About 1,000 administrators, teachers, and staff joined Cardinal Timothy Dolan at Mass to open Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of New York’s annual Spirituality Day, on Monday at Iona University.

Cardinal Dolan noted that this year’s Spirituality Day fell on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement.

“In front of God and in front of one another, our Jewish neighbors today say, ‘I am a sinner. I have hurt the Lord. I have ruptured His covenant with us. I am sorry. And I am going to do some penance as atonement.’ My brothers and sisters, to me that is a very moving message,” Cardinal Dolan said in the New Rochelle university’s Hynes Athletic Center gymnasium.

Cardinal Dolan told a story from his own time in Catholic school, when a group of seventh grade girls who admitted they had misbehaved at a school assembly were forgiven and allowed to go to recess, whereas the other girls in the class were disciplined. The lesson, he said, was that we must admit that we are sinners before we can be forgiven.

Among the concelebrants of the Mass were Auxiliary Bishop John Bonnici and Auxiliary Bishop Edmund Whalen, both former Catholic school teachers. Also concelebrating was Iona University’s Chaplain, Father Gerard Mulvey, OFM Cap.

Also speaking on Monday were Monsignor James Vlaun, CEO and President of Catholic Faith Network, and a priest in the Diocese of Rockville Center.