On the morning of Friday, September 11, before the 9 a.m. Mass, parishioners of Our Lady of Fatima gathered outside the parish center for a memorial prayer service arranged by the Knights of Columbus. It was a well-attended gathering. As the photos show, Knights in their navy polos stood beside veterans, longtime parishioners, and friends, forming a quiet circle in prayer.

This year marked twenty-five years since the attacks of September 11, 2001. The group gathered at the parish’s 9/11 memorial, where a white statue shelters a small child and a granite stone bears the names of our five parishioners who “went home to God” that day. Fresh flowers and a small American flag had been placed at its base, a simple and fitting tribute you can see in the photos.

Wearing a purple stole, Father Pawel led the congregants in prayer. With heads bowed, we remembered all who were lost, the first responders who ran toward danger, and the families who have carried their grief for a quarter century. In a special way, we prayed for the members of our own parish family:

Edward T. Fergus Jr.
Peter Christian Fry
John F. Iskyan
Edward York
John Christopher Henwood

We do not grieve as those without hope. Christ, who wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus, stands beside every family who mourns, and He has promised that death does not have the final word. Gathered in His name at the foot of that memorial, we entrusted these souls to His mercy and prayed that His light would continue to shine where darkness once seemed so great.

Afterward, the group paused for a photograph together before carrying the memory of these men into Mass, where the Eucharist unites the living and the departed in one communion of saints.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.