Very Revd Canon Gerard Casey, the parish priest of Mallow which is next to the parish of Mourneabbey where Miss Buckley is from, also gave the family "assurance of our prayers and our human support".
He said his colleague in Mourneabbey, Father Joseph O'Keeffe, will be conducting a special Mass for her tonight at 8pm.
Mr Casey told Premier: "There's immense distress on the one hand, and support for the family on the other. The neighbours have taken the running of the farm while they're away, which would be typical of community life in that sort of neighbourhood.
"People are just trying to be helpful, trying to do something, trying to give support to the family, and praying for them all the time, and that would be true all over the north Cork area.
"A community mass is being gathered because people need to get together and pray together for her, and at our own masses in the neighbouring parishes we will all be praying for her publicly... and praying for the family.
"... [We] give them assurance of our prayers and our human support because God works through those things, and that we're all praying for a safe and happy outcome to this anxiety."
Karen Buckley, who is 24 and studying Occupational Therapy and Glasgow Caledonian University, went missing on Sunday after a night out in Glasgow.
She left the Sanctuary nightclub with a man, believed to be Alexander Pacteau, and went to his flat. She then walked home at approximately 4am. The journey to her flat from Mr Pacteau's is around four miles.
Police have found a handbag Dawsholm Park in the northeast of the city, which they believe is Miss Buckley's.
Listen to Very Rev Canon Gerard Casey speaking to Premier's Aaron James: