Instruments of God’s Artistry

Dear Friend,

This week we received the sad news of the death of our esteemed Franciscan elder and brother, Father Nevin Ford OFM - 92 years old, 74 years a friar and 66 years a priest. Father Nevin had been residing at New Bethany Residential Care in Los Banos after many years of service here in Santa Barbara where he was well known as our unofficial artist-in-residence. His Stations of the Cross – so lovingly transferred from the grounds of St. Anthony Seminary to what is now our Mission Olive Grove – are among his most enduring contributions to the prayer and faith life of the Mission and the Parish.

Over the years I’ve met a number of Father Nevin’s former students from his days as an art teacher at St. Anthony Seminary. He inspired many and seemed to have a gift for getting his students involved in projects that expanded the horizons of their understanding of God and their vocations as disciples of Jesus. He expressed his faith through art – in wood, with paint, even in bronze. His rendition of a hillside Mexican village, complete with clothes on a clothesline lifted by a breeze, hangs near the door of the parish office – one of my favorites.

The Gospel this week speaks of the “signs” of Jesus, those powerful life-giving acts of Jesus that captured the hearts of the people. In fact, John’s account of “the feeding of the five thousand” will be the focus of our Gospel texts for three consecutive weeks. Our liturgy teaches us - as did Father Nevin - that beauty is always at the heart of divine action, a beauty meant to open us to the Spirit and ultimately to shape our very lives into instruments of God’s own artistry.

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor