Andrew Gombert / Pool / EPA
Mourners gather inside the St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown, Conn., on Friday night at a vigil service for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Click this image for more pictures.
By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News
Updated at 9:35 p.m. ET: Residents from around the region streamed Friday into Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown, Conn., to mourn the 20 children and six adults who were killed when a gunman opened fire in an elementary school.
A memorial Mass got under way at 7 p.m. ET at the church, whose pastor, Msgr. Robert Weiss, spent much of the day at a firehouse that had been turned into a gathering place for families affected by the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The church was packed, and hundreds of people who couldn't get in stood silently outside, where 26 candles were set up by a tree wth a cross. Some held hands, praying as a group. Others reverently touched a statue of Saint Rose,?the first person native to the Americas to be canonized by the Catholic Church, before crossing themselves.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was among the speakers at the service inside the St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic church, The Associated Press reported.
"Many of us today and in the coming days will rely on what we have been taught and what we believe, that there is faith for a reason," Malloy said.
The service was just one of many prayer services and vigils planned across Connecticut through the weekend,?NBC Connecticut reported.?A statewide moment of silence was observed at 9 p.m. ET.
Elementary school massacre: 27 killed, including 20 kids, at Connecticut school
"We offer our prayers and our collective sense of grief, shock and loss," Msgr. Jerald A. Doyle, administrator of the Diocese of Bridgeport, said in a statement.
John Makely / NBC News
People file in to St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown, Conn., to pay their respects to the victims of the shooting Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
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"Msgr. Robert Weiss, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Newtown, and the parish priests were on the scene ministering to children and families immediately after the shootings. Other priests and chaplains have since joined them in ministering to the families at the school, hospitals and other settings," Doyle said.?
The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed more than two dozen, 20 of them children, left the quiet community of Newtown, Conn., desperately trying to understand what happened. NBC's Kate Snow reports.
"The children who witnessed this are terribly traumatized,"?Weiss said earlier in the afternoon.
Tracy Hoekenga told the AP at the vigil that after receiving word of the shooting,?she was paralyzed with fear for her two boys, fourth-grader C.J. and second grader Matthew.
"I couldn't breathe. It's indescribable. For a half an hour, 45 minutes, I had no idea if my kids were OK," she said.
She said she was wrestling with many emotions as she attended the vigil.?
Alex Moe of NBC News contributed to this report from Newtown, Conn.
For up-to-the-minute coverage of the shootings at Sandy Creek Elementary School, stay with NBCNews.com and tune in to your local NBC station to watch tonight's special report on Dateline NBC at 10 p.m. ET.
Michelle Mcloughlin / Reuters
The second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for word on their loved ones.
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