Its an important issue and maybe worth exploring a bit more: how seriously you should take religion (and I am referring here to the Catholic faith, I certainly hope you don't take Islam or Buddism seriously!lol).
To walk in Clarke's shoes for a second - pun not intended! - its true that there is an important theological concept called sometimes your "station in life". This means that you tailor, in a kind of a way, your religiousity, in a way, to your personal cicumstances. In otherwords you don't neglect, in favour of religious ceremonies, your normal duties as say a parent, a spouse, an employee, a student or whatever. So if I went to repeated novenas while leaving children hungry or employers short changed or just neglected my studies if I was a student, then I could be doing the wrong thing. In that sense Clarke is right, a certain moderation is called for because these responsibilities of yours are important and shouldn't be neglected. Hence the degree of religious observance, is, in a kind of a way, different for you than would be appropriate for a monk say, you take into account your station in life.
But where I totally disagree is where you say you should not take religion seriously. It has to be the case that you are trying to avoid sin in order to hopefully get to heaven. I think God takes his laws very seriously, and does not have that sense of humour hoped for. One way or the other you will pay for every transgression of his laws, and if you wilfully disobey and never seek forgiveness, you will go to hell, as many people do.
Anyway for what its worth thats what I think is the truthful picture of the situation.
