In Your Presence

A meditation preached at Ellerton Centre, Toronto, on November 1, 2026, on the solemnity of All Saints.

In Genesis 28 we read of the dream of Jacon in Bethel, where he sees a stairway of angels ascending and descending. Today, as we celebrate all saints, we have to behold that stairway to heaven. At its head stands Christ, beckoning us to follow. On the steps are his saints, inspiring us to take the steps that lead to Christ and happiness. Like the emblem on Superman's chest, it does not signify that we must be supermen, but men and women of hope.

Music: Lifting Dreams - Aakash Gandhi Youtube free

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on October 29, 2026 at Kintore College, Toronto.

Luke 14:1-6: "Now on a sabbath day Jesus had gone for a meal to the house of one of the leading Pharisees; and they watched him closely."

Even at table, we are called to be itinerant contemplatives, and apostles.

Thumbnail: The End of Dinner, by Jules Alexandre Grün, Oil on canvas, 1911. © Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tourcoing.

A meditation preached on October 22, 2026, at Cedarcrest Conference Centre, north of Toronto.

A reflection on the vesting prayers of the priest, as a prelude to awakening in us the wonders and the hidden love of Jesus in the Mass.

Music: Audiio_MULVEY_Awakening_Awakening_Instrumental

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai peached this meditation at a workshop on October 20, 2026, at Cedarcrest Conference in Belfountain, On.

A few weeks ago the starting gun was fired for the 3-year preparation for the centennial. In his letter from October 2 2026, the Father used that phrase: "It is not a new beginning, but a new impulse toward fidelity.” 

Music: The light between us by Shaydow on Bend Sound.

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A meditation preached on October 4, 2026, by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ellerton Center in Toronto. As we begin these years of preparation for the centennial, we know that we have to continue to grow and mature in this initial yes that we gave to God. The yes of our vocation. We said yes to the invitation to of the Lord, who sent us out.

The Prelate has framed in clear terms the purpose of the centennial: A grateful reflection on the past, accompanied by a humble examination of conscience, and a hopeful look towards the future (March 19, 2026).

Music: Audiio_MULVEY_Awakening_Awakening_Instrumental

Thumbnail: Masaccio, The Tribute Money, 1401, Brancacci Chapel, Santa. Maria del Carmine, Florence.

This meditation was preached at Ernescliff College, Toronto, on October 6, 2026. In 2002, Pope John Paul II pronounced this phrase in St. Peter's Square in front of thousands of faithful: "We declare and define Blessed Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer to be a Saint, and We inscribe his name in the catalogue of the Saints, ordaining that, throughout the universal Church, he be devoutly honored among the Saints. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

In Dante's Divine Comedy, heaven is portrayed as the highest celestial sphere, the Empyrean, where the Blessed Trinity is adored with the Blessed Virgin and all the saints. Now we know that Saint Josemaría is there too.

Music: enrique27naveda-cancion-triste-by Luis Enrique Guerra Naveda Pixabay

Thumbnail: The illustration "The Saintly Throng Form a Rose in the Empyrean" by Gustave Doré, created in 1868 for Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.

A meditation preached at Ernescliff College, Toronto, on October 2, 2026.

Today is the memorial of the guardian angels. Exodus 23: "The Lord says this: ‘I myself will send an angel before you to guard you as you go and to bring you to the place that I have prepared."

Moses guided the people, but did not enter the promised land himself. The Christological interpretation is that Jesus guides us into the true promised land by his grace. We all have a mission in this life, and our angel will guide us. Josemaria received the illumination about his mission on the memorial of the guardian angels. They would help him, and Opus Dei as a whole to mature in the mission.

Music: enrique27naveda-cancion-triste-by Luis Enrique Guerra Naveda Pixabay

Our Lord loves the poor: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Matt 11, 4-5)

Our Lord includes this among the great wonders: Poverty. How can we live this virtue of detachment as priests? We have the example of the conversion of Zacchaeus, who gave his money to the poor and restituted.

This is a meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to priests at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Stoney Creek, Ontario, on September 22, 2026.

Music: enrique27naveda-cancion-triste-by Luis Enrique Guerra Naveda Pixabay

Thumbnail: Jean Colcombe, From Vita Jesu Christi by Ludolf of Saxony, French (Bourges), c. 1475-1500, Paris, BNF, MS Francais 178, fol. 89v_2. From http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2016/10/zacchaeus-little-man-in-tree.html

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto, on September 16, 2026.

The Gospel tells us about the different reactions of the people to John the Baptist and to Jesus. He comments on the lack of coherence present in these responses. The impossibility of getting coherent responses in light of the lives of John and of Jesus.

“To what then shall I compare the people of this generation? … They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.’” (Lk 7:31–32)

Thumbnail: Eduard Manet, Young Flautist, or The Fifer, 1866, Musee D'Orsay, Paris.

Music: enrique27naveda-cancion-triste-by Luis Enrique Guerra Naveda Pixabay

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to priests at Saint Augustine Seminary in Toronto on September 15, 2026.

Today's feast of Our Lady of Sorrows has an ancient and layered liturgical background. It is said to have started with the ancient Franciscan spirituality that meditated on Mary’s sorrows. We know that St. Francis himself suffered the stigmata, reflecting his closeness to Mary, who suffered a spiritual stigmata. 

The Great Rood crucifix in Westminster Cathedral is the perfect image to contemplate across these two consecutive feasts: yesterday’s Exaltation of the Holy Cross and today’s feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. 

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ellerton Centre in Toronto on September 14, 2026, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Yesterday we decorated with flowers the simple black cross in our oratories so that we could see it bloom today.

The hymn of Philippians 2, 6-11: "...he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Thumbnail: Cross with garlands of roses from Ernescliff oratory

Music: Audiio MULVEY_Awakening_Awakening_Instrumental

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to High School boys at Ernescliff College, Toronto, on September 12, 2026.

Last week we celebrated the birth of Mary, the dawn of our salvation. She is the stella matutina, the morning star. It is a time of hope, for the Sun of Justice is about to rise; today, 8 days later, the name of Mary, in line with the practice of the Jews who would impose the name on the child 8 days after birth. 

Thumbnail: Leonardo Da Vinci, Sketch of St. Anne with Mary and Christ child and St. John, 1503, Florence.

Music: Lifting Dreams - Aakash Gandhi Youtube free

A meditation preached at Ernescliff College in Toronto on September 8th, 2026, by Fr. Eric Nicolai.

Today is the birthday of Mary, she is described as the “dawn of our salvation”. The arrival of a new person into the world is always a sign of hope. Mary opens up new possibilities for us in this academic year, just beginning.

