Skip to content
quotesby

Those who marry God can become domesticated too-it's just as hum-drum a marriage as all the others. The word 'Love' means a formal touch of the lips as in the ceremony of the Mass, and 'Ave Maria' like 'dearest' is a phrase to open a letter. This marriage like the world's marriages was held together by habits and tastes shared in common between God and themselves-it was God's taste to be worshipped and their taste to worship, but only at stated hours like a suburban embrace on a Saturday night.

Graham Greene#7

FaithReligionLoveHabit

About this quote

What does it mean?
Religious devotion can become a mundane habit rather than a deep passion.
In plain terms
Faith can feel like a boring routine.
What can you take from it?
Guard against making worship routine and empty.

Where it applies

  • spiritual reflection
  • religious studies
  • personal faith

Putting it to work

  • renew practice
  • challenge routine
  • explore meaning

Questions to consider

  • Is ritual necessary for faith?
  • How do you keep passion alive?

Another view

Routine can provide stability even when passion fades.

More from Graham Greene

  1. The economy of a novelist is a little like that of a careful housewife who is unwilling to throw away anything that might perhaps serve its turn. Perhaps the c…

    Permalink to quote #6
  2. It is the story-teller's task to elicit sympathy and a measure of understanding for those who lie outside the boundaries of State approval.

    Permalink to quote #8
  3. Childhood was the germ of all mistrust. You were cruelly joked upon and then you cruelly joked. You lost the remembrance of pain through inflicting it.

    Permalink to quote #5

Related quotes

  1. I would not so dishonour God as to lend my voice to perpetuate all the mad and foolish things which men have dared to say of Him. I believe that we may find in…

    James Anthony FroudeJames Anthony Froude quote #1
  2. I think the prophetic tradition of our faith is that to love God is to love justice.

    Paul WellstonePaul Wellstone quote #8
  3. 'Bapu Gandhi said, 'All religions are true.' I just want to love God,' I blurted out, and looked down, red in the face. p. 69

    Yann MartellYann Martell quote #9