Obama prayer service: Boston residents on Thursday congregated for a group prayer service that included President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at a church less than a mile from the Boston Marathon bombings earlier this week.
“Every one of us has been touched by this attack on your beloved city,” Obama said, according to NBC News. “Every one of us stands with you. Because after all, it’s our beloved city, too.”
“And our hearts are broken for 8-year-old Martin Richard,” Obama also said, according to a live feed, referring to one of the victims in the blast. “His last hours were as perfect as an 8-year-old could hope for,” the president said.
“Your resolve is the greatest rebuke to whoever committed this heinous act,” said Obama. “In the face of cruelty, we will choose compassion.”
The Boston Globe reported that people lined up for the service as early as 6:30 a.m. in a line that stretched for blocks. Around 2,000 people were in attendance for the service, held at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.
“I have never loved its people more than I do today,” Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said at the service, according to the paper. “We are one Boston. Nothing can tear down the resilience of this city.”
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who was the governor of Massachusetts, also attended the service.
Josh Earnest, a press secretary for the White House, said Obama will work on a speech Thursday and will later speak about Bostonians’ resilience.
“You can expect that he will, in his remarks, offer his condolences on behalf of the First Lady and his family,” Earnest said, according to the Boston Herald. “But also on behalf of the American people, to the people of Boston. At the same time he will reiterate his confidence in the resilience in the people of Boston and remind the American people that the way the people of Boston responded to this terror attacks represents who we are as a country.”
Tara MacIsaac contributed to this report.
Friends Read Free