Thumbnail: The Nativity of the Virgin, painted around 1400–1405 by Andrea di Bartolo, a Sienese painter.  Today housed in the National Gallery in Washington.

Music: Audiio_MULVEY_Awakening_Awakening_Instrumental

This meditation was preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on September 5th, 2026, at Ellerton Centre in Toronto.

‘He withdrew to the wilderness and prayed’ (Lk 5:16)

What did it look like to see the Lord withdraw into the wilderness? It was described as wilderness, a wild place because it was hostile to man’s control; there were no houses or comforts there. But it was a time of silent unity with God the Father. How can we pray like that in silence? It is hard for our generation to sit there without the comfort of devices. But we know inherently that if we sit there, alone with God, away from our notifications or the reels that make us laugh, we will still deepen in something we deeply need. We will come out of our prayer refreshed, rewired for the mission.

Music: Audiio MULVEY Awakening Awakening Instrumental

Sound effects: 11325622-police-siren-sound-effect-240674 on Pixabay.

Nature sounds: Meditation forest sounds of birds singing relaxation - 4 minutes - Tim Irving.

Tweeting-bird-sounds orangefreesounds

Thumbnail: Ivan Kramskoy, Christ in the Wilderness, 1872 Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on September 1, 2026, at the start of the new Academic year at Hawthorn School for Girls in Toronto.

Picture Jesus now coming forward: “And there was handed to him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written…"

Then with a sure voice:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 61:1–2) from Luke 4:17.

God’s gracious “year”—a jubilee of mercy, liberation, healing and restoration. We are now at the beginning of the academic year. A new moment of hope for all of us. How will we frame this hope?

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ellerton Centre in Toronto on the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 30, 2026.

Jeremiah is in utter anguish. He feels that he has failed. He’s in doubt. Maybe he has no vocation after all. He's in an inner crisis. Despite all the suffering he has experienced, he manages to complain to God and abandon himself to his healing.

Jeremiah 20, 7-9: Seduxisti me, Domine, et seductus sum.

You enticed me Lord, you persuaded me; you duped me, I felt duped. You overcame my resistance to your call, your all-encompassing vocation, your mission you have imposed on me. You chose me because you picked me out, you saw me like a wounded stag, and you loved me.

Music: Lifting Dreams - Aakash Gandhi Youtube free

Thumbnail: Rembrandt, Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, 1630, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on August 17, 2026 at Parkhill Centre in Ottawa.

Prayer in our life is an essential part of our existence of sons of God. It gives our resilience, and our purpose going. It is like the engine room of our interior life.

In the Gospel, we have the Pharisees complaining about the company that Jesus kept. This prompted Jesus to reaffirm the truth of God’s mercy through the most iconic parables of the Gospel: The conversion of the prodigal son.

Music: 'Undertow' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com

Thumbnail: Rembrandt, The Conversion of the Prodigal Son, 1661.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Camp Caribou near Barry's Bay, Ontario, on August 25th, 2026.

Today, the Gospel speaks about the distaste that Jesus had for those who relied on appearances, on image, on looking good to others. Those who spent time cultivating a public image. It is a rather blistering accusation.

Matt 23, 24-26: Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that the outside may become clean as well.’

Music: Regi Stone, All Heavens Declare.

Thumbnail: Rembrandt, Jesus preaching. Etching, Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

A meditation on the feast of St. Bartholomew, preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ernescliff College on August 24, 2026.

He preached in India and Armenia. For Bartholomew: “he shed his skin”: both in martyrdom and spiritual transformation, putting off the “old self” so that the new person may emerge.

Thumbnail: detail from Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, 1536.

Marco d’Agrate’s statue in Milan Cathedral, known as the San Bartolomeo scorticato:

https://mainlymuseums.com/post/1174/the-anti-david-st-bartholomew-by-marco-dadrate-1562/

Music: Lifting Dreams - Aakash Gandhi Youtube free

In 1975, Pope Paul VI told Blessed Alvaro del Portillo: "Collect everything that the Founder has written, because it is already a treasure belonging to the whole Church.”

Maximilian Kolbe had a vision of our Lady who offered him two crowns: a white one for virginity, a red one for martyrdom. Which do you want? I’ll take both.

that Mary is and a sign of hope and comfort for your people on their pilgrim way. (Assumption preface)

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Esteban Márquez de Velasco (1652–1696) , Dormition of the virgin Mary, Art Gallery of Ontario.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on August 1, 2026 at Ellentor Centre in Toronto.

Matt 14, 22-36: Jesus walks on the water, and calls out to Peter: Come!

Water in the ancient world was always seen as a place of instability. It was a scary place when you had these rickety boats. But Jesus informs everything we do. It is our life of faith. Our faith must inform our vision, the way we think, the way we work. It leaves its fingerprints everywhere we go. There you will find the DNA of faith.

Music: pulsebox-piano-music-free-music-552725 pixabay free

Thumbnail: Walking on Water, by Ivan Aivazovsky (1888), private collection.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on August 1, 2026 at Ellentor Centre in Toronto. John 6:1-15 tells of the account of the feeding of the 5 thousand. Lots of people. A real problem. A multitude had followed him.

Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him

He looked up with mercy, with compassion. In front of the problem, the numbers, the money, the few pieces of bread, we hear about that little boy. 10 or 12 years old. Not with his parents. Free to help.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, John 6, 9-10: “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?”  Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place; so the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ellentor Centre in Toronto, July 31, 2026.

"Don't forget that sometimes it is necessary to have smiling faces." (The Way, 657)

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Chipnee camp in Port Burwell, Ontario, July 22 2026.

Mary Magdalene is the first person to whom the risen Christ appeared and he entrusted her with announcing the Resurrection to the Apostles themselves. She is the apostles of Apostles. Pope Francis elevated her memorial to the level of a feast.

Music: pulsebox-piano-music-cinematic-552722

Thumbnail: Antonio Canova, Penitent Magdalene 1808, St. Petersburg Museum.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Chipnee Camp in Port Burwell, Ontario, on July 21, 2026.

We reflect on the famous story of the young rich man who approaches Jesus to ask him something.(Mt 19:16–22; Mk 10:17–22; Lk 18:18–23) It’s a key text, one of the most memorable encounters that Jesus had. It is full of youthful horizons, yet mystery and a bitter dissolution too.

What does it mean to live a full life?

Music: pulsebox-piano-music-cinematic-552722

Audiio_MULVEY_Awakening_Awakening_Instrumental

Thumbnail: Crucifixion from France, 12th century, St. Louis Art Museum.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Chipnee Girls Camp in Port Burwell, Ontario.

