“To be a member of each family, yet belonging to none;
To live in the midst of the world without wishing its pleasures;
To share all suffering; to penetrate all secrets;
To heal all wounds; to go from men to God
and offer Him their prayers;
To return from God to men to bring pardon and hope;
To have a heart of fire for Charity, and a heart of bronze for Chastity
To teach and to pardon, console and bless always.
My God, what a life!
and it is yours, O priest of Jesus Christ.”
- “The Priest” by Father Jean-Baptiste Lacordaire, OP (19th century)
“When I was considering the option of what to put on the back of my prayer card at ordination, Frank gave me his prayer card from his ordination from Aug. 6, 1960, the Solemnity of the Transfiguration. On the back of it were the words of “The Priest” by Father Lacordaire. Frank told me when he gave it to me, “My God, what a life! And I would never change even a little bit of it. I couldn’t even imagine another life than being a priest.”
“The first time I met Frank, I was helping Father Ted (Sill, pastor of Gahanna St. Matthew Church, the site of the Mass) move into the rectory in London. Frank had a smile on his face. He was puffing his pipe. I don’t remember if he ever picked up a box that day, but he was sure good at telling people where to go.
“At dinner that night at Pizza Hut, I was sitting right next to him and he said, finally breaking the ice in telling me where I should go, ‘Why in the hell are you wasting your time at Ohio State? Don’t you know you are supposed to be in seminary already?’”
“Frank had such a tender, straightforward, ‘no BS’ way about him. Only later did I find out that he was trying to fulfill his quota of priests. He promised God that he would have as many priests as he was years ordained by the time he died.
“Well, Frank, you have a lot of work to do from heaven. You and St. Therese of Lisieux can work together to intercede for more priests from your place in God’s heavenly kingdom. But thank you for your inspiration to Msgr. (Anthony) Frecker, Father Sill and all those whom you touched in your life by your own priestly life.
“The vision of the priesthood that is offered by Father Lacordaire was the foundation for all that Frank was about. He was a priest’s priest and a parishioner’s priest. He was a member of many of your families, but his most important families were his sister Paulette; the family of his brother priests; the family of the ‘B’ Hunt Club, and most particularly the parish family wherever he was serving.
“The celebration of the Mass and the sacraments was the focal point of Frank’s life within those families, as should be the center of all of my brother priests’ lives. We celebrated that most profoundly at the Chrism Mass last week – Frank celebrating it now in eternity, as we renewed our priestly promises and celebrated the day of reflection with Bishop (Ronald) Hicks (of Joliet, Illinois}. ‘To go from men to God and offer Him their prayers; to return from God to men to being pardon and hope.’
“Having the opportunity to choose the readings as the homilist, I went directly to the readings for Masses for priests. St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians writes, ‘I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you.’ These words are also read year after year at the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper and the day we celebrate the institution of the priesthood.
“Peter Kreeft remarks, ‘The celebration of the Eucharist within the context of the Holy Mass is the most sacred tradition in the world because it is, hands down, nothing less than God incarnate, our only hope of salvation and eternal life and joy.
“‘The Mass makes us contemporary with Jesus by making Jesus contemporary with us – literally bodily as well as spiritually. It makes Jesus not a distant ideal 2,000 years in the past for us to admire and try to imitate from afar, but our very present Savior and Lord who humbles himself to enter into us and into our lives, both body and soul, here and now: in our churches, in a little Host, in a little building, and now at this very present hour of our lives.’”
“And this is what Frank lived for. Frank opened his heart to me as a seminarian and a brother priest because of his Eucharistic heart. He opened his heart to Ted and his family over 50 years ago.
“He opened his cabin as a place of refuge for priests and a young Ted Sill to pray and discern his own calling to the priesthood. He wanted that cabin to be a place for priests to recreate together, rest together and pray together. ‘To have a heart of fire for charity.’ And it stemmed from his love of the Eucharist and the Church.
“’My God, what a life! And it is yours, O priest of Jesus Christ.’ From his many retreats fishing and hunting in the North Woods at Schuda’s, from his love of people, his pipe and Canadian Club. From his love of being a priest and his love for priests, we offer Frank back to you, almighty God.
“‘Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. May his soul and the souls of all the faithfully departed priests of the Diocese of Columbus rest in peace. Amen.”
