Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.

St. Francis preached plenty, but he never used those words. That, at least, according to his biographer Mark Galli.

It’s one of those fantastic quotes that sometimes gets things just right. Us Christians tend to be a bit too wordy. Not enough action. So when one uses the quote, it feels only right to attribute it. And recent tradition has done so to St. Francis of Assisi.

But as Galli writes in the article “Speak the Gospel” in Christianity Today online, the quote wasn’t attributed to Francis in the first two hundred years following his death and, in actual fact, Francis was a darn good preacher of words — turns out that’s what made him famous in his own day.

It’s an overused quote, but a good one I suppose in a culture that likes its sound-bytes and emotive phrases. And, heck, I’ll probably refer to it again before too long. But, thanks to Mr. Galli, I shall do so without attribution. Those words seem necessary.