Story by Rose O’Connor | Correspondent

More than 260 faithful gathered May 1 for a Mass celebrated by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., and concelebrated by Father Timothy Capewell, pastor in St. David the King Parish, West Windsor.

To see photo gallery on this event, click here.

Reflecting on the day’s Gospel from St. John in his homily, Bishop O’Connell said that “Jesus is giving his final message for his apostles.”

“The setting for the Gospel today is the night before he died for us and he knew he was about to die.  He knew the suffering that was in store for him.”

Keeping in line with the Gospel message, Bishop O’Connell then focused his words on a more personal level, as he shared spending the last moments with his mother before she died last summer.

“As coherent thoughts escaped her, she would say ‘Ok, ok,” the Bishop said. “These were her last words to me, she died in peace and she died at peace.  The final words of people, especially a loved one, stay with us.”

Relating his own experience to the Gospel reading, he continued: “It happened 2,000 years ago but we remember his last words… Jesus’ farewell gift and wish for his apostles was peace; peace I leave you, my peace I give you.”

He invited those gathered to experience “the gift of peace.”

“My mom was right.  Her final words were really a prayer, a prayer to the Lord Jesus who was coming for her, coming to bring her peace and I am sure in that moment she looked at him, he looked at her and then she said as he said, ‘Peace, ok, ok.’”

A special milestone occurred during the Mass when parishioner, Gianna Johnson, received Jesus for the first time. After Mass, the spirited throng gathered in the Great Hall for the parish’s first Communion breakfast that featured a keynote address by retired KYW news anchor Pat Ciarrocchi.

Father Capewell shared how it came about for Ciarrocchi to serve as the reader for Mass and the day’s guest speaker. He had met the Philadelphia newscaster at the funeral for Bishop O’Connell’s mother, who passed away last summer.

“We started chatting and as we were leaving she said, ‘I’m thinking about giving talks at various churches, so if you’re ever having a Communion breakfast or brunch, let me know,’” he recalled.

“It was the Holy Spirit in action,” Father Capewell said to the crowd, many of whom were avid, daily viewers of KYW and familiar with the news reporter throughout the years.

The anchor of 33 years came from CBS-3 in Philadelphia, boasting a distinguished career which included six assignments at the Vatican. She was also the first woman inducted into the Pennsylvania Broadcasters Hall of Fame, in 2013, and she has earned 10 Philadelphia Emmy awards. She became friends with Bishop O’Connell in 2008, when then-Father O’Connell was president of The Catholic University of America, Washington DC.

Ciarrocchi shared many stories of her experiences growing up in a Catholic family, later challenging those gathered, asking them: “Do we use the tools of our faith to move forward?”

“Can you see peace in your home?” she asked. “I encourage you to think about these things. Do you pray as a family?  Pray the rosary together.”

She suggested the faithful begin praying the Novena to the Holy Spirit, which concludes on Pentecost and invokes the Holy Spirit to bestow the Gifts of charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and goodness.

“She was right on target,” Dominican Sister Catherine Morgan, director of religious education, said.

Parishioner Karen Mount agreed: “It was wonderful and inspiring,” she said. “She spoke with such warmth and humor.”