Chapter 25: Punishment for more serious faults
None of the community should associate with or talk to the guilty person, who is to persevere alone in sorrow and penance in whatever work has been allotted, remembering St Paul's fearful judgement when he wrote to the Corinthians that: such a one should be handed over for the destruction of the flesh so that the spirit maybe saved on the day of the Lord. (From Ch. 25 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry OSB, 1997.)
St. Benedict's words sound harsh to me, and yet they offer the solace of solitude, work and prayer that build up interiority. His words also remind me to be patient and vigilantly respectful of the difficulties that can be associated with inner growth -- mine and another's.
"Let him be alone at the work assigned him, abiding in penitential sorrow...that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." This to me is the importance of solitude and silence where everything is magnified. If I have done wrong it is a way to better see and understand and correct my self ...with the help of the mercy of God.
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