Anime Lectio: I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day

                                                          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. 

Thinking about death is important all of the time because like many things, it's a mystery in terms of why it happens.  There are explanations as to how it happens, but none in terms of why it happens.  It's also important to think about it all of the time because it can happen at any time, so thinking about death all of the time is how you can be ready for it regardless of how and why it happens.  An example of a series that deals with this issue is I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day.

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.

In an orphanage that raises and trains girls to fight in a war with their magic abilities, death among these girls is so common that there's no time to properly grieve for their deaths whenever it happens.  One such girl is incredibly powerful and can never die due to her mother using the forbidden resurrection magic to bring her daughter back to life at the cost of her own life.  This girl ends up becoming friends with one of the weakest magic users in the orphanage after her roommate is killed in the war they are fighting and gets this powerful girl who can't die as her new roommate.  These two girls are also friends with two other girls who are also roommates and while these four girls do spend time together, the two set of roommates deal with their own problems.  The problems include using your power to help others who can't help themselves as much, even if it's a burden (first two girls), and dealing with death (other two girls - one of them is killed in battle), which actually is resolved (or at least ends for now) when the one girl dealing with the death of her roommate spends more time with the two other girls dealing with their own problems.

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.

One of the biggest mysteries about death is what the title of this anime is, as well as what it means in the context of this anime.  What does wanting to love someone until their dying day mean when you still think about the person after they're dead?  It's obvious what wanting to love someone until their dying day means if it doesn't go beyond those words, meaning you just want to love a particular person until they are dead.  But there's more to it than just those words.  There's also what actually happens.  Besides the fact that the title doesn't actually refer to the main characters, which is what you would expect, wanting to love someone until their dying day isn't easy to understand and is true for everyone (main characters or otherwise).  The best way to understand a mystery like this is to think about it, which can involve prayer.

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 what it means to love someone until their dying day.