MEMBERS OF the Ateneo community gathered for an interfaith prayer vigil to commemorate the 40th day of the Mamasapano incident and to pray for peace in the country.

The Mamasapano incident was an encounter between the Philippine National Police’s Special Armed Forces (SAF), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) on January 25 that left 44 SAF commanders and at least 250 MILF and BIFF fighters dead.

The prayer service, held on March 5 at the Bellarmine Field, was spearheaded by the Office of the Campus Ministry (OCM), the Office of Mission and Identity (OMI) and the University Chaplain’s Office.

The OCM handles students’ spiritual formation, while the OMI is in charge of rooting university-wide activities on Ignatian values. The Chaplain’s Office oversees the liturgical events of the university.

The interfaith prayer vigil was held to remind Ateneans of their responsibility to promote and maintain peace in the country regardless of differences in religion.

“We may come from different creeds, but we are still under one heaven,” Presider Norberto Bautista, SJ said during the invocation.

The prayer service consisted of reading texts from the Bible and Qur’an and quotes from the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis and Blessed Pope Paul VI. Intercessions were also said in different languages and dialects.

The texts all espoused that love, justice, compassion and human fraternity as inalienable to genuine peace.

An excerpt from the Qur’an said, “[Day begins] when you look into the face of any human being and see in them a brother or sister. Until then, night is still with us.”

The service also reiterated Pope Francis’s message of prayer being central in seeking peace. “Peace is always possible and our prayer is at the root of peace,” said the pope during the New Year’s mass that ushered in 2015.

Intercessions were then recited for the Mamasapano victims, their families and the entire Mindanao community.