From Sacred Space

When Jesus said ‘Let your light shine before all’, did he mean that we should be haranguing people in the street? It would not work. There was a time when street-preaching might have made an impact on people. Nowadays everyone who has a radio or TV is bombarded with messages from another sort of street-preacher, the advertisers. They beguile, hector, amuse and titillate in order to seduce you into buying. As Christians, we are not expected to rival them. We could not. Our Lord’s words are not about coercing other people into religion, but about doing good in a visible way, ‘so that others, seeing your good works, may glorify your father in heaven’. In Recife, Brazil, where great numbers of poor people were illiterate, Bishop Helder Camara used to instruct his catechists, ‘Sisters and brothers, watch how you live. Your lives may be the only gospel your neighbours will ever read.’ We are all witnesses, at every moment of the day. That does not mean shouting the Creed from the rooftops. It means living in such a way that our lives would not make sense if God did not exist.

http://www.liturgy.co.nz/virtualchurch/sacreadspace.html