Ritualising Emotion at Stoudite Morning Prayer

In their catechetical lectures and spiritual teaching, Theodore the Stoudite, Symeon the Stoudite, Symeon the New Theologian, and Niketas Stethatos directed monks to perform their prayers, both common and private, with emotional intensity. They offered notes regarding appropriate affects such as grief and joy. They encouraged a variety of interior dispositions, including compunction, introspection, gratitude, and even ecstasy. They coaxed the formation and expression of emotions through action, ritualized and embodied.