Affection

In affective meditation there are five steps, namely, Invocation, imaginative picture, sensitive picture, purposes and consequences. Seemingly it is a contradiction that one must invoke superior forces for an exercise like meditation, where personal effort of the person that prays is mainly important; but this first step is indispensable and must be taken for a true meditation.

This step consists in exposing a picture that the soul has to observe and consider: it may be the development of an event already lived, scenes usually observed in the abyss, or images that express the divine.