Cardinal Timothy Dolan asked hundreds of Central Westchester eighth graders and their teachers to remember their time in Catholic grade school as an important time in their lives at a graduation Mass on Wednesday, May 15.

“I wouldn’t trade those years of Catholic grade school for nothing. For anything. I’m sorry, I mustn’t have learned my grammar very well,” he joked with assembled students and staff members, recalling his own time as a Catholic school student in Missouri.

Speaking of the upcoming Feast of Pentecost on Sunday, Cardinal Dolan asked the students to remember a single, three-word prayer to take with them for the rest of their lives.

“Whenever you find yourself worried, whenever you find yourself with a tough decision, whenever you find yourself discouraged or down in the dumps, whenever you find yourself saying, ‘I kind of feel all by myself, I don’t know if there’s anybody who can understand or help me,’ you say, come Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will come,” Cardinal Dolan said.

Eighteen schools participated Wednesday’s Mass: Immaculate Conception; Immaculate Heart of Mary; Corpus Christi-Holy Rosary; Our Lady of Victory; Resurrection; Our Lady of Mount Carmel; Saints John and Paul; Sacred Heart – Hartsdale; Saint Barnabas; Annunciation; Transfiguration; John Cardinal O’Connor; Saint Eugene; Saint Joseph; Our Lady of Sorrows; Saint Peter; Saint John the Baptist; and Sacred Heart – Yonkers.