THE EDITOR: On Sunday we celebrated the Feast of St Joseph in our town, with an open-air Mass at First Capital Park, officiated by The Most Reverend Charles Jason Gordon, Archbishop of Port of Spain, and our parish priests, Frs Matthew and Paul.

I have lived a long time in St Joseph and, being of a "certain age," I sat in the congregation and remembered the stages of my Catholicism and growing up in this "small town."

I was an altar girl, sang in the choir and have polished the brass candlesticks and communion bowls. I have taken First Communion, Confirmation, got married, baptised my sons and saw my sons in their turn go through the same.

Our town is full of families, some here as long as and some longer than mine's and quite a few now are new families, who join in the occasions to get to know each other and become a community. It is not hard to know people here, just be pleasant and greet all politely and take part in activities like Sunday's.

What I recognise is that the young people in the parish are present, men are present. There are young people who attend Mass and who take part in the committees and youth groups. The prayers at Sunday's Mass were led by the schoolchildren and young people.

There are a number of men who attend Mass regularly and who participate in the Mass and the other activities of the church. This serves as a good example to the rest of the congregation and kudos to them.

I attribute this to the hard work of all the teams who work with our parish priests. Our choirs work hard and bring joy. The choir on Sunday was great.

I don't really want to talk too highly of our wonderful priests, because I don't want the archbishop to get any ideas and move either of them. Can we please keep them for a few more years? Their work with us is not done.

Kudos and congratulations to all who contributed to this wonderful occasion. Thanks to His Grace for attending and inspiring us with his sermon and cheers to the families of this little town who have St Joseph as our example of sacrifice and building families.

ANNE DE SILVA

St Joseph