You can learn a lot about a word by studying its etymology.  Our English word virtue comes from the Latin word virtus, which has a slightly more robust meaning than what we typically think of when using the English word today.  Virtus is moral excellence, but also with an implicit connotation of strength and manliness that is caused by this virtus.  In fact, the root Latin word of virtus is vir, which means man (and hence words such as virile, etc.).

So we have to consider that at that time, in that culture, the concept that we loosely call “virtue” today was considered a mark of strength in a man.  A man was sort of measured by his level of virtue.  A virtuous man was a strong man, and vice-versa.  Do we think anything like that today?

In Roman times — even before Christendom was established — there was a very well-defined list of virtues that men were expected to attain in order to be respected in society:  constancy, discipline, fortitude, courage, self-mastery, clemency, etc.  And like anything these virtues had to be developed — much like physical strength has to be developed through exercise and training, the virtues are developed and made stronger in us by exercising them.

Now if we accept the ancient idea that virtue and strength are correlated, what can we say about a nation that is high in virtue and, alternatively, a nation that is low in virtue?  Or, put a different way, a nation whose people on average exhibit a high or low level of virtue.  Which nation would be harder to defeat in battle: the one where its men demonstrate extraordinary virtue in areas like courage, fortitude, prudence and temperance — or the one where everybody is a lazy bum?  Which nation would be more likely to be subverted by evil ideologies and destroyed from within?  The one strengthened by virtue or the one weakened by vice?

So everybody is running around asking what we can do to fix our countries.  Well here’s an easy thing we can do ourselves:  we can work on our personal virtue.  And we don’t need an act of Congress or a political movement or a steering committee or whatever to get us started.  We can just do it.  We can get busy exercising.

There’s also a second part to this.

It has always been a teaching of the Church that God is more likely to hear (i.e., answer) the prayers of those who reach a high degree of sanctity.  In fact for those people who do reach such a level of holiness — and they are few but they are out there — they can pretty much ask God for anything serious and if it is in accord with His will, He will grant it.  That can be a very motivating and reassuring thought.

And finally, if you can see the writing on the wall, you can accurately predict that many Western nations will soon be crying out to God asking for Him to save us from this mess.  (This is no time for Pollyannas.)  If we want to be heard, we better purify ourselves.