Welcome to Fairest Love Families! This series highlights families throughout the United States who have a love for their Catholic faith and a devotion to the Blessed Mother.

Meet Matthew and Gabby Quinlan! They met at the University of Dallas, started dating after about a year of knowing each other, and got married two years later.  They have a one year old daughter, Rose, and now live in St. Louis where Matthew attends law school and Gabby works from home with Rose by her side!

Do you have any religious traditions that you keep as a family?

We love to celebrate feast days and solemnities with special meals and desserts. It makes the saints feel like a part of the family, which hopefully will become even more special as our family grows and we have more namesake feast days to celebrate. 

What role does your faith play in your family life?

Our faith is paramount in our family.  Everything we do is informed by a desire to serve God and each other, even if that doesn’t manifest in an openly spiritual way. 

When we change diapers, go to work and school, clean up, cook, spend quality time together as a couple or as a family- all of it is geared toward living our vocations well and creating a joyful, loving, Christian home.

What is your favorite family devotion?

We share a special devotion to both Mary and Joseph.  The Rosary is the most obvious devotion that we participate in, but the Holy Family is such an inspiring ideal for us to aspire to in our daily lives as well.  St. Joseph in particular has carried us through some really challenging moments in our relationship and has been a light in our family. 

Share a moment when the Blessed Mother has helped you through a difficult time or a challenge you faced as a family…

About a month after we got married, we were overjoyed to find out that we were expecting our first child.  Then, about a month after that, Matthew lost his job and was out of work for the remainder of my pregnancy. 

During that period of time, it was difficult for both of us to see God’s plan in all of this. I was working from home and Matthew was job-hunting, but even though we were taking steps to improve our situation, it was this nagging stressor in the back of both of our minds, constantly.  However, by the grace of God, even though this was a very challenging time because of the external circumstances, our relationship with one another grew stronger than ever.  I truly believe the Blessed Mother was working to unite us in every moment.  Where we could have easily developed resentments for each other, we built trust and learned to let go of control. We had prayed the Rosary together throughout our dating and engagement, and when the first year of our marriage did not look like either of us expected it to, I believe those prayers carried us through. Most importantly, we learned that God will always provide, something I always knew in my head but had never had to actually believe in my heart.  

Three days before I gave birth, Matthew got a job. There were tears and relief and just overwhelming gratitude to God for giving us this experience. While we were going through it, I never expected to feel grateful for this struggle, but we both know now what a valuable lesson and a grace it was to go through that experience together so early in our marriage. 

What do you hope your children understand from your devotion to Our Lady? 

I hope that our children will see Mary as a true mother to them.  I hope that they see us go to her in moments when we are happy or struggling or anywhere in between and learn that she is there for them in that way too. 

What about your faith do you hope to impart on your children?

I hope that our children learn, in faith and family life, that they can always come back home.  Through the grace of the sacraments, we are all able to participate in the perfect love of Jesus despite our sinfulness and imperfections. I pray that they understand how deeply loved they are and that they learn to love God and the Catholic faith as we have.