More wisdom from St. Francis via Father Richard Rohr:

Overcoming the split of the mind from the body was probably easier for St. Francis because he wasn’t an intellectual. He was almost anti-intellectual because he saw what it did to so many clergy. They couldn’t touch reality anymore. They confused words with reality. Don’t fall in love with words. To this day, most of our arguments are over “your” words in agreement with “my” words. We have burned people at the stake for not having the right words. So, the alternative orthodoxy that is emerging is orthopraxy instead of verbal orthodoxy—lifestyle instead of just saying the right words.

The hegemony of the gnostic beliefs (mind-over-body, words-over-action, salvation-as-escaping-this-realm) is perhaps the most destructive influence of the Enlightenment upon the Church. Knocking those beliefs from pride of place is why I am so adamant about intentionally examining our religious practices, giving rise to my Redefining Liturgy sermon series.