Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when 2,819 lives were lost, Saint Mary's Campus Ministry has held a prayer service each year to remember the victims of the attacks and to pray for peace in the Middle East and around the world.
"The prayer service consists of intercessions for the people who have died, and prayers for hope, peace and reconciliation," assistant director of campus ministry Regina Wilson said.
The prayer service will be held Friday in the Stapleton Lounge located on the first floor of Le Mans Hall at 12:15 p.m. The ceremony is expected to last a half hour.
"I share the sadness of what happened on the day," Wilson said. "I want to continue to join together in prayer for peace. We are all one humanity."
Freshman Caroline Gallagher-Duggan, who plans on attending the service, remembers sitting in her sixth-grade music class when the first planes crashed. Her hometown, New Canine, Conn., is a popular New York City commuter town, she said.
"A lot of people in my town had family members who worked in New York," she said. "I remember seeing the kids that had parents working there running outside to the nearest phone."
That day, Gallagher-Duggan was worried for her mother, who worked in The World Trade Center on Tuesdays selling bags. But it happened that on September 11 her mom arrived late to work because she was jet-lagged from traveling back from London the previous day, she said.
"When I think about 9/11, I get goose bumps. I think of the families in my town that lost brothers doing college internships, and fathers who worked hard every day," she said. "I think about how sick the people who did this are."
Sophomore Remi White is unable to attend Friday's prayer service, because she has class at that time, but she said she wishes she could attend.
"[September 11] was a devastating moment in our country's history," White said. "But it reiterated the unity we have in our country."
White said she wishes the school offered more services so that she and other students could attend.
"It's always a chilling day," Gallagher-Duggan said.
