Looking back through 2018 we give thanks to God for many wonderful moments, and especially those moments that brought our young people into a closer encounter with the Lord through the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, First Holy Communion and Confirmation.

Over the Year Fr Philip and Deacon Stephen have christened over fifty children, welcoming them all into God’s family. Baptisms are always joyful occasion, bringing together all the family.

Time flies. No sooner are the children christened, before it is time for them to be united to the Lord in Holy Communion. This year Sally Lee and Sandra Smith prepared fourteen children for their First Communion, and the sun shone…

And Confirmations were celebrated with young people from across the Deanery with our new Bishop, Rt Revd Paul Swarbrick, at the Cathedral of St Peter’s Lancaster.

And later on in life, adults receive special sacraments to help them to live their vocation. This year we celebrated seven weddings at St Joseph’s.

In addition, to all these great celebrations, we were delighted that one of our parishioners, Katherine, has now been clothed as a nun at Carmel monastery in Wales. We are relying always on her prayers, and she remains close to us in our hearts too.

It is impossible to capture all the beautiful moments of this year. But, as usual, the celebration of Easter and St Joseph’s hosted our Deanery Corpus Christi Procession, the first for a long, long time.