Anime Lectio: Into the Clear Moonlit Dusk

                                                             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. 

Do people love you for who you really are or do you just keep showing them a version of yourself that isn't true because that's what they're used to seeing?  It makes others happy when you do that, but what about yourself?  Does it make you happy for real or are you happy that other people like it and leave it at that?  It usually takes an experience of being real with someone in order to understand, or at least start to understand, yourself.  An example of this can be seen in the series Into the Clear Moonlit Dusk.

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 girl known as the prince because of the fact that she looks like a boy, and acts like a gentleman around her female classmates, which she's used to doing and being called, meets a boy at her school who is also known as the prince for the fact that he's really good looking.  This boy is interested in this girl since he actually sees her as a girl, which the girl isn't used to, and the two start dating.  Since the girl isn't used to being seen as a girl, she also doesn't know what dating is like and doesn't understand how it works, as well as how she feels about the boy, who is more interested in this girl than other girls he has dated before.  This also becomes complicated when another boy that happens to end up working with the girl at her family's restaurant, who actually has the Japanese word for prince as a name, ends up confessing his feelings to her, which she doesn't accept because she still wants to date the other boy that this boy also knows about.  However, this experience, as well as experiences with some of her family and friends, helps her figure this out, which is also seen with the boy that she still wants to date.

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.

Love and happiness are two different things, but they are also connected to each other. It's great that other people can find love and happiness in what you do for them, but can you find love and happiness in what you do for others for yourself? I guess this would depend on what you mean by love and happiness, which is usually romantic love and the happiness that results from that, which isn't always real. Or it can be real for others, but not for yourself, even though if it isn't real for yourself, it's not exactly real for others either, but it can feel real for others and/or yourself, especially if you're not used to feeling any other way, which is what I think is usually the case with love. Anyway, love is complicated and can't, or at least shouldn't, be understood as something that just happens in the romantic sense of the word, even though loving people in other ways doesn't always make sense either. Understanding love takes time. What you do during that time is also important, even if it's something that you do a lot and see a lot, like here since reflecting on romantic love, as well as love in general and feelings associated with it like happiness, is something that I like to do, including praying about 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 understand love, as well as the feelings associated with it like happiness, and ourselves in relation to love (what we want from it for ourselves vs. what others want from us based on it).