13th annual event for altar servers returns following a two-year hiatus
By David Mayernik Jr., Editor
Friendship. Prayer. Peace. Vocations.
Those are four words Father Kevin Marks asked altar servers of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh to always keep close to their hearts.
“You’re someone very, very special to Jesus. You are a friend of Jesus,” he said.
Father Kevin, pastor of St. Michael in Campbell, Ohio and St. Michael Hermitage, Pa., delivered the homily during the Divine Liturgy to open this year’s Faith & Fun Day.
The 13th annual event on Aug. 18 included visits to Saint Anthony Chapel in the Troy Hill section of Pittsburgh, Pa., Dave & Buster’s restaurant and arcade in the North Hills and PNC Park to see the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-2.
This is the first Faith & Fun Day since 2019 due to the pandemic. Thirty-four altar servers, their family members and priests attended the all-day event.
“It’s very nice to be back after three years,” said Father Kevin.
Saint Anthony Chapel houses thousands of religious relics, including a large cross holding a “splinter of the True Cross, a thorn from the Crown of Thorns and a piece of stone from the Holy Sepulchre.”
Father Suitbert G. Mollinger financed construction of the chapel for his relics, which got underway in 1880.
Dedication took place on the Feast of St. Anthony, June 13, 1883.
The acquisition of life-size Stations of the Cross from Munich, Germany necessitated building an addition in 1892.
Father Kevin told altar servers prayer is the way to thank God and ask him for forgiveness.
“We can’t do all the talking. We also have to listen,” he said.
“He’s the one friend who will never give up on you.”
