How did you come to Tradition?

[Bonaventure]

For cradle trads, how did your parents "tradvert?" Was it gradual, or a sudden "fall off the horse" moment?

For me, it was mostly through reading materials on the Internet and discussing things with fellow Catholics, either on-line or in real life. I passed through various "stages" as well.

[tmw89]

My high school Latin teacher, an old priest (RIP, ordained I think in 1963), mentioned in class one day that the new bishop sanctioned the monthly "Latin Mass" (had no idea there was one once a month in the diocese) to become a weekly event.  The church in which it was to be held was near my house, so I figured I'd check it out.

That happened almost eight years ago.  Everything followed from there.

[Mithrandylan]

Raised going to SSPX and diocesan TLM.  Went to a NO school for a bit and went to the NO there.  Didn't get much of a Catholic education, as you can guess.  Fell away in my early teens, reverted about three (?) years ago.  Started going to the diocesan TLM I'd been going to as a kid, started learning all the stuff about the faith I never learned.  Started going to the SSPX I went to as a kid around the same time, with the scales of attendance tipping towards diocesan.  SSPX attendance increased about a year and a half or two years ago.  Been exclusively SSPX the last six months or so.   

[Heinrich]

With the hoopla over the Passion in secular circles round abouts 2004, a commie co worker was talking about Mels Pre Vatican II Catholicism. I was intrigued and steamed at the fact that this man hater knew more about Catholicism than I did. So I investigated. It took awhile, a move to Colorado, and talks with an SSPXer from Denver, my first TLM at a CMRI in Colorado Springs, and then exclusively the FSSP. Have not looked back since.

[Irenaeus G. Saintonge]

Combination of things for me.
As a young teenager my passion for Catholicism really started to awaken, and at that point I was a pretty typical 'conservative', 'neo-Catholic', but I was never static at that point.
As my faith awakened and deepened I read a lot of great books and encyclicals that led me along where I needed to go. By 16 I was a firm Catholic conservative, Novus Ordo style, so not quite traditionalist, but getting in that direction. What really got the ball rolling, right around that age, was reading Dietrich von Hildebrand's Trojan Horse in the City of God. That kind of opened up my eyes, and I started to realize that it was ok if things were not all perfect and sunshiny.
That was the big thing for me, was the desire that everything be ok. My implicit thought was that if things are not perfect, then the Church got something wrong. Obviously that is not true, but it was my thought process as a 16 year old. Dietrich von Hildebrand opened up that door for me.
After that, I took some time to digest the 'traditionalist position' and eventually worked my way around to the Ottaviani Intervention. That was just as important for me because it showed me what truly faithful objections might look like. You might say that it showed me the extent that faithful objections might go. After all, if such a powerful and well respected cardinal could say these things, they must not have been wrong to say.

After that, it has simply been a slow growth as I have come to appreciate and love Tradition, especially the traditional Mass.

[Archer]

My journey to Tradition has been up and down.  I was homeschooled and raised in a conservative NO family.  I attended daily Mass from when I was very young all the way through highschool, and I served Mass for 11 years.  In fact, the Parish I grew up in was probably an anomaly in the NO world.  We had a plethora of young men and boys serving, sometimes 15-20 at any given Sunday Mass, and I think up to 25 total.  Our Priest strictly forbade altar girls and I always thought this was one of the main reasons which caused so many boys to want to serve.  COTT was common, and Mass was always celebrated reverently.  I never saw liturgical dancing, clown masses, or any other craziness.  In fact, I really had no idea these things even existed until I started learning about the TLM. 

5 years ago my girlfriend (now my wife) introduced me to Tradition.  Despite where I had come from I was pretty stagnant in my faith. I'll never forget the first TLM I attended with her.  It was so foreign to me that I wasn't sure what to make of it.  It took me 3 or 4 Masses before I started cluing in to what was actually going on.  It then took another few months of alternating between the NO and TLM before I fully realized the superiority of the TLM and that I couldn't keep bouncing back and forth. 

