Finding Our Home In Tradition

It is Industrious Family's greatest pleasure to share Matthew and Gabriella's story with you. While they came to Tradition together, their perspectives vary slightly so here we share the story first from Matt's perspective and then from Gabby's. The faithful Catholics like this couple are celebrated in our recent music video, "Trad Seats".

From Cafeteria Catholics to Convicted Traditionalists: How the SSPX Mission Brought Us Home by Matthew Prescott

Our journey to Tradition was a long and roundabout one. Having grown up as “Cradle Catholics,” we actually met each other in our local Parish's “youth group.” However, like so many others who were raised in the Diocesan Church structure which prevailed in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, we became “Cafeteria Catholics” who claimed the Faith without ever really challenging ourselves (or being challenged by the Church, or even our own Parents, for that matter) to know what the Church ever explicitly taught, or why. We were still “asleep” in our Faith, despite possessing some of the cultural trappings of it.

Eventually, after wrestling with the hypocrisy, heresy, and eventually full apostasy of our once “Catholic" families, Gabriella and I concluded that while we didn't know what the truth was, it wasn't the ambiguous, woke, formless, and frankly sad display of the moral and intellectual rot in our family, our local Parish, and what seemed to be Catholicism at large. We spent the next few years traveling many hundreds of miles and through dozens of “churches” in Protestantism chasing that truth. Eventually, we reached the uncomfortable realization that the Catholic Church really does have the most compelling truth claims regarding teaching authority, and that we had made a terrible mistake.

Having exhaustively examined the claims made by other “denominations,” and tiring of our own selfish insistence on “church” aligning with our personal values (a bitter fruit of the error of Nominalism), yet not wanting to return our family into the very institutional structure which nurtured our misgivings through failure to teach, we wondered if “reverent Novus Ordo with a Priest who happened to be 'one the the good ones'” was really the best we could hope for.

Providentially, it was at this very time that the SSPX sent a once-a-month mission to the tiny Idaho town we live in. Our town, of all places!! It was when we distanced ourselves from the Church the most that She most willingly made the missionary journey to us. Finally, an organization that took the Faith seriously! We were finally home.

-Matthew Prescott

From Going Through the Motions to Finding the Mass That Moved Us: Gabriella's Perspective on the Journey to Tradition

Matt and I were born and raised Catholic. We went to the same church every Sunday (almost), catechism classes, and the church youth group. I was involved in the Vacation Bible Camp, and even taught the Holy Communion class. We both went to Catholic high schools and continued going to church regularly. We of course married in the Church, because we thought of ourselves as faithful Catholics! Even with all of my Catholic experience...turns out I didn't know much of anything regarding the Church and what doctrine even was.

Over time, we noticed small issues arising with our family's belief system. As we pressed those issues, we discovered that they were so big they couldn't be ignored. We decided we were going to put some distance between us, packed up our stuff, and moved out to Idaho, which was over 1000 miles away from all that we knew. We put a pause on our Church attendance as we were discerning what the best path forward was.

We kept asking ourselves - how can true, faithful Catholics believe abortion is okay? How is that compassionate? We bounced from church to church, seeking something we didn't realize we had previously: sound authority. Finally we concluded that the Church wasn't the problem, it was the mindset of those attending the dying Novus Ordo on the East Coast. Of course, not everyone blatantly disregards Church teaching, but our parents sure did.

We joined the local diocesan church, but still felt something was off. One day, Matt asked me if I knew anything about the Traditional Latin Mass. To his surprise, I had! I attended several Latin Masses with my aunt back East. All I knew was they were longer than I had liked and I didn't understand what the Priest was saying. A friend mentioned there was a TLM here in town, so we attended the next time it was held.  We haven't gone back to the Novus Ordo since. We've had some "growing up" to do in the meantime, especially me (head coverings, a different language, saying goodbye to pants). Praise God He led us to Tradition! We are not looking back!

-Gabriella Prescott

Matthew and Gabriella Prescott are Traditional Catholics living their faith in rural Idaho. 

The Prescotts also enjoy hiking, being outdoors, exploring coffee shops. Matthew spends most of his time working on finishing up the family home. Currently he is reading through the Bible with his friend, Fabiola actor Aaron Lynch. Gabriella enjoys being a full time mom and crochets in her spare time.

Traditional Catholics like the Prescotts who go the extra mile to attend Mass in secluded places are highlighted in our new music video "Trad Seats". Give it a listen now!