While addressing those at the vigil, Ellwood said that the Kennedy School was offering more opportunities for those who wished to talk about Monday’s bombings.

Jackson said that the Belfer Center’s Weil Town Hall had been commissioned as a space for those who wished to talk and reflect about Monday’s attack.

FINDING STRENGTH IN BOSTON COMMON

In the aftermath of the explosions at the Boston Marathon, runners, spectators, victims, and other community members gathered for a vigil in Boston Common on Tuesday afternoon.

Hundreds of people congregated around the rotunda in the Common to sign large banners that read, “Peace Here and Everywhere” and “Boston, You Are Our Home.” Attendees of all ages signed the banners, with some leaving flowers and other gifts.

As he dropped a rose on the banner, one young boy looked up and spoke to a host of shuttering cameras: “This is for peace.”

Participants said that the vigil was a display of Boston’s remarkable strength.

“I came to support the greater Boston community,” said Tony Messina, a student at Northeastern who said that he knew a few friends who attended the race and left unharmed. “Partly, I came to show that we’re not afraid [to congregate] in groups, even after everything that happened yesterday. I think it’s important to show that attacks like this won’t change us.”

Notes written on the banners also referenced the city’s fortitude; many carried the Twitter hashtag, #BostonStrong.

“Hate can never drive out hate. Only love can,” read another entry, quoting a biblical verse.

Several hundred people attended the event, with the music provided by an impromptu collection of musicians organized via Facebook.

“I’m just a local singer, and I was up all night last night and all this morning, just watching coverage and knowing that there is nothing that I can personally do. It was really hard,” said the group’s organizer, Boston musician Lori L’italien. “So I just made a Facebook group and invited everybody I knew that was a singer and we got an astounding number of people.”

Within hours, L’Italien said that over 2,000 people had joined the group’s page and expressed interest in singing at some point to express their emotion about the event.

Speaking about the group’s repertoire, which included Amazing Grace, the Star Spangled Banner, an arrangement of O Magnum Mysterium, and the Christian hymn On Eagles Wings, L’Italien said that the group had taken suggestions and generally looked for “songs that everybody knew, uplifting songs.”

FOCUSING ON GOODNESS AT MEMORIAL CHURCH