How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph.)
Quote #1
"Don't mention him," the mother said. "How dare you? That despicable man. A traitor to God." (1.2.66)
Parents often want to shield their children from unsavory influences and characters. The pious parents in The Power and the Glory are in the unhappy position of wanting their children to have contact with the Church when the only representatives of the Church are unsavory characters. It's like wanting to eat candy, even though it'll give you cavities. In this passage, the priest under discussion is Padre José who abandoned the faith. The mother doesn't want her children even thinking about him.
Quote #2
He thought with envy of the men who had died: it was over so soon. They were taken up there to the cemetery and shot against the wall: in two minutes life was extinct. And they called that martyrdom. (1.2.91)
Padre José is envious, but he's also afraid. He could still share the quick death of his fellow clergyman, but he fears the bullets too much. So he lives on in fear and envy, and complains the whole way through.
Quote #3
Terror was always just behind her shoulder: she was wasted by the effort of not turning around. She dressed up her fear, so that she could look at it—in the form of fever, rats, unemployment. (1.3.19)
We get the impression that Mrs. Fellows suffers from some sort of mental illness. Whatever it is that she fears most—we suspect death—it's worse than vermin and poverty. She can't escape the terror that's always with her, so she copes by focusing her fear on things she has the strength to face.