The disciples of Emmaus shared an intense run home after having seen and heard the Lord. When we are together, we cease to be fragile.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ernescliff College, Toronto, on July 14, 2026.

Sitting in front of the Saint Lawrence River, seeing all that water pass by, sometimes calm, other times more agitated. All that water is going to a hydroelectric dam, where it will go through turbines to generate much energy.  That daily flow looks peaceful, even tranquil, yet carries with it great energy. All our activities in our life, our work, our stress- they are like that river, flowing, but they must all go through turbines to serve as sources of good supernatural energy. It is an image of what we see in the account of Martha and Mary, in Luke.

Music: pulsebox-piano-music-cinematic-552722

Thumbnail: Hydroelectric Power Dam

A meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ellerton Center in Toronto, preached on July 4th, 2026.

Mt 20:1-16: Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. From that early moment, he went out many times after. 9 a.m., He went out again about noon and about three p.m. Then again about five p.m. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

Even at the end of our life, God calls us.

Thumbnail: Jean-François Millet, les Glaneuses, Musée d’Orsay 1857

Music: pulsebox-piano-music-cinematic-552722

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on July 8th, 2026, at Kintore College, Toronto.

Today’s Gospel gives us a glimpse of that luminous moment in which Jesus entrusts his apostles with the most important responsibility of their lives. Nobody has ever been entrusted with a mission as important as this, with such decisive consequences for world history.

The account of Jesus' choice of his 12 apostles from Matt 10, 1-7: "Jesus summoned his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness.

  These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who was to betray him."

Thumbnail: Massacio (Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone), "Peter Healing the sick with his shadow", Florence, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, 1424-1425.

Music: pulsebox piano music-cinematic-552722

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ernescliff College, Toronto, on July 6, 2026.

From today's gospel, Matthew 9, 18-26: "...Then from behind him came a woman, who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years, and she touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, ‘If I can only touch his cloak I shall be well again.’ Jesus turned round and saw her; and he said to her, ‘Courage, my daughter, your faith has restored you to health.’ And from that moment the woman was well again."

The 12 years of hemorrhage was humiliating; it weakened her, and it depleted her resources. But she reached out, discreetly, with a humble faith, just to touch the very fringe of his garment. As though she wanted to go unnoticed. It was a humble faith. It must be present in our initiatives as well. It will be rewarded, but we have to stay humble.

Thumbnail: Fresco of the Healing of the woman with the issue of Blood, in the Catacomb of Sts Marcellinus and Peter, Rome, 4th century.

Music: pulsebox-piano-music-cinematic-552722

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on June 28, 2026 at Ellerton Centre, Toronto.

Matthew 10:37-42: Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows: ‘Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College in Toronto, on July 1, 2026. (new audio file with proper editing uploaded July 2)

An account of the two demoniacs of the Gerasenes in Matthew 8:28–34. Jesus intervened and restored them to normality, but it meant that the herd of pigs was lost. Jesus has restored something authentic in this place, but the villagers are too desensitized to see it, to perceive it. This is really about the authority of Jesus on this earth, in our work, in our day-to-day. He must really be there. Yes, he can expel the demons of indifference. Of lukewarm norms, of lack of care in fraternity.

Thumbnail: The Gerasene Demoniac by Sebastian Bourdon (1653)

Music: pulsebox-piano-music-cinematic-552722 no copyrigh t

A meditation preached on June 24, 2026 at Hawthorn School for Girls on the solemnity of John the Baptist. From the very womb of his elderly mother, John was inundated by the Holy Spirit so as to prepare the manifestation of Jesus to the people.  He grew and lived in the desert.  He was preparing himself for his mission through solitude and prayer. Isaiah 40, 1-5: A voice of one crying in the desert. Prepare the way for the Lord.

All the prophets before him anticipated the Messiah; John actually points Him out directly (“Behold the Lamb of God”)

That can sometimes be your life, a voice crying out in the desert of secularism, immoral conduct, ideologies that go against nature, and the dignity of man. It ends up with strange fabrications, rejection of God, and distortion of the faith. As Saint Josemaria said: “We certainly need to convert anew, to be more fully loyal and more deeply humble, so that our selfishness decreases and Christ can grow in us. For illum oportet crescere, me autem minui, “he must increase and I must decrease.” (Christ is Passing By, no. 58)

A meditation preached at Ellentor centre in Toronto, on the feast of Saint Josemaria, on June 26, 2026.

It’s the legacy that we have the responsibility to maintain, to care for. We know sound elements of doctrine, but it comes out in unique ways in our apostolate, in our family prayer, our interest in others. What is the origin of this legacy?

Music: pulsebox-piano-music-cinematic-552722 Free copyright on Pixabay.

A meditation preached at Kintore College, Toronto, on June 25, 2026.

Matt 7, 21-29: ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.’

A building may appear beautiful and impressive, yet if its foundations are weak, sooner or later cracks will begin to show. The same is true of our spiritual lives. Much of what sustains us remains hidden from view: our prayer, our relationship with God, and especially our sense of divine filiation.

Music: Carlos Gardel, Soledad, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on June 19, 2026 at the Manoir de Beaujeu, at Coteau du Lac, Quebec.

As we do our prayer, we consider that it is especially our heart that has been set aflame even more, rejuvenated, cleared of any arterial sclerosis, any build up over time, so that may may always live freely, purely and sincererly, as we consider that we are here in this place because we have given everything to God. Ancient tradition of the church reveals that she has seen numerous Christians that observed celibacy for the kingdom. Propter regnum coelorum. Apostolic celibacy is a testimony, a witness, but only if our heart is truly transparent to the love of God.

Meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ellerton Centre in Toronto, May 29, 2026. Today is the memorial of Pope Paul VI, Giovanni Battista Montini, a man of courage in a time of upheaval.

Gen 12, 1-16: God speaks to Abraham: leave your country, your family, and go to the country I will tell you. So he responded by going to that unknown country. He was open to what God wanted. It took courage and fortitude and magnanimity to undertake such a massive task, to be the father of a nation.

We need this human virtue of fortitude, but it must also be supernatural, done out of love.

Music: Mulvey Awakening

In preparation for the solemnity of Pentecost, we have been trying to see all the things that can happen if we really become docile to his presence in our souls. For the apostles, it was manifested by a powerful wind that shook the house that they were in. Like a powerful tornado, a divine presence that no one could ignore. The result was that their lives were imbued with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. A meditation preached on the eve of Pentecost at Kintore College, Toronto, May 23, 2026.

