Chapter 44: The reconciliation of those excommunicated
They should in complete silence simply lay their heads on the ground before the feet of all the community coming out of the oratory and stay there until the superior judges that they have done enough in reparation. (From para. 1 of Ch. 44 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
St. Benedict tells me that true reconciliation is accomplished at the deepest of levels, in humble silence, in my heart.
I have been married to the same loving, faithful woman for forty-two years. Too easily, however, I can take her for granted. I thereby “excommunicate” myself from my primary community, my home and nuclear family. Abba, teach me how to best make satisfaction for my self-centered preoccupations that too often engender these self- excommunications of mine.
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