St. Joseph is one of the most overlooked figures in the Bible, but his role as Jesus Christ's father is central. Teresa Gutiérrez De Cabiedes wanted to pray to him one day while accompanying a sick family member, but she couldn't figure out how. This is why she wrote the book “San Jose, Shall we pray together”, which teaches how to pray the rosary with him.
TERESA GUTIÉRREZ DE CABIEDES
Author, “San José, ¿rezamos juntos?”
“St. Joseph was not a puppet from God to make up for the fact that Jesus needed a father. He was a real father who influenced the spiritual and human life of his son.”
Teresa Gutiérrez de Cabiedes begins by looking at St. Joseph through the Joyful Mysteries, which are focused on Jesus' private life. The Gospels make it easy to see the important role St. Joseph played in Jesus' childhood.
However, it was more difficult to include St. Joseph in the Sorrowful Mysteries, which are mainly about the death of Christ. St. Joseph is not mentioned in this part of the Gospel. Despite this, Teresa is still able to see St. Joseph's influence.
TERESA GUTIÉRREZ DE CABIEDES
Author, “San José, ¿rezamos juntos?”
“St. Joseph had taught Jesus how to work with wood, and Jesus drags a tree trunk on the Way of the Cross. Seeing how all the things most familiar to him are being used to punish his son, when it had been the blessing in which he had learned to live and worked struck me...,it really struck me”
The author also found an obstacle when writing the litanies, a series of prayers dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the rosary. She thought that there were no litanies dedicated to St. Joseph, but Pope Francis had just added four to a long list of old litanies.
TERESA GUTIÉRREZ DE CABIEDES
Author, “San José, ¿rezamos juntos?”
“I discover that there are some litanies to St. Joseph, and I say: 'Alright, now we are going to make the change'. With the Virgin Mary and Jesus, I am going to contemplate this stranger, that to this day has been overlooked, and has always lived with a lot of humility...even inside the life of the Church. But look!, He has his own litanies, which have been prayed by Christians throughout the centuries, and I didn't even know they existed.”
Pope Francis is very devoted to St. Joseph, and he designated a special year dedicated to the saint, starting from Dec. 8, 2020.
POPE FRANCIS
“God trusted him with his most valuable treasures: Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and he responded with faith, courage, tenderness, and the heart of a father.”
This past May, Teresa Gutiérrez de Cabiedes, accompanied by her mother, was able to show her book to the Pope. She will never forget the tenderness with which Pope Francis received her first copy.
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