ROCHESTER, N.Y. (CNS) – Confined to Strong Memorial Hospital as he waits for a heart transplant, Timothy Day of Kenmore, N.Y., wasn’t going to be able to attend his eight-year-old daughter Erin’s First Communion.

So Erin decided the celebration of the Eucharist should come to him.

“I gave her the choice if she wanted to go through with her class or have it here with me, and she said she wanted to do it with me, and that’s pretty special,” said Day, who has been living at the hospital for nearly two months.

“The most special part was just being with my dad,” Erin told the Catholic Courier, newspaper of the Rochester Diocese, in a telephone interview after the Mass April 26.

Several weeks ago, staff at the family’s parish, St. Paul in Kenmore, in the Buffalo Diocese, approached the Rochester Diocese to see if a priest would be available to celebrate a First Communion Mass in the Interfaith Chapel at the hospital.

They were told it would be possible if they were willing to have the First Communion on a Friday, and if they would be willing to have retired Bishop Matthew H. Clark of Rochester celebrate the Mass. Day also received the sacrament of the sick during the Mass.

Both the Day family and Bishop Clark said the honor was all theirs.

“I am going to go home a happy man for having experienced your company,” Bishop Clark said during the Mass.

Day, a Tonawanda, N.Y., police officer, said the Mass was special not only to have taken place but to have included the participation of Bishop Clark.

“I think somebody upstairs was pulling strings for us,” he said.

Bishop Clark spoke about the importance of drawing the community through the Eucharist.

“I know [Erin] is honored by your presence and draws strength from your company,” Bishop Clark said. “We are companions along the journey, trying to draw strength from each other in our faith.”

Regarding the first Eucharist Mass, Day said, “They have gone above and beyond. I consider that a blessing that I have such great caregivers.”