In Your Presence

John 14, 1-6: ’Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too. You know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said, ‘L...

John 10, 11: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai at the start of a university retreat at Kintore College in Toronto. On the theme of the good shepherd, whether we actually hear his voice. Thumbnail: William Holman Hunt Hunt light of the world, 1851, Keble College, Oxford. Music: Ernesto Nazareth, Confidencias, arranged for g...

You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48). Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, on April 26 2023. The message “Be perfect...” might cause us to wilt. How can I be perfect even as a human being, much less “as the Father is perfect” – the Infinite, Omnipotent God whom I cannot see, whom (it seems) I know only from a distance? This is an imposs...

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to a group of High School students at Ernescliff College on April 24, 2023. Today's Gospel is about Jesus walking on the water: as the apostles imagined he was a ghost, he said do not be afraid. Jn 6:16-21: When it was evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown da...

Preceding the account of the washing of the feet, St. John says: John introduces this gesture. It is not present in the other synoptics: “Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (Jn 13:1). He loved them to the end. We should reflect on the meaning o...

We are in a dark world, but the light of heaven streams in like a beam of luminosity, and hope, represented by that Easter pillar of light. Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto about the meaning of the Easter Candle and the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: Death, where is thy Sting? (1 Cor 15, 55). Thumbnail: The Harrowing of Hell, Russian 15th century icon, St. Petersburg....

Holy Thursday includes two important celebrations. The Chrism Mass where all the priests renew their priestly vows, and the bishop blesses the holy oils. It commemorates the Lord’s institution of the priesthood. That's in the morning. But tonight is the commemoration of the commandment of charity, the mandatum novum, and the institution of the Eucharist, where he ask to do this in memory of me...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches at Ernescliff College about the beginning of Holy Week and the mysterious figure mentioned in the prophesies of Isaiah: the Man of Sorrows. In Isaiah he was a mystery, now he will take on a face, and a name, Jesus of Nazareth. Music: Prelude -Cello Suite 3- J.S. Bach. BWV 1009. For guitar. Thumbnail: Roberto Oderisi Italian, The Man of Sorrows with Instruments of the Pass...

The passage in today’s first reading from the book of Daniel is the account of Suzanna who is falsely accused by two corrupt elders (Daniel 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62). The drawn out account of Suzanna who was spied upon by two elders taken over by their lust for her. The reading uses a fascinating turn of phrase about the temptation of these two men: it says “they suppressed their consciences and w...

Today is the solemnity of the Annunciation, an important feast that the church celebrates during Lent. At Mary’s obedient Fiat, humanity is wedded to divinity. It can be thought of as a precursor to Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes upon Mary and imparts to her the gift of all gifts, a divine son. She is the new Eve that restores those lost gifts. We too can obey the divine invitation. But how do w...

Fr. Eric Nicolai comments on the effects of the gospel account of Jesus and the young rich man (Mark 10, 17-22). He had potential, that's why Jesus chose him. When you see someone with qualities, that works well, and seems to be a good person, you and I think of their potential. The power to become something more. You think of something still unrealized. Its latent within them. Undeveloped. Em...

Today, the fourth Sunday of Lent, the church offers the passage from St. John about the man born blind. It is here that the Lord begins to speak about himself as being the Light of the World, and that the apostles too are the light of the world when united to him. The apostles tell Jesus about this man, stumbling around, not able to advance, and thinking it was a generational problem. His father o...

The Greek word "apostoloi" means “sent.” It refers to Christ's call to the disciples to continue his own mission: proclaiming the kingdom of God throughout the world. But what are these apostles proclaiming? Are they giving an instruction about what Jesus spoke about? Were they giving classes, where people sat down and took notes? What was the essential idea that people took away with them after P...

Groucho Marx in the early silent films would say that to have a happy life,  we must have good humour have a bad memory. Of course we have good humour, but I don’t agree that we should have a bad memory. We have to have good humour and good memory, but selective memory for all the good in life. This was the purpose of the transfiguration, in which Jesus showed the apostle the luminosity of th...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, on March 4, 2023.  During Lent our goal is that of St. Paul:  "I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." (Gal 2, 20). This identification with Christ has 4 steps in a staircase towards Christ Jesus. The first step in this staircase is the most superficial on...

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to priests at the Manoir de Beaujeu, February 4, 2023. In the death and burial of Lazarus Jesus watched the long procession of mourners from the first to the last, and the reason of it all. He understood the very reason for all those mourners. He knew deeply, in its essence how death came into the world with the sin of Adam. He wept for Lazarus, but he wee...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ernescliff College, on February 28, 2023. Today’s first reading is from a chapter of Isaiah, an oracle that the prophet made, calling back the exiles in Babylon. Isaiah 55, 10: "And as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return no more thither, but soak the earth, and water it, and make it to spring, and give seed to the sower, and bread to...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Kintore College, Toronto, on February 20, 2023. It was in preparation for Lent. Fulton Sheen defines dirt as matter in the wrong place. If clay is in the garden it is clay, if it is in the house it is dirt. The church then blesses this dirt to show that all things created are good and can be holy. She then smears this dirt on our foreheads saying at the...

A meditation at the Manoir de Beaujeu, preached to a group of priests on January 30, 2023, by Fr. Eric Nicolai So many Catholics have been baptized, but not transformed. We lament this as due to secularization of society, lack of formation. Bad example, etc. We too must be conquered. What is our soft underbelly? That most vulnerable part of our perseverance. It is the lack of total surrender to Ch...

This meditation was preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at the end of a retreat for priests to the Manoir de Beaujeu, near Montreal, on February 3, 2023. Easter Vigil Gospel: Mark 16, 1-7 The women: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, had an important task. When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ bo...

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at a retreat for priests at the Manoir de Beaujeu, near Montreal. Matt 13:1-9:: That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.  Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.  Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed...

A meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai on the conversion of St. Paul. Preached at Lyncroft Centre, January 25, 2023. Acts 3, 5-10: ‘I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when about midday a bright light from heaven suddenly shone round me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” I answered: Who are you, Lord? and he said to me, “I am Jesus the Naza...

Today, January 18 to January 25 is the Octave of Christian Unity. It finishes with the feast of the conversion of St. Paul on January 25. This Octave was first conceived by Father Paul Watson a Franciscan friar of the Atonement, of Graymoor abbey in 1907. This leads us naturally to pray about the Church in her essence. CCC 760: all that vast array of creation had really one basic purpose: to have...

This is a meditation originally posted on Youtube in August 2021. Here it is re-broadcast in audio form. It was preached at the Manoir de Beaujeu, near Coteau-du-Lac, near Montreal, Quebec. The original with video clips of the Manoir, its surroundings and Rembrandt's painting, can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/tFdA8gPxBtE Music: Handel Rinaldo opera Aria "Lascia che io pianga" arranged for guit...

This is the introductory meditation for a retreat at the Manoir de Beaujeu, near Montreal, on January 2, 2023, preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai.  Psalm 127: Nisi Dominus, Unless the Lord build the house: their labour is but lost that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city: the watchman waketh but in vain. Music: Carlos Gardel, Soledad, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink. Thumbnail: Rembrandt, &nb...