Welcome to the Old Mission San Buenaventura!...the Mission by the Sea! 

We are open 361 days of the year!

At Mission San Buenaventura we often sing the hymn "In This Place" composed by Trevor Thompson that reminds us of the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ among us. One verse goes like this:

We are gathered at table as one in the Lord.
We are gathered as people who are living the Word.
Our hearts and our spirits are nurtured by grace.
It is Jesus who fills us. He is here in this place.

You are cordially invited to join us for our liturgies. We celebrate Mass daily at 7:30 AM (9:00 AM on Monday during the school year). We have six Masses every weekend. Since the Lord's Day begins at sunset, we celebrate the Saturday Vigil at 5:30pm in English and 7:30pm in Spanish in the Old Mission Church. We celebrate three Sunday Masses in English at 7:30am, 9am and 12:15pm. We have a hugely attended Mass in Spanish at 10:30am in O'Brien Hall, the three story building behind the Mission church.  Join us, won't you?

Historic Ventura Mural preliminary unveiling took place on May 6, 2018 and again on May 14, 2018. The final unveiling and construction completion with lighting and rail expected by mid-June,2018. Click here to learn about the unveiling.

Click here to take a tour of the Mission with Fr. Tom and Joe Estevez as seen on "All Things Catholic" NETNY.TV Brooklyn, New York Television 

Amgen Cycle Tour 2018 in Beautiful Downtown Ventura!

Amgen Tour video sponsored by the Ventura Visitor Center

Images all around Ventura as Amgen Tour of California rolled through by Ventura Visitor Center

The Thomas Fire, December 2017 is the largest in the state of California history. Mission San Buenaventura welcomed and hosted World Central Kitchen, founded by Chef Jose Andres.  Coordinated by L.A. Kitchen, Chef Jason Collis and Chef Tim Kilcoyne with hundreds of volunteers served 36,000 meals and prepared 90,000 dishes for Thomas Fire evacuees, First Responders and young children in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.  Read more:

http://www.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2017/12/11/volunteer-program-providing-healthy-meals-families-displaced-thomas-fire/941511001/

http://www.vcstar.com/story/life/2017/12/22/cafe-society-world-central-kitchen-founder-jose-andres-visits-thomas-fire-relief-units-chefs-volunte/962020001/

https://www.eater.com/2017/12/14/16776036/jose-andres-world-central-kitchen-california-wildfires-david-chang

To help sustain the legacy of our historic Mission: please remember Mission San Buenaventura in your Will or Trust planning.

"Siempre Adelante: United in the love of God as a Mission Family."  Shalom, Fr. Tom Elewaut, Pastor.

Mission San Buenaventura to dedicate Michelangelo Pieta Statue

A Vatican licensed marble-cast of Michelangelo’s masterpiece Pieta is added to the sacred art collection at Mission San Buenaventura. An unveiling and  dedication Prayer Service will be held on Sunday, July 8, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. in the Mission Church followed by a reception in the Mission Garden. The public is invited.

Forty-one years ago, May 21, 1972, the Renaissance statue was damaged at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The incident, and what subsequently became one of the most delicate and controversial art restorations in history, stunned the world. Forty-six years later Mr. and Mrs. Brad Hanson of Arizona made an extraordinary financial gift to Mission San Buenaventura.  The Mission then acquired the Vatican licensed No. 73/100 marble-cast Pieta statue being placed around the world through ArteDivine S.A. and Richard and Esther Stewart, The Michelangelo Legacy.

Michelangelo was commissioned on August 27, 1498 and carved it out of a single block of Carrera marble he chose himself from a Tuscan quarry. The replica acquired by Mission San Buenaventura is composed of crushed Carrera marble from the same quarry Michelangelo chose. The crushed marble is mixed with resin and adhesives and then polished to resemble the original work of art. The Pieta at St. Peter’s Basilica is viewed by millions of people annually. Visitors to Mission San Buenaventura are able to view the sacred art in the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, formerly the Baptistry.

