Chapter 27: The superior's care for the excommunicated

Therefore the superior should use every curative skill as a wise doctor does, for instance by sending in senpectae, that is, mature and wise senior members of the community who may discreetly bring counsel to one who is in a state of uncertainty and confusion; their task will be to show the sinner the way to humble reconciliation and also to bring consolation, as St Paul also urges, to one in danger of being overwhelmed by excessive sorrow and in need of the reaffirmation of love which everyone in the community must achieve through their prayer. (From para. 1 of Ch. 27 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)

"... [T]o bring consolation ... to one ... in need of the reaffirmation of love which everyone in the community must achieve through their prayer." This phrasing of Benedict's counsels me to be compassionate to one who has harmed the community, and to remember that it is not "my" love that the sorrowful one needs, but the love which I "achieve" through prayer.  In other words, prayer is a relationship with the God who loved me/us first, and so allows the community to be loved back to life.