Music: Audiio MULVEY Awakening Instrumental.

Thumbnail: Bernini's Holy Spirit in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.

Preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto on May 21, 2026. As we prepare for Pentecost, let us consider the first gift of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, which enables you to see how good and great the Lord is and, fills our life with flavour, so that, as Jesus said, you may be “salt of the earth”.

Music: Audio MULVEY Awakening Instrumental

Thumbnail: St. James the Greater Catholic Church, Concord, NC. Wikimedia

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Hawthorn School for Girls in Toronto on May 20, 2026.

During the month of May we prepare for Pentecost and also increase our devotion to our blessed Mother, Mary. There is an intimate connection between Mary and the Holy Spirit.  Mary attracted the Holy Spirit like a magnet at the Annunciation, and when she was at the centre of the apostles at Pentecost.  Two moments in which she served as a powerful attraction to draw down the Holy Spirit onto the world, onto the church, unto us and our priesthood. The two are connected.

We need Mary, we need the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Music: Audiio MULVEY Awakening Awakening Instrumental

Thumbnail: Juan Bautista Maíno (1581-1649), La Pentecôte 1615, Prado Museum.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ellentor centre in Toronto on the solemnity of the Ascension, May 17 2026.

This is a feast, but it is often under-celebrated. Even the iconography is odd. It shows the apostles standing in a circle, looking up, with Jesus out of the picture, as he floats up to heaven. You can only see his feet. It’s like the feast of the feet of Jesus.

Music: Audiio_MULVEY_Awakening_Awakening_Instrumental

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A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto, on May 14, 2026.

John 19, 25-27:  Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,”27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. 

It is one of the most oft-represented scenes in art: Jesus on the cross, with Mary and John below, weeping, in pain.

It was right after the soldiers had divided his garments into four parts, one for each soldier, as though they were getting precious relics in that moment, but they were seeing these garments as pieces that they themselves might wear, or sell. He is saying to us now, before Pentecost: Behold your mother. Stay with Mary in the month of May so that you might truly be touched by the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is coming. 

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ernescliff College, Toronto, on May 10, 2026.

This is the month of Pentecost, and we can picture the scene as these flames of fire, these wisps over the head of each apostle. Remember the speech that Cardinal Bergoglio gave in the conclave back in 2013.

He spoke about the Church’s temptation to withdraw into self‑protection, regulations, and control rather than trusting the Holy Spirit. Pentecost, by contrast, breaks open that fear: the Spirit falls on them, they receive courage and understanding, and they are thrust out into the streets to preach Christ to all nations.

Music: MULVEY Awakening Awakening Instrumental

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ernescliff College on May 10, 2026.

In 1932, Our Father wrote in his Intimate Notes,in a time of youth, a time with little experience, and uncertainty, and unsure of himself: Don’t speak: Listen to him.

This was his attitude to the Holy Spirit. This applies to us. Some people speak a lot, and figure things out as they speak. 

But how actively do we really listen? To others, to the HS, to our own conscience? Have I fallen to the brain fog, this dissipation, not aware that inside that cloud of unknowing, there is God, the Holy Spirit is pointing at something.

Music: Audiio MULVEY, Awakening Awakening Instrumental

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on the anniversary of Pope Leo XIV's election, on May 8, 2026 at Ernescliff College, Toronto.

Today’s antiphon on the anniversary of the election of the Pope, takes on special resonance for us.

Matt 16, 16- 19: 6 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Christ, the one were expecting, the one we had hoped for, the Son of the living God.”  Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

They are words that resonate with us, as we fortify our love for the Pope.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with license.

Meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai on May 4th, 2026 at Ernescliff College, Toronto.

John 14, 23-26: ‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him.

The image that we, our soul, is like a dwelling place for God. The Lord says we shall come to dwell in us, like in a home, a castle, a mansion. He desires to find a beautiful place, a oul made for him, a soul that is fit for him, with an interior cleanliness. He sees you and me now, in our purpose, our inner person—mind, heart, desires, conscience, wounds, and hopes—not just outward behavior. He says we want to come. That action of the holy Trinity that comes to defend us, to be our advocate.

He has many things to tell us.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Thumbnail: Neuschwanstein in winter in Germany

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at the new Ellerton Centre in Toronto, on Avenue Road on May 2, 2026.

In this very moving passage in St. Paul's letter to the Romans, God helps us see the divine interlacing of the three theological virtues which form the backing upon which the true life of every Christian man or woman has to be woven.

Romans 5, 1-5:  Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

These virtues are alive in us. They are not dead or dormant, or like dead batteries. Lots of power to them, it drives us to energy. This is the battery that makes us grow in the life of grace.

John 21, 2: Simon Peter said, ‘I’m going fishing.’ They replied, ‘We’ll come with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but caught nothing that night.

John says it is the Lord. Clearly, the recognition as a Eucharistic “seeing‑Jesus”: the disciples’ first proper confession of the Resurrected Lord at the dawn‑shore meal. He recognizes because he was a contemplative. Because he loved Jesus, was close to him, so close, so faithful. He was humble. In December of 1976 , Blessed Alvaro said: "Be convinced that humility is always a starting point"(Family letters II, 113)

Music: Heartbreaking by Kevin MacLeod incompetech chosic.com

Thumbnail: James Tissot, Christ on the shore of the Lake of Tiberias, 1886-1894. Opaque watercolour over graphite, Brooklyn Museum.

This is the first meditation from a year end retreat at Saint Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, begun April 13, 2026. We begin with the account of the discouraged disciples of Emmaus.

Preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai in Saint Augustine Seminary.

Thumbnail: MS Visuals

Music: Kevin Macleod, White Lotus.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on Holy Saturday, April 4, 2026 at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto.

The last thing we remember from Good Friday was that he was buried. Without commentary. You only bury someone when you’re absolutely clear that he is dead. He fully participated in the human destiny of death. Jesus travelled the path of death right to the bitter and seemingly hopeless end in the tomb.

The first shock began with the empty tomb. On its own, this is not enough to prove the resurrection, but it is the essential premise. Lets see how the early church framed this.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Thumbnail: Rembrandt, The supper at Emmaus, 1648, Louvre, Paris.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, on April 2, 2026, Holy Thursday. Two Masses today: the Chrism Mass, which commemorates the institution on the Priesthood, and the bishop blesses the Holy oils.  Then the Mass of the Lord’s supper. The day is called In Cena Domini, “At the Lord’s Supper.”

The meaning of the oils, the last supper, and the command of charity.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thumbnail: Leonardo Da Vinci, Last Supper, 1595, Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

A meditation preached at Kintore College, Toronto on April 1, 2026, Wednesday of Holy Week.

