SEYNES-LES-ALPES, France — The chapel of penitents here perches just a bit beyond the main square of the village, where it is easy for the mostly elderly congregants to enter for prayer. Two dozen or more villagers gathered in the chapel on Thursday for a special mass in honor of the families of those who died in the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 Tuesday on a mountainside south of town.

Elderly ladies in trousers and sensible shoes and retired workmen with sunburned faces and loose work pants sat near the more decorous women, one of them wearing a plaid wool skirt and black gloves.

Several of the women had expected the mass to begin at 4 p.m. and had come early. They chatted about the crash in hushed voices, and one began to cry as she recalled worrying about how to give news of the crash to her grandchildren, who were at school when the plane went down.

Another woman approached any newcomer who arrived for mass to offer condolences: “Did you lose a brother or a son?” she asked. “Our hearts are with you.” She looked disappointed to learn each time that the person she was speaking to had not lost a loved one.

The chapel is old, dating from the 15th century. The simple mosaic that runs along its internal arches is the only ornamentation inside, other than a wooden crucifix. Placed in front of the altar was an offering: a vase filled with wheat, encircled by slabs of slate from the mountains that surround the town. It looked almost like a cairn, a reminder of how close the outdoors can be here, and how harsh the terrain. When the mass finally began, the worshipers each lit a candle for all those who had perished.

Only one thing was missing: The families of the dead. None came to the service.

Thus, the little village that so wanted to offer its grief and prayers as a balm was left to contemplate its own loss, and the knowledge of its mountains’ darker side.