Chapter 26: Unlawful association with the excommunicated
If any member of the community presumes without the permission of the abbot or abbess to associate in any way with or speak to or give instructions to one who has been excommunicated then that person should receive exactly the same punishment of excommunication. (Ch. 26 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
Interior growth happens between an individual and God, and I must respect that precious space in myself and others.
“Let him or her be,” says Benedict. “Let yourself be”, say you to me, Abba, Divine Physician, “Apply generously tincture of time”: the unwritten prescription given by every healer, in imitation of you, for any and all maladies, physical, mental or spiritual. Meditation, my twice daily formal entry into your silence, Abba, reminds me how all healing, and all growth happen: from the inside out. Heal me, Father, residing here within me. Apply, as you do, silently and gently, whatever it takes of tincture of time to allow me to surrender to becoming a child, your little one
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