Matt 26:14-25: One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on, he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.

What are you willing to give me? That was Judas’ calculation: How much is Jesus worth? He is asking them: How much is he worth to you, so that I make this be profitable, he is saying… He was not even sure how seriously they would take him. This question, What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?, came from Judas, but it can also come from Jesus himself to us. He says to us: How much are you willing to give me? How much time, all your dedication, your reputation, your future plans, your time, your comfort…

Thumbnail: Rembrandt, Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver, circa 1629, at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on Palm Sunday, 2026, to a group of boys at a camp in Port Burwell, Ontario.

Palm Sunday is our entry into Holy Week. We are invited to contemplate the Passion. We remember that Pope Francis' last Palm Sunday focused on the figure of Simon of Cyrene.

As we look at the faces of the soldiers and the tears of the women in the crowd, our attention is drawn to an unknown person whose name suddenly appears in the Gospel: Simon of Cyrene. He was the man seized by the soldiers who then “laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus” (Lk 23:26). At that moment, he was coming in from the countryside. He happened to be passing by when he unexpectedly found himself caught up in a drama that overwhelmed him, like the heavy wood that was placed on his shoulders.

Thumbnail: Sarcophagus of Domitilia, in the Museum Pioneers Clementino, Rome, 4th century.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Kintore College, Toronto, on March 25, 2026.

There is something there that we must learn about this gift of hearing in the annunciation. Paintings of the scene often show words that come forth from the angel’s mouth, floating through the air to Mary, while she is in a receptive position, the contrapposto, this bending of her body, as though the very words touched her. But paintings are silent. We don' t actually hear the words of the angel. What was Mary's disposition to these sounds?

Pope Benedict said: To see this active hearing, a hearing which attracts the Word in such a way that it enters in me and becomes Word in me, reflecting on it and accepting to the depths of the heart. Thus, the Word becomes incarnation. (Pope Benedict XVI, Q&A With Priests of Rome, 26 Feb 2009).

There is something for us here to learn about the art of listening.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Thumbnail: Columba altarpiece of the Annunciation by Roger Van der Weyden, 1455, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ashlar Centre in Toronto, on March 22, 2026.

In the year 2001 it was exciting because we were entering a new millennium. Pope John Paul II invited us to launch out into the deep, in Latin, Duc in altum (Apostolic letter, Novo millennio ineunte, 2001): He said: Duc in altum!These words ring out for us today, and they invite us to remember the past with gratitude, to live the present with enthusiasm and to look forward to the future with confidence: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever" (Heb 13:8).

This is tied to Jesus' call to Lazarus in the tomb: Lazarus, come out! Veni foras!

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thumbnail: The Jonah Sarcophagus, 300. Vatican museum.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ernescliff College, March 19, 2026.

There is a passage from Colossians that appeared in yesterday’s vespers to Saint Joseph. It applies to him, and to us. Colossians 3:23-24: "Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as if it were for the Lord and not for men, knowing that the Lord will repay you by making you his heirs. It is Christ the Lord that you are serving."

The response says: "The virtuous man will bloom like the lily."

As we woke up this morning, on our knees, we renewed our dedication, our yes. We want to bloom like the lily today. We call it renewing, but we might also call it refreshing, face our call with a fresh face, a luminous gaze, full of awareness of God’s presence. 1 Samuel 16: We have the stirring account of the call of David, his vocation, and his anointing by Samuel. David was the youngest; he was gone, he was not even in the list. He was not even on the list of nominees. "Jesse had him sent for, a boy of fresh complexion, with fine eyes and pleasant bearing."

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Thumbnail: Bartolome Murillo, Saint Joseph with the child, 1670. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Florida.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on March 12 at Kintore College, Toronto.

Today’s Gospel from Luke 11:14-23, tells us that Jesus was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke and the people marvelled.

Those who opposed him said that he had done this through the power of Belzebul, through the devil. But Jesus easily responds that this would be the devil working against himself, divided against his own interests. Jesus heals because it is a sign of his power; he is able to heal in a way that no human power could. But he heals out of compassion, like when he healed the man born blind.

The sacraments are channels of his mercy, of his healing: like annointing, like confession, like the nourishing power of the eucharist.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thumbnail: Stainedglass, Meung sur Loire 19th century.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on March 8, 2026 in Ernescliff College, Toronto. It is similar to the previous day's meditation in Lyncroft centre, titled "Begone Satan!".

Conversion, like Jesus at the well, is first and foremost an initiative of God. We respond with our freedom. It’s in that most intimate part of ourselves, where the image of God deep within us, needs to be awoken, brought back to life, as though it had remained dormant but now is brought forth into the wild.

We have the freedom now to exercise penance through Lent in a way that leads to conversion, and to defeating the toxic presence of the evil one.

It’s what Jesus does in the desert (Matt 4), the Land of Mordor, this dark motif that sets the tone for all of Lent. A time of penance that purifies us, that awakens in us an interior struggle, that reminds us that we will never really convert if we just coast along, if we drift through life, if we just go with the current.

Music: Carlos Gardel, Soledad, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink.

Thumbnail: The Temptation Of Christ, by Duccio Di Buoninsegna, 1308, Frick Collection

A meditation preached at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, on March 7, 2026.

The devil tempts Jesus in the desert. Jesus is impeccable (unable to sin) in virtue of the hypostatic union, yet truly tempted from without in His human nature, in the sense of being really “assaulted” by the devil, not in the sense of interior consent or moral peril.

Traditionally, this scene in the desert is a contrast with Adam. New Adam motif: The desert scene is read against Genesis, where Adam fell in a garden amid abundance, Christ triumphs in a wilderness amid hunger and weakness.

Thumbnail: The Temptation of Christ by Simon Bening, Flemish, 1550 Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Luke 16:19-31: Dives and Lazarus.

Jesus tells this account of the rich man who feasted and seemed to enjoy life, but was oblivious to the poverty and the suffering of Lazarus, the poor man. It is an account that is full of details that fills us with revulsion, with shock and the callousness of the rich man. We are particularly grieved by his lack of empathy. He seems so unconcerned to help, to alleviate the poverty of Lazarus. He seems to be living in a bubble. He is unaware and unconcerned by the state of the poor man.

The problem was not his wealth but his lack of sensitivity. The poor man was not at all on his radar. He was not even aware of this guy. He would not have even remembered him. We must have others on our radar. Aware of them. Connect with them. Care about them and especially have the ability to listen carefully.

