Affective meditation
Affective meditation is a Christian spiritual practice originating in Medieval Europe by which a pilgrim, worshipper, or other follower of Christ seeks to imagine the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, movement, and tactility of specific scenes from canonical Gospels and their characters, with particular emphasis on empathising with the compassion and suffering of Jesus and the joys and sorrows of the Virgin Mary, leading to the authentic and spontaneous expression of emotion. == History == === Middle Ages === Affective meditation is the spiritual practice around which the tradition and philosophy of affective piety revolves, and was initiated by Saint Anselm of Canterbury, subsequently by Bernard of Clairvaux, and latterly by Francis of Assisi, who are credited with spawning an expressive form of worship through which members of the clergy, monastic orders, and laity visualized and envisioned scenes from the life of Christ with which they empathized to such degree that their compassionate identification with the suffering of him and his mother Mary manifested in emotive vocal sounds and physical movements.