ST. MARY STAR OF THE SEA
1019 W 6th St
Freeport, TX 77541
Office: (979) 233-5271
Fax: (979) 233-4418

Email: secretary@stmarystarofthesea.org 

Office Hours: Monday thru Thursday 9am to 7pm.
 

For emergencies, email:  marystaremergency@gmail.com or call:  (832) 429-4877

En caso de emergencia, envíe un correo electrónico a: mariaemergencia@gmail.com o llame al: (832) 429-4877

The Church comes from the Eucharist for it is the sacrifice that makes saints. The Eucharist is essentially the fullest act of gratitude prefigured in Melchizedek finding its fulfillment in the sacrifice of Christ. Every Mass is a participation in and celebration of this sacrifice, but the feast of Corpus Christi is a time to be especially aware of the gift of the Eucharist.  In honor of this feast, we have posted a clip from the CATHOLICISM series regarding the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist as well as Bishop Barron's further commentary on the Real Presence.

I would like to thank each person who gave of their time, talent and treasure to making our Parish Festival a success! 

Our Parish Festival has come and gone, and we are now reaping the fruits of our labors. During the event, I asked myself if we were all aware that even though we were engaged in very human activities, namely work, that they were not merely human. We were all engaged in doing the will of God, and all those acts of setting up, preparing food, selling items, and cleaning up - because of the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus - also had an ascending movement to them. 
   Recently, I tried to do every task during the day knowing that I was doing the will of God. I performed each task and activity consciously and with intentionality as God’s will for me, even each person to be loved that God put in my path. Everything became like incense offered to God that went to heaven because of the effort of doing His will well. This could be called an experience of the Ascension. 
   In the Ascension, something of earth moves into the heavenly sphere. Even such banal and mundane things such as preparing tacos, or selling tickets can be acts that allow our souls to experience an ascension. 
   This is also something that happens at mass. During the mass, there is the moment of the Anaphora which means ‘a carrying on high.’ Every mass is an anaphora because it shares in the present movement of the Lord’s Ascension. More precisely, the anaphora is the central movement of the Eucharist.
   Bishop Robert Barron explains that the bible speaks of “heaven” and “earth,” but it sees these two realms as interacting and interpenetrating fields of force. Heaven, the arena of God and the angels, touches upon and calls out to earth, the arena of humans, animals, plants, and planets. On the Biblical reading, salvation, therefore, is a matter of the meeting of heaven and earth, so that God might reign as thoroughly here below as he does on high. Jesus’ great prayer in fact says: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Notice that this is not a prayer that we might escape from the earth, but rather that earth and heaven might come together. The Lord’s prayer recapitulates and raises to a new level precisely what the prophet Habakkuk anticipated: “the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth, as the water covers the sea” (Hab 2:14). 
   Bishop Barron says that in the Ascension, Jesus has gone to a new dimension. But this dimension to which he has gone is not alien to us. It is instead a source of inspiration, power, and direction. And this is why the angels (denizens of heaven) who appear to the disciples just after Jesus’ departure say, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky” (Acts 1:11)? What they are hinting at is this: under the influence of Jesus’ spirit, get to work! Do all that you can to foster the marriage of heaven and earth! Get on with the mission of the church!  Fr. Jesse Garcia

If you are interested in joining this p​​​​​​ilgrimage to the Holy Land and Rome from September 11 to 22, 2017, please pick up a brochure and registration form from the narthex or the Parish Office, and send in your registration. You can also download the registration form here: Holy Land Registration Form