What Does Vice Mean?

What does vice mean and how does it relate to the Holy Rosary?  Vice is a serious moral weakness that can lead to wickedness and corruption.  It can manifest itself in many ways and it is highly toxic to the soul.  Our Lady speaks of it in one of her Fifteen Promises of the Rosary when she indicates that reciting the Rosary will destroy vice.

One form of vice is sexual immorality.  In this day and time where Satan is having his last hurrah, sexual immorality and perversity of many forms is an unfortunate reality in our society.  Though much of it is hidden from the mainstream, still there is a deplorable degree of it constantly being shoved in our faces either by way of TV, Internet or other forms of modern day media.  I think the kind of vice that disturbs me the most is the kind that wears a disguise.  We see it all over the place in the form of suggestive billboards, Hollywood movies with subtle themes of perversity weaved into the plots, TV shows sensationalizng crime and presenting it as either comical or heroic, and the list goes on.

There is a 1996 movie starring Demi Moore called “Striptease” in which Demi Moore stars as a struggling stripper trying to juggle making ends meet with raising a daughter.  She is portrayed as the poor victim of her life’s circumstances.  And the stiletto-adorned damsel in distress gyrates seductively for a crowd of mesmerized men (complete with perfect stripper pole gymnastics) who can’t resist her vast array of charms because she’s just so darn sexy.  In spite of the fact that the movie was a box office bomb, it was categorized as a sex comedy.  Sex comedy?  I must have missed something somewhere along the way.

What Does Vice Mean and How Does It Destroy?

The following is my true life 1996 version of “Striptease” with a non-Hollywood twist that is anything but a sex comedy:

After I finished dressing I stood staring at myself in one of the mirrors wondering Who have I just become? I was wearing a long red sequin gown, a pair of silver strappy heels and a white garter around my thigh.  I’d purchased these items days earlier from a shop in the Village that specialized in stripper costumes.  The dress itself cost me nearly $200.00 and so I was already in the hole before I’d even gotten started.  Somehow this just didn’t look or feel right.  I wondered if perhaps I’d just made one of the most, if not the most insane mistakes of my life.  I mean – what was I thinking?  This isn’t me.  Stripping?  Am I nuts?  This is some mixed up twisted version of a fantasy girl gone off her rocker.  It’s like I see this person in my mind who I desperately want to be; someone with charm, mystique, intelligence and beauty all in one.  I see this perfect picture of my other self – the one I never got to be; it’s the girl who carries herself with the poise and equanimity of Grace Kelly, who handles adversity with the skill of a tight rope walker, who struts through life with a carefree attitude and arms wide enough to wrap themselves twice around the world, if she’s so inclined.  And yet, is this how she unveils herself?  And as I looked at my reflection and saw it looking back at me I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe I’d just embarked upon a most pernicious journey.  I wondered if all those prayers and Sundays at Mass and talks with God were just now being tossed out the window for the sake of ego stroking and decadent abandonment.  This is where the crossroads of innocent fantasy and dangerous delusion were to collide.

Suddenly the door swung open and one of the club managers walked in.  I recognized him from the other day when I came to the club to fill out an application to cocktail waitress.  He had said that I should forget about waitressing and instead try dancing.  He thought I was beautiful and that I’d be going to waste as a waitress.  His name was Michael and he was exactly my age – 29, Italian and very handsome.  I couldn’t resist his persistent urging and compliments and so I’d agreed to give it a try.  And now, days later, here I was.  He was pleased with my appearance, gushing over how gorgeous I looked and telling me that I’d be a knock-out.  His smile was wide and inviting, his eyes a deep, piercing brown.  He had a full head of dark, thick hair and wore a black tuxedo.  He reminded me of the kind of guy I’d never had a chance with back in high school.  He asked if I was ready for showtime and then took my hand and led me out the dressing room door.

I followed Michael through the club and down a set of stairs to the main floor, telling myself that for now I’d just go through with this and see how it turned out.  After all, I’m an actress, right?  I’m not hurting anyone.  It’s all just an act and I get to be the star of my own show.  But as hard as I tried to convince myself, these thoughts failed to console my conscience.  I knew I was letting God down.  But I pretended that it was just an act and I argued with myself that I needed money and I needed a chance to feel happy and in control of my life for once.  It felt as if there was a battle taking place inside my head; a fight between right and wrong.  I was trying to convince God that I really needed this at this point in my life, for good reasons that would pay off in the end.  I hoped that He would understand and I just needed a little time to get myself centered and happy again.  I suppose I knew better than to try to sway God into believing that this whole innocuous spectacle was just that – a harmless adventure of displaying my talents as an actress and getting paid for it.  But nevertheless, I bargained and rationalized with Him, promising a good, healthy return on the investment.

What Does Vice Mean and How Is It Destroyed?

The only way to rid our lives of vice is through total consecration to Jesus through Mary.  The Holy Rosary is something that was missing in my life back in 1996 when I was blinded by glitz and seduced by flashy promises and delusions.  I was becoming a slave to sin and Satan had his slimy hold on me because I allowed my ego to make my decisions and in turn, chip away at my integrity and self-respect.

The reason I titled this post “What Does Vice Mean?” is because I think that so many of us don’t really know what it means.  I know that I, for one, had no clue what vice was until very recently when I began praying the Rosary.  It was through discovering the Fifteen Promises of the Rosary that I began to fully comprehend its definition and how it has destroyed areas of my life.  There is an excellent book by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen called Victory Over Vice that I highly recommend.

So what does vice mean?  It means that unless we are in a state of grace and consecrated to Jesus through Mary, we are easy prey for Satan to infest us with his poisons and lure us into the trap of immorality.  I encourage you to read this blog article.  It’s an excellent example of the dangerous and immoral world we live in today.  But where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.  The damage can be reversed if we would only listen to Mary’s call to pray the Rosary for peace and put all of our trust in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Top Photo by: jonycunha

Bottom Photo by: XcBiker

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