Pope Francis spoke of listening on January 26, 2022.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Thumbnail. Jean Pichore Workshop, The Rich Man at Table, Lazarus Barred at the Door. From a Book of Hours. French (Paris), c. 1500, Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France.

A meditation preached to priests at the Manoir de Beaujeu, east of Montreal, March 1, 2026.

Mt 8:26: "It is good to be with you here, Lord."

For the apostles, this moment involved all their senses: the sudden otherworldly luminosity, the towering figure of Jesus together with Moses and Elijah, the thundering voice of God the Father, the cloud covering them, the fragrance in the wind, and the peace of being with Jesus in all his divinity. Below is the upheaval caused by the curing of the epileptic boy. There are moments of darkness with fear, and others of light. Like the painting by Raphael Sanzio of the Transfiguration from 1520, the last of his life.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thumbnail: The Transfiguration by Raphael Sanzio, 1520, in the Vatican Pinacoteca, Rome.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto, on February 21, 2026. Today’s Gospel gives us a brief snapshot of the call of Levi, or Matthew, the tax collector. Right there, at his post, doing his job, at the customs post, Jesus called him. He walked in, looked at him, and, like in slow motion, Matthew got up, and followed him (Luke 5:27). In front of the grumbling, the Lord declared: It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.’ (Luke 5)

Matthew fits into the beatitudes that Jesus later outlines as the blueprint of his followers.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thumbnail: The Sermon on the Mount (1437-1445), Blessed Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence.

A meditation preached on February 19, 2026, at Kintore College, Toronto.

In his 2026 message for Lent, Pope Leo speaks about listening.

The willingness to listen is the first way we demonstrate our desire to enter into a relationship with someone. Then he refers to the image of Moses standing in front of the burning bush.

He says: In revealing himself to Moses in the burning bush, God himself teaches us that listening is one of his defining characteristics: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry” (Ex 3:7). Hearing the cry of the oppressed is the beginning of a story of liberation in which the Lord calls Moses, sending him to open a path of salvation for his children who have been reduced to slavery.

This is a task we can discover during Lent, and identify some of the obstacles to proper listening.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College in Toronto, on February 11, 2026, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

The Lord speaks today about the kind of openness to God’s love we must have in the events of our life. He promises real resilience for us if we see his hand in our life.

Mark 7:14-23: At that time: Jesus called the people to him again and said to them, ‘Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.’

What truly wounds us spiritually is not what happens to us, but what we consent to interiorly. We might easily blame external circumstances: our environment, other people, temptations, past wounds. Our growth is not about managing behaviour, but educating the heart: learning to recognize interior movements and choosing which ones to welcome, which ones to reject. It was present in the heart of Bernadette Soubirous, born in January 9, 1844, in the foothills of the Pyrenees in southern France, in Lourdes. Here is the story.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ernescliff College on January 26, 2026.

Mark 3:22-30: The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘Beelzebul is in him’ and, ‘It is through the prince of devils that he casts devils out.’ So he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last.

Satan’s strategy: division, confusion, and counterfeit good. He wants to confuse good and evil, make it all amorphous.

The devil wants to divide. He is bothered by unity. He is irritated by a Hail Mary recited together. It is like a nuclear blast against his own cohesion. The devil always wants to scatter and divide. He wants to pit one person against the other. He wants to divide. He wants comparisons and division.

Don’t let him win. Satan wants to divide a family, the church. It Omnes unum sint.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thumbnail: St. Michael the Archangel vanquishing the devil. Lorenzo Zucchi after Stefano Torelli 1725 Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on retreat to priests at the Manoir de Beaujeu, in Coteau du lac, near Montreal, Canada.

At his most urgent hour, when the apostles are on retreat with their Lord in the garden, a place far away from the hubbub of the crowds, the Lord lets go a searing complaint to his priests:

“What! Could none of you stay awake with me one hour?” (Matt 26, 40) We have to stay awake with him in this retreat. The word hour is present 7 times in John. Fulton Sheen refers to each hour in detail. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. (Jn 12, 23). The hour for us has now come to respond to his demands, to examine all the layers in which we can be his priests, and truly embrace our mission.

Thumbnail: Andrea Mantegna, Christ in the Garden of Olives 1455, egg tempera, National Gallery, London.

Music: Angelic, by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with license.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, January 18, 2026. Today’s Gospel presents the account of Jesus' baptism seen through the lens of John the Evangelist. Its the Evangelist’s take. The Baptist appears in the description. (John 1:29-34). But John the Evangelist here interprets the baptism not simply as an event, but as a revelation of identity and mission. Jesus' mission is to be the Lamb that will take away the sin of the world.

We need humility to recognize our sins, and embrace God's forgiveness. Have I really done that?

Thumbnail : Francisco de Zurbarán, The Lamb of God, 1635, Prado Museum in Madrid.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Angelic, with license.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to university students at Ernescliff College, Toronto, on January 16, 2026.

The account of the paralytic lowered by his friends in front of Jesus.

Mark 2:1-12: When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralysed man carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralysed man lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralysed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’

Many souls seek to come closer to Jesus. How can we place them in front of Jesus?

Thumbnail: Mosaic from the Basilica of Sant'Apolinnare in Nuovo, Ravenna, 5th century.

Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Angelic Choir, with licence

Meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto,on January 7, 2026.

Mark 6, 45-52: "When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore. Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. They had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke with them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!”

We cannot let Jesus become for us just a phantom. Something seemingly spiritual, but that we don’t really connect with. Don’t really relate to. This is what happens when our prayer is devoid of a real relational, dialogue aspect.

Thumbnail: Rembrandt’s Drawing “Christ Walking on the Water” 1638, from the British Museum.

Music: Angelic Choir Library with license, Vienna Phiharmonic Orchestra.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, on January 2, 2026.

Acts of the Apostles repeatedly describes the Apostles speaking with parrhesia—freedom, frankness, fearless speech (Acts 2:29; 4:13, 29, 31). They had received the spirit of adoption. Of divine filiation.

Paul still throbs with this parrhesia, the thrill that he witnessed in the apostles. “You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received theSpirit of adoption, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’(Rom 8:15). How can this fearless sense of conviction imbue us as sons and daughters of God in 2026?

Music: Angelic Choir Library with license, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thumbnail: Apostles at Pentecost 1030-1040, Ottonian parchment, Regensburg The J. Paul Getty Museum

A meditation preached on January 31, 2025, last day of the year, at Lyncroft centre.

