NATIONAL CITY — Martha Guido was “a worthy worker in the Lord’s harvest, wherever He called her.”
That was how her husband of 44 years, Javier, described her in a tribute prepared for her funeral Mass on Feb. 21 at St. Anthony of Padua Church in National City.
Guido died on Feb. 4 from cancer. She was 70.
Over the past two decades, she and her husband had firmly established two ministries, Prayer and Life Workshops and Family Catechesis, at St. Anthony of Padua Parish, where they were parishioners since 2002.
Martha Guido was born in Santiago Ixcuintla, Nayarit, where she met and married Javier. The couple moved to Chula Vista in 1999.
In 2005, the Guidos began their long association with Prayer and Life Workshops, a Catholic lay ministry founded in Santiago, Chile, by Father Ignacio Larrañaga. The workshops, which are led by trained lay “Guides,” teach participants how to grow deeper in prayer.
In 2008, the couple attended the International Convention of Prayer and Life Workshops in Monterrey, Mexico, as workshop leaders. In early 2009, they participated in a Formation School for Guides. Following a commissioning Mass in June 2010 at St. Anthony of Padua Church, they served as Guides for 16 years.
“The Lord completely transformed our lives,” Javier said. “He … sent us to be his witnesses and missionaries in this great evangelizing work of the Prayer and Life Workshops.”
He said that the workshops that he and Martha led have “transformed the lives of many people.”
In 2009, the Guidos also began their involvement with Family Catechesis, a program that prepares children for First Communion. Parents are trained to catechize their children at home and, as a result, the whole family is evangelized.
Martha Guido served as coordinator of Family Catechesis at St. Anthony of Padua Parish for seven years, from 2009 to 2016.
In 2011, the couple accompanied Father Emmet Farrell on a trip to Peru, the birthplace of Family Catechesis, to observe how it was practiced there. The couple returned with new materials and experiences, Father Farrell said, that gave Family Catechesis “a great boost that still prevails in the parish.”
Father Farrell, who presided over Guido’s funeral Mass, said that she was leading a Prayer and Life Workshop on Feb. 2, when she collapsed as a result of the cancer weakening her body.
“It can be said,” he reflected, “that she gave the last drop of her energy working in this ministry.”