The statue is so lifelike that the viewer can almost feel the curls of the dead Christ’s hair and the softness of the Madonna’s lips. The veins in Christ’s muscular arms seem to be still holding blood. The folds in the Madonna’s veil seem made of muslin rather than marble. When art historian Giorgio Vasari saw the statue in 1550 he wrote in his book about the lives of artists. “It is a miracle that a rock, which before was without form, can take on such perfection that even nature sometimes struggles to create in the flesh”.

Art work designed by M.B. Hanrahan (faux curtains and prayer lettering) and Belgar "Cheif" Merlich with apprentice Sarah (stained glass window).

Mission San Buenaventura, founded in 1782 by St. Junipero Serra, continues to be an active Catholic parish and is open daily to the public for pilgrimage and tour.

In response to the current situation happening at the U.S. border with Mexico, Archbishop Gomez released the following statement on June 20, 2018.

Statement from Archbishop José H. Gomez:

The law is a teacher and so is the way we enforce our laws.

So what lessons are we teaching at our nation’s southern border? The pictures are dramatic, and they fill you with sadness and anger.

Immigrant children — some barely old enough to walk, some infants still in their mothers’ arms — being torn away from their undocumented parents as they try to cross the border.

More than 2,000 children have been seized by border authorities in the last six weeks alone.

Adding to the cruelty, in the large warehouses being used as child internment camps, strange rules have been imposed that prevent shelter workers from touching or holding the little children to comfort them.

It is hard to write these words. I cannot believe this is happening in our country. But this is where 25 years of bipartisan failure on immigration reform has led us.

We are now a nation where “zero tolerance” means no mercy. We seem proud to announce that we will no longer grant asylum to victims of domestic abuse and gang violence. In the name of protecting our borders, we are willing to break up families and shatter the lives of innocent children.

As the pictures were coming in last week from the border, leaders in the House of Representatives decided to block debate on a bipartisan commonsense and compassionate immigration bill that was supported by me and my brother Catholic bishops.

Again, the result is to penalize children for the mistakes of their parents — in this case the nearly 2 million who were brought to this country as small children by undocumented parents or family members.

As I write, House leaders are drafting two bills. Right now, it does not look like either bill provides a clear or generous path for these young people to become citizens. And this is not right.

The law is a teacher. And our leaders are delivering some harsh lessons these days.

Our nation’s highest law enforcement official is quoting the New Testament to justify our new family separation policies. “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order,” he said.

What should our Christian witness be in the face of our government’s approach to immigration?

We need to pray for wisdom and courage. We need grace to retain our humanity even as we confront the inhumanity of our government’s policies.

We need to remind our leaders that Romans 13 concludes with these words: “For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. … The commandments are summed up in this saying: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Love is the measure by which we are judged. Every one of us. This is the law of God and no one is exempt. Our nation is judged finally by how it treats the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Our leaders have a solemn duty to secure our national borders and enforce our immigration laws. No one questions this. But we must find a better way.

What we are doing now is wrong — on the borders, in the cruel partisanship and self-interested political calculations of our immigration debates.

Our national conscience has been darkened by fear, by economic insecurity and by years of “dehumanizing” rhetoric about immigrants from politicians and media figures.

As Christians, we are called to help our neighbors and leaders rediscover the capacity for empathy — to once more be able to feel compassion for the common humanity and destiny that we share with one another, including our immigrant brothers and sisters.

St. Thomas Aquinas said that when a human law does not reflect God’s law then it becomes an unjust law and even an act of violence.

We need to insist that those who make and enforce our laws guard against this. The love and mercy that we hope to receive is the love and mercy that we need to extend to others.

That means stop the family separations right now — and give those 2,000 children back to their moms and dads.

The law is a teacher. As Christians our duty in this moment is to insist that our laws reflect God’s law of love. Every human life is sacred, and every person’s dignity must be respected, even if that person has broken the law or is related to someone who has broken the law.

This Sunday, June 24, I hope you will join me for our annual “Mass for All Immigrants,” which I will celebrate at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 4 p.m.

We have much to pray about again this year.

Pray for me and I will be praying for you. And let us ask our Blessed Mother to be near to every child and every parent suffering separation along our borders this day.