Fr. Kevin O’Brien, S.J. (C ’88), led a prayer at Vice President Joe Biden’s swearing in ceremony Sunday.

O’Brien, Georgetown’s vice president for mission and ministry, recited the prayer before Biden took his oath at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor administered the oath of office at around 8:20 a.m.

O’Brien said he was honored to become part of a legacy of Georgetown Jesuits who have administered prayers at presidential inaugurations.

“I recall from my undergraduate days at Georgetown, when Fr. Timothy Healy, SJ, the president then, offered the invocation at Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1984,” he wrote in an email. “I was honored to continue that tradition for Georgetown at this inauguration, offering an invocation not for any partisan purpose but to honor the day and the office and to ask God’s blessing at this moment in our nation’s history.”

The president and vice president held private events today to officially begin their second terms, but both will be publicly sworn in tomorrow.

“I hope a Jesuit in the future will offer the same service, perhaps to one of our alumni,” O’Brien added.