Anime Lectio: Arcane

                                                            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. 

Technology can be a good thing as long as it's used for the right reasons.  What makes this complicated is what people think the right reasons are.  What one person thinks is a right reason to use technology isn't always going to be what everyone else thinks.  It's also complicated by the fact that the right reasons involve other reasons that make sense on their own, but not entirely, as well as how you are related to the person(s) with the reasoning that isn't your own.  An example of this can be seen in the series Arcane.

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.

In a world divided by people who live on the surface and those who live underground, a group of people who live underground try to make life better for themselves by going up to the surface and stealing things there to sell underground.  One of these trips to the surface doesn't go well and this group of people ends up dead for the most part, except for two sisters who end up living differently - one ending up with the bad guy who rules the underground and the other living on her own without the rest of the group.  The two sisters also get involved in the development of technology that goes on on the surface, which further divides people who both live on the surface and underground in terms of how to use it until a solution of how everyone can use it/benefit from it can be reached.

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.

To be honest, it's been a while since I've actually seen Arcane, but I remember hearing about it before, getting around to watching it, and getting a lot out of it, even if the brief and written explanation of the anime given here doesn't reflect that as much as my reflection before it does. Technology, as well as the use of it, comes up a lot here as it does in other anime, but I think that repetition is important in order to emphasize a point to us, especially now as society continues to advance because of technology (this is true of anything else too - the purpose of repetition is to emphasize a point).

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 find a way to use technology that benefits everyone involved in its use.