West of the West: Tales from California's Channel Islands DVD now on sale at the Mission Gift Shop!

Three 60 minute programs tell the human history of California's eight Channel Islands. It is a remarkable saga, including discovery of the oldest human remains in all of North America, the first contact with Europeans in 1542, a thriving Native American culture, the Mission period, and more recent efforts to preserve the islands, including leadership by rock musician Joe Walsh. The programs took three years to create, including 70 shoot days and 18 months of editing. Veteran Hollywood screenwriter Peter Seaman and long time independent producer Sam Tyler donated their time to the project.

Explore Loreto, our Sister City and Sister Misison....please see below and under Links on this website.

You are cordially invited to join us for our liturgies. We celebrate Mass daily at 7:30 AM (8:15 AM on Tuesday 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.

At the Mission, we often sing a hymn that reminds us of the presence of the Lord 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.

Join us, won't you?

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

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.

The Divine Mercy Film will be shown at Mission San Buenaventura in O’Brien Hall

English:
Wednesday, September 14, 7 PM  
Friday, September 16, 10 AM
Friday, September 16, 7 PM

Spanish:
Monday, September 19, 7 pm

Released in December 2015, the unfathomable history of the original image of divine mercy documents travel through Europe and the United States uncovering the answers to many unanswered questions about the little-known Original Image of Divine Mercy.

In secret and at the request of Jesus himself, Saint Faustina and her confessor, Fr. Michal Sopocko, worked tirelessly with a relatively unknown artist to duplicate on a canvas her mystical vision of the Merciful Jesus. With Fr. Michal modeling as Christ for many hours, the three unlikely friends came up with the only Image of Divine Mercy that Saint Faustina ever saw.

After all the corrections and touch-ups at the insistence of Saint Faustina, the violently ant-Catholic Soviet occupation of Vilnius, Lithuania, forced the painting into hiding.

Finally, two humble nuns bravely transported the miraculous painting across the dangerous border between Lithuania and Belarus, and the painting was finally restored to its permanent home in a beautiful shrine in Vilnius according to the wishes of Saint Faustina.

Mission San Buenaventura will present a special art exhibit from August 6 through November 5, 2016: a trilogy titled “El Camino Real” by late artist and architect Aurelio G. D. Mendoza.

Three large mural-like oil paintings depict the conversion of the indigenous people in Mexico; another depicting Fray Junipero Serra directing his companions forward on their travels; and the third painting depicting the construction of the first mission in Alta California, Misión San Diego de Alcala. Fray Junipero Serra founded the first nine of the famed 21 California missions.

Mendoza was a noted artist and architect in his day. His lasting legacy is "La Ofrenda," the construction of which began when Mendoza was 80 years old. Erected on the grounds of the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe in Mexico City, the monument adorns the Tepeyac gardens and includes 17 larger than life-sized statues depicting Mexican natives offering gifts of food and game to the Virgin of Guadalupe, who stands with open arms to the people of Mexico. Millions visit the site annually.

Mendoza never had his “El Camino Real” trilogy exhibited during his lifetime. It is thanks to the love and generosity of his daughter-in-law, Emma Mendoza, that the exhibit is made possible.

In honor of St. Junipero Serra, the first Hispanic saint to be canonized (September 23, 2015) on American soil, the exhibit will be on display to the public in the Mission San Buenaventura Gift Shop, 225 E. Main Street, Ventura. The Gift Shop is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. There is a nominal fee to tour the Mission Museum, Gardens and Church.

The El Camino Real originated in Loreto, Baja California Sur and stretches from Baja in Mexico to San Rafael in Alta California in the United States of America. Presently, U.N.E.S.C.O. is considering the nomination of the El Camion Real and all the missions of the Californias for recognition as a World Heritage Site.

For more information on Aurelio Mendoza and his art please visit: http://www.aureliogdmendoza.com/#!select-past-works/ctdr