Traditionally, in the old Mass, after the priest had given the blessing, before returning to the sacristy, he would read the prologue of John’s Gospel about the preexistence of the Word, from all eternity that had now become flesh. This Gospel was a way to seal the Mass with the mystery of the incarnation, reminding the faithful of what they had received. Our faith is an encounter with the incarnate Logos, not merely an ethical system of good ideas. The apostles were energized by this truth at Pentecost. Now we too feel this same sense of mission as we embark on 2026.

Music: O Come O Come Emmanuel. On X from Catholic Arena.

Thumbnail: Icon of the enthroned Virgin and Child with saints George, Theodore and angels, 6th century, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai.

St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt)

A Christmas Eve Meditation to families at Kintore College, on December 24th, 2025.

Luke 2, 1-14: The account of the decree and the shepherds

Today in the town of David a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly with the angel there was a great throng of the heavenly host, praising God and singing: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men who enjoy his favour.’

Why was the child in swaddling cloths a sign to the shepherds? What made them drop down to worship? What makes us drop down to worship God in our life?

Thumbnail: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682), The Adoration of the Shepherds (c 1650), oil on canvas, 187 x 228 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Music: Angelic Choir Library with license from Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Hawthorn School for Girls in Toronto, on December 17, 2025.

As we move forward into the countdown to Christmas, the Church presents us with the Gospel of Matthew that transmits to us the most famous genealogical tree in history. The origins of Jesus, the Messiah. It was written in a way that made it easier to remember. There were fourteen from Abraham to David; fourteen from David to the Babylonian deportation; and fourteen from the Babylonian deportation to Christ. It was all made easier to memorize. There are saints, but also sinners.

We too advance, even with our falls. Our mistakes, our own limitations. It is a time for hope, that God uses us, and forges something in our vocation. Can I see that God writes straight with crooked human lines? History is not random. God patiently guides it. We must see God’s hand through history. We must see his loving providence through our life.

Music: Vienna Symphonic library, choir of angels-384315

Thumbnail: The tree of Jesse, Flemish Psalter from the library of the Irish College in Paris, made in Bruges 1500.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to priests of the priests of the Archdiocese of Toronto, in the parish of St. Edward the Confessor.

Today the church celebrates the 15th-century Saint Juan Diego from Mexico, with an unpronounceable last name. He was surnamed Cuauhtlatoatzin. The account of her appearance transformed Mexico. She can transform us, too.

Music: Bert Alink, Adeste fideles, guitar, by John Francis Wade. Played 2017.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on December 8th, 2025 at Lyncroft Centrre in Toronto. It has been worthwhile to prepare this solemnity because it tells us something hopeful about God’s plan of salvation, his desire for our redemption. He could count on this woman, not as a mere instrument, but as a free and active cooperator that was beautifully prepared and primed for the great work of salvation.

We say she is immaculate, because she is without macula, without stain. The fathers of the Church teased out the Eve-Mary parallel: Mary was the new Eve.

Music: relaxing-piano-music-248868

Thumbnail: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables (Soult Madonna), 1660–65, oil on canvas, (Museo Nacional del Prado)

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft Centre, Toronto on December 6, 2025. The hymn of Our Lady, the Magnificat, (Luke 1, 46-55) is a pause in the infancy narrative, so that we can meditate on the events. It is as though we had to pause, think, catch our breath, and pray.

“My soul magnifies the Lord, 

    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 

for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. 

Thumbnail: The Magnificat" from the Church of Reconciliation, the church of the Taize Community in France

Music: relaxing-piano-music-248868

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on December 6, 2025 in Lyncroft Centre, Toronto.

The theme of the Visitation (cf. Lk 1:39-45). It starts with the annunciation in which the angel informs Mary about two miracles: she will be both virgin and mother of the Messiah, and Elizabeth will give birth, even in her old age. Mary goes with haste to bring her joy, and spread it to others in the family. This is an important role in our life during Advent.

Thumbnail: Peter Paul Rubens, left panel of the Visitation from 1612 in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp.

Music: relaxing-piano-music-248868, from Hozana.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College in Toronto on December 3, 2025, on the feast of Saint Francis Xavier.

Matthew 15:29–37 recounts Jesus healing many sick people by the Sea of Galilee. Matthew tells us about how there were large crowds of people. They were not just numbers to him, or statistics. They brought these people to him. The illnesses were varied. He made them whole again. 

There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves". But that clearly did not make sense. It was not logical, as the disciples barely had enough for themselves. But with that little contribution, those few loaves, and a couple of fish, that was enough for Jesus. It can be enough too in our apostolate.

Music: O Holy Night by Christmas choir in Youtubetomp3.sc

Thumbnail: Mosaic cycle Saint Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna 6th century, AD.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on the first Sunday of Advent in Lyncroft Centre, Toronto, November 30, 2025.

Romans 13, 11: You know ‘the time’ has come: you must wake up now: our salvation is even nearer than it was when we were converted. The urgency of readiness for God’s appeal to our soul is the theme of Advent. Its a path that we ask God to teach us about. Psalm 25:  Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Vias tuas, Domine, demonstra mihi, et semitas tuas edoce me.

Music: "In Dulce Iubilo", choir collection from: Die Schonste Deutsche Weihnachtslieder,ChristmasWorld by Zyx Music.

A meditation preached at Cedarcrest Conference Centre in Belfountain, Ontario, on November 23, 2025.

Luke 23:35-43: The soldiers mocked him too, and when they approached to offer vinegar they said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’ Above him there was an inscription: ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

Thumbnail: The Romanesque crucifix (12th century) hanging in the Fuentiduena Chapel in The Cloisters, NYC.

Music: Michael Lee.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Cedarcrest Conference Centre, in Belfountain, Ontario, on November 21, 2025.

The cunning ruse of the devil was a dialogue with Eve, in which she believed the devil's lie, and she disobeyed God's command. Sin lead to our death. But this truth is also an opportunity to ask for true conversion.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on November 19, 2025 at Kintore College in Toronto. The topic is the Parable of the Talents from Luke 19:11-28.

One day we will all arrive at that moment when our spiritual soul leaves our body, and goes off to judgment. The soul then ceases to vivify the body with the informing, animating principle we call life. The king responded to the man who had kept his one talent: Then why did you not put my money in the bank? On my return I could have drawn it out with interest.”

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to a group of diocesan priests at Cedarcrest Conference Centre in Belfountain, Ontario, on November 7, 2025.

John 5:2: We can picture the scene of the pool at Bethsaida, where the paralytic lay for 38 years. He had no one to help him enter the water when it was stirred. He was lying on his mat, waiting with a large crowd of other sick people, but had given up hope that he could be healed through the pool. Jesus, after asking if he wanted to be well, commanded the man to "Rise, take up your mat, and walk," and he was instantly cured, picking up his mat and walking away.

