where making a choice is important and influences what you want to do with one other particular person. People can help you with that, especially if you need that to happen, and if they don't want to do that, then they should at least know what's going on in order to support what's happening in their own way, like praying about it in order to understand 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 love, as well as support the love, of others in our own ways.