Yesterday I sought to write on prayer and love.  I concentrated on agape, the most overused and misunderstood concept in Christendom.  The thought that somewhere in the world someone in a monastery or in the quiet of their room could be praying for me or those like me, though I was unknown to them, was quiet touching.  That certainly must be agape at its best, but as much as I wanted to express this, I could not.  The world is simply too broad and the cares and concerns of those to whom I have the greatest intimacy kept interrupting my thoughts.  Then there was Gilead, the book I had just read and there was Tillich and there was Benedict.  There was in this novel and the thought of these great teachers….agape to be sure But there was also the idea of caritas and the idea that love need never be so narrowly defined. Read more