In the beginning it was a roller coaster for me choosing which side of the fence I was really on.  We haven't received much support from my parents and siblings who, despite being good conservative Catholics, cannot understand the appeal of the TLM.  This in turn slowed my initial desire to immerse myself in Tradition.  But after the birth of my first daughter things started changing.  I realized the huge responsibility that God had assigned me, and that I couldn't take that responsibility lightly.  Over the last two years I've really taken the initiative and started to mature in my prayer life and increased my spiritual reading.  I finally feel like I'm learning not because someone else wants me to, but because of my position as the leader and the head of my family demands it.  I want to be able to explain to my children why we go to one Mass when their Grandparents don't.  I know I won't have all the answers, but I want to have some kind of response to the tough questions I know are going to come.  And that means I need to be serious about my faith in order to pass it on to my children.   

I'm not going to lie, the transition from NO to Tradtion hasn't been easy.  Tension and lack of support from family has been hard to swallow. I've always been very close with them, but for the first year of our marriage you could cut the tension with a chainsaw. Now things are a little better, but it's hard to fly across the country to visit during the holidays and not be able to go to Mass with them.  I know the sacrifice is worth it, but it's not something they understand.  And I'm not sure they'll ever be able to.  I've started praying hard for their "Tradversion," but we'll see what God has planned. 

Anyway, through prayer, spiritual reading, and encouragement from my Wife I continue to mature and grow more "tradish" every day.  Even since I joined Fisheaters a year ago many of the views I held then have since changed.  I wish I could take back some of the arguments or opinions I posted.  For example, the SSPX has always been a sticking point for me, but lately I find myself siding with them on many of the issues. I'm not completely there yet, but we'll see where God takes me.

Thank you all for your insightful posts and example; I've really learned so much from you all.  Please pray for me and I'll do the same for all of you. 

[Irenaeus G. Saintonge]

For example, the SSPX has always been a sticking point for me, but lately I find myself siding with them on many of the issues. I'm not completely there yet, but we'll see where God takes me.

I have felt that way for some time.

[OCLittleFlower]

I was attending a Lutheran college and met a guy through College Republicans who described himself on Facebook as a Byzantine Catholic.  I asked him what that was, and he explained it but said that his family attended the Latin Mass.  I'd heard of the Latin Mass back in the old days, but I'd assumed that they'd simply translated the prayers from Latin into English -- I didn't know about the hard core changes.

Well, I'd taken a couple years of Latin in high school, so I was curious.  It was explained to me that the prayers had changed and that I would need to wear a veil.  His mom gave me one.    Well, that Sunday, I went to my first TLM (indult) and never looked back.

Eventually, through time spent studying the actual issues involved, my husband (no, not the guy who introduced me to the TLM -- a guy that I met actually through a dare from the guy who introduced me to the TLM) and I left the indult.  We believe that it is important to attend Masses from priests who say the TLM exclusively and to have a traditional parish to attach one's self to.

[Archer]

For example, the SSPX has always been a sticking point for me, but lately I find myself siding with them on many of the issues. I'm not completely there yet, but we'll see where God takes me.

I have felt that way for some time.

What would get you over the hump? Would they have to be regularized or do you think the more you learn about Tradition the more you'll side with them?

[Quo Vadis]

Mary led me here.  She's a nice traditional girl, too.

[Irenaeus G. Saintonge]

For example, the SSPX has always been a sticking point for me, but lately I find myself siding with them on many of the issues. I'm not completely there yet, but we'll see where God takes me.

I have felt that way for some time.

What would get you over the hump? Would they have to be regularized or do you think the more you learn about Tradition the more you'll side with them?

Both. The more I have come to understand their positions, the more I feel sympathy, respect, and gratitude towards them. And my desire to see them regularized increases proportionately.

For me, I feel quite blessed. My diocese is rather bad liturgically, but within a 20 minute drive from my house I have both an FSSP Mass daily, twice on Sundays, and an SSPX chapel. I feel, having both available, that the FSSP Mass is preferable. If they were not here, I would probably attend the SSPX Masses, although I am glad that I have not been forced to make that choice. I do not fault anyone who does go there, rather than the Fraternity Mass.

For me personally, my conscience would not feel 100% clear attending a Society Mass. I have not quite worked through everything just yet. Perhaps I never will. There is nothing I want to see more within the Church right now than a reconciliation between Econe and Rome. Nothing would make me happier.

My faith has benefitted enormously from the Fraternity's Masses. I cannot even properly express how much discovering that Mass has helped me. For now, that is my spiritual home.