“I did not know Father Frank until I moved into the Villas at St. Therese Independent Living because of my late vocation to the priesthood.
“I would see him sitting in the common area on the first floor waiting as he was washing his clothes in the laundry room or walking outside or helping celebrate Mass at the Villas. He became a good friend.
“I met a resident in the hallway at the Villas after his death and they said he was a kind and gentle priest. What a way to be remembered! I hope that after I am gone, the people I have ministered remember me that way.
“I want to thank the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm and the staff at the Villas and the (Mother Angeline McCrory) Manor for their care of Father Frank over the years.
“Thank you for your presence here this morning and for your prayers to commend to the Lord our brother and friend Father Francis ‘Frank’ Stanton.
“I want to extend to the Stanton family our prayers for the loss of their brother and uncle, and thank you for sharing Father Joe (Stanton, Father Frank’s deceased brother) and Father Frank with the Diocese of Columbus in spreading the Good News of the Gospel.
“We heard in our first reading from the Book of Wisdom, ‘The souls of the just are in the hand of God.’
“How much of our lives is spent with our hands in the hands of loved ones? Parents hold the hands of their children as they cross busy streets and stroll along peaceful paths. Children hold the hands of their brothers and sisters. In Frank’s case, it was Father Joe, John, Mary, Marcella and Roland.
“Lovers hold hands in a gesture of tender affection. Congregations and couples sometimes hold hands during the Lord’s Prayer at the Eucharist, thereby highlighting their unity as children of the one Father in heaven.
“Frank placed his hands in the hands of Bishop Issenmann on May 30, 1959 as they were anointed with sacred chrism. Frank lovingly held the hands of the sick and dying as he administered the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick and Viaticum.
“Frank also lovingly placed the consecrated host in the hands of the faithful during Mass, and Frank raised his hands to impart God’s blessing at the end of Mass.
“We cannot forget that in the 22 years that Frank served the U.S. Navy, he was in the hands of the sailors he ministered to.
“An example is the time he was stationed at Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines ministering on 31 different naval ships off the coast of Vietnam. Another time, he was transferred from one ship to another ship by a bosun’s chair. That takes a lot of faith!
“Jesus knew the power of this human gesture that links two people in a bond of deep trust and love. He knew that the Father had grasped Him by the hand at His baptism in the Jordan River and had grasped Him by the hand as He faced the tempter in the desert.
“He knew that God had grasped Him by the hand throughout His ministry of teaching and healing, throughout that life of service to God the Father and others that brought Him death on a cross. But above all, Jesus rejoiced to know that God had grasped Him by the hand as He lay in the tomb and raised Him from the dead.
“The risen Lord Jesus spiritually grasps our hands throughout our lives. He grasped Frank by the hand on the day of his baptism and brought him into the family of God.
“On that day of dying to sin and rising to new life with Christ, Frank began a lifelong journey hand-in-hand with the Lord. Jesus was close to Frank throughout his life, grasping him by the hand, giving consolation and strength, guidance and encouragement.
“Frank experienced the strengthening hand of the Lord Jesus so often throughout life, in his joys and sorrows, successes and failures, just as we have. Then on October 29th, the Lord grasped Frank by the hand even more firmly, so that he might pass over from death to life.
“Such was the power by which Jesus raised up the only son of the widow of Naim; such is the power by which the risen Lord raises Frank and all believers to everlasting life.
“According to the Gospel of John, heaven is the Father’s house, where Christ himself has prepared a dwelling place for all of us.
“In a life lived so much for others, in working daily to meet the needs of others, in going out of the way to serve others, Frank was imitating Jesus. Heaven is the Father’s house where Jesus prepares each person’s place.
“Heaven is where we encounter God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – in the divine fullness. Jesus Himself is the way to the Father, the way to heaven. It is through Christ that we get to heaven.
“Christ has taught us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, and all our prayer is made through Christ our Lord. Christ invites us to pray in order that we may encounter God through our words and our silence, through our reading and our meditation.
“Christ has given us a foretaste of heaven here on earth through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, His body and blood. It is in the Eucharist where we join into communion with Christ in His self-sacrifice for all of us.
“It is around this altar that we join with all the saints still living and the saints who have gone before us. Christ invites us to His banquet in order that we encounter Him through eating His body and drinking His blood, and experience heaven here on earth.
“Through Frank’s 66 years of ordained ministry, he has helped us experience this through making the sacraments available to us, and we thank him for his 22 years outside our diocese ministering to our sailors and Marines as a Naval chaplain.
“Father Frank, I know you would appreciate this prayer from Cardinal Newman: ‘May he support you all the day long, till the shades lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed and the fever of life is over and your work is done. Then in his mercy, may he give you a safe lodging and a holy rest and peace at the last.’
“Eternal rest grant unto Father Frank, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
“May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”
Related to: Father Francis M. Stanton passes away at age 90 – Catholic Times: Read Catholic News & Stories