Jesus is inviting us to have hope, he's giving us the grace to rise up, and take our responsibility seriously. To get up and embrace our call.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ernescliff College, October 31, 2025. We meditate of the lament of Jesus over the holy City of Jerusalem. What was this lament about? He wept over the city, feeling the pain of the souls that were hardened to God's appeals.

Luke 13, 33: ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often have I longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused! So be it! Your house will be left to you. Yes, I promise you, you shall not see me till the time comes when you say:

‘Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!’

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto

Thumbnail: Enrique Simonet, Dominus flevit, Prado, Madrid, 1892

A meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai, preached in Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, October 26, 2025, on the parable of the Pharisee and the publican (Luke 18:9-14).

Music: Stephen Lee of Toronto

Thumbnail: Rembrandt, Etching of St. Jerome kneeling in prayer, 1635. From artnet

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on October 15, 2025 at Kintore College, Toronto. Today we celebrate Theresa of Avila, this 16th century mystic, who died in 1582. Her conversion led her to reform her order, emphasizing poverty, prayer, and contemplative life. Juan Diego was her contemporary, thousands of kilometers away in Mexico. Both discovered the nature of confidence in God, gounded in the inside of the soul.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Cedarcrest Conference Centre in Belfountain, Ontario, on October 10, 2025.

Today this has become a response for us in the Way of the Cross as we are introduced to each station. We are meant to look at the representation. Sometimes a picture, sometimes a painting. Sometimes just a simple cross.

V: We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You

R: Because, by Your holy cross, You have redeemed the world. (Rise)

We will say it today. This idea of the 14 stations started by those who could not journey to Jerusalem to spiritually participate in Christ’s Passion. Pilgrims in Jerusalem would process to various locations, praying and reading scripture at each spot. Franciscans became the custodians of the Holy Land sites. They would start these virtual representations in churches in Europe. They became standardized to 14 stations. 

Luke 9, 57: ..they met a man on the road who said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.

This expression of willingness, this desire to follow the Lord, no matter what he asks, no matter where the Lord takes our life, no matter the pain I experience, no matter what city you want me to go, is a deeply felt disposition that the Lord blesses. We see it particularly with Therese of Lisieux, and today with the beginnings of St. Josemaria’s call, on October 2, 1928, the feast of the Guardina Angels.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on October 2, 2025 in Lyncroft centre 2025.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on Septemebr 29, 2025 at Lyncroft Centre, Toronto.

John 1, 49-51: Jesus replied, ‘You believe that just because I said: I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.’ And then he added ‘I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending.’

The three archangels, Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, all have their role in the history of salvation. They are also present in the history and apostolates of Opus Dei. Here's how.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Thumbnail: Ivory panel at the British Museum of St. Michael, dating to the 6th Century.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Cedarcrest Conference Centre in Belfountain, Ontario on September 25, 2025.

Luke 8:4-15: With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, Jesus used this parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed.

We are the crowd that the Lord is now addressing, as we see him now with eyes of faith. You see him as he speaks there in the Gospel.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto

Thumbnail: Jean-Francois Millet, The Sower, 1851.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows at Roseaire Conference center in Delray Beach, Florida.

Stabat mater dolorósa
juxta Crucem lacrimósa,
dum pendébat Fílius.

At the Cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last

It is these tears and this sorrow that she embraced heroically today. But she did this as she co-redeemed with her son. Let us ask the light today to understand and deeply integrate in truth, what this all means for us, this start, this dolorosa, this lacrimosa. 

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai, at Roseaire Conference Centre in Delray Beach,Florida, September 13, 2025.

In his encyclical, Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI explained that hope can be performative not merely informative. Christian hope is not just knowledge or belief about the future. There is more:  There is dynamic power that changes how people live and act in the present. Hope does something. It can make us bold and daring in approaching apostolic challenges.

Music: Michel Lee, Toronto.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Roseaire conference Center in Delray Beach, Florida onSeptember 6, 2025.

Lk 6: 1-15: Today we have another dispute of the pharisees with Jesus about the way of living the Sabbath. Jesus has authority over the Sabbath, he is Lord of the sabbath. He wants us to live out this time of rest in a way that goes beyond mere external compliance. Is it possible that there could be more of that trust in God? Less preoccupation. More of an abandoned prayer, to a God who loves us dearly, who cares for us, who has a plan for us, and uses our weakness, our limitations for his plans?

Music: Michael Lee, Toronto

Thumbnail: Vincent Van Gogh, The Prayer, 1882.

This meditation was preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Roseaire Conference Center in Delray Beach, Florida, on September 3, 2025.

At the beginning of this annual course, we experience a feeling of appreciation, a sense of indebtedness and gratitude because God has wanted us here for something good. He has wanted something from my life. He wants all my heart, all my soul, all my mind.

Like Gregory the Great (+603), today's memorial, we want to come out of this truly revamped and renewed. Give thanks because we will be filled with a new oil change, high standard oil, a time to reinvigorate our strength, time to rest, time to live fraternity and to be with Our Lord.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation outside in the woods on the memorial of the beheading of John the Baptist at Camp Caribou near Barry's Bay on August 29, 2025.

 The church celebrates both his birth and his death. The to the death prelude is important: Mark 6, 14-16:  King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” Others said, “He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.”  But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”

Then comes the flashback that explains this. Not all give their lives in martyrdom, but all saints were faithful to the end. We too, are part of that long chain of fidelity.

A meditation preached in the woods by Fr. Eric Nicolai at camp Caribou near Barry's Bay, Ontario.

Matt 23: 13-22: Jesus said: ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who shut up the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to go in who want to.

And the one most demanding statement from our Lord, the most uncompromising , harsh, forceful, consequential, indomitable, is the truth is about hypocrisy.

It must be counteracted by unity of life.

Thumbnail: Screen grab from the movie, The Godfather.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on August 17, 2025 at Lyncroft centre in Toronto.

Luke 12:49: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!

Lord, you have come to cast something in my life. What is this fire?

You want my life to show the fire of love.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

A meditation preached in the rectory of the Cathedral of the archdiocese of St. Boniface, Manitoba, August 5, 2025.

The account of Jesus walking on the water (Matt 14, 22-36) frightened the apostles, as they thought that Jesus was maybe not real. He becomes all the more real now in the anniversary of the dedication of Saint Mary Major, established in 431 in honour of the council of Ephesus that stated that Mary was the mother of God. That meant he was a divine person, born of Mary, with a true human and divine nature. He was not a ghost.