The first sentence of “Mr. Green” serves to establish some of the protagonist’s background, as do the majority of first sentences in literature. Right away, it tells us that she follows the religion of her parents, but that her parents are a recent deviation from their ancestors’ traditions. While it can be argued that the statement “I do not believe in the worship of my ancestors” is something that could be meant literally, in line with the customs her grandfather teachers her as a child, I interpreted it as her not following her ancestors’ religion. (Of course, both interpretations can be true.) Later in the story, we learn that she does, in fact, pray for her grandfather, which could mean that she either is lying in the first sentence or that her prayers are not done out of belief but out of some other force, such as an obligation to a promise.
The last sentence, or sentences, return to her Catholicism and give us somewhat a resolution to the misogyny she internalized after spending so much time listening to her grandfather’s sexism and assuming it was correct simply because he was older and wiser than anyone else she knew. It addresses that while her grandfather did not believe that women can lead prayers, she was all he had so he better suck it up and accept them.