The Force of Habit

"We must consider the force of habit.  Conscience first warns us against sin;  but if we disregard it, it soon ceases to upbraid us; and thus sins, once known, in time become secret sins.  It seems then (and it is a startling reflection), that the more guilty we are, the less we know it; for the oftener we sin, the less we are distressed by it..Such is the force of habit...take..the duty of stated private prayer; at first it is omitted with compunction, but soon with indifference.  But it is not the less a sin because we do not feel it to be such.  Habit has made it a secret sin.

To think of these things, and to be alarmed, is the first step towards acceptable obedience; to be at ease, is to be unsafe.  We must know what the evil of sin is hereafter if we do not learn it here.  God give us all grace to choose the pain of present repentance before the wrath to come!"  --Blessed John Henry Newman, in Magnificat, p.389-390.