St. Francis of Assisi is said to have instructed the friars, “Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words!” It is uncertain whether St. Francis ever really said that, but the sentiment seems consistent with his Franciscan spirituality. One of the pitfalls of this saying is that it can be used as an excuse for not talking about one’s faith, using the rationalization that the Gospel is being sufficiently preached by one’s good example. The problem with this is that often words are indeed necessary. We can do all kinds of good things for purely humanitarian and secular reasons. If we want people to know that our good deeds are motivated by our Catholic faith, we have to say so expressly!