In Your Presence

A meditation on fear, preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai, at Kintore College, Oct 14, 2022. Luke 12:1-7: The people had gathered in their thousands so that they were treading on one another. And Jesus began to speak, first of all to his disciples. ‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees – that is, their hypocrisy. (...) ‘To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body a...

Lk 1, 11-20 "Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.  But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. (...) The angel said to him, “ I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God , and I have been sent to speak to you and to...

" All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God " (Rom 8,14). These words of the Apostle Paul, which we have just heard, help us understand better the significant message of today's canonization of Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. With docility he allowed himself to be led by the Spirit, convinced that only in this way can one fully accomplish God's will. These are the opening words pronounce...

Luke 10:25-37: ‘A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of brigands; they took all he had, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead. Now a priest happened to be travelling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite who came to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side. But a Samari...

That explosion of grace came today in 1928, while he was on retreat with 6 other priests. He had prayed the breviary, read the Gospel, and was reviewing some notes. One note after another. Things were becoming clearer about what he was doing here in Madrid. Before he could formulate an answer, he heard sound of the bells of the church of Our Lady of the Angels drifting through the window, pealing...

There are nine choirs of angels. One of those choirs, or groups, are the archangels. They are powerful allies in our spiritual battles, because God gave them great power to fight against those demons we have to face on a regular basis. They are spiritual beings that we can’t see, because they don’t have a body. But they really exist. Not just in our minds, or in our collective myths, or our symbol...

Luke 16:19-31: One of the most striking parts of today’s parable of poor Lazarus and the Rich man, the dives, is the way the rich man, even in the afterlife, still speaks of the poor man as a servant who is supposed to do his bidding : “Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue.” He needs help, he has never really helped himself or helped overs. But when we step back, w...

In John 4, we have that wonderful encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman. Jesus said to her, “ Give me a drink. ” She is transparent, and this is the first moment in her life in which her horizons are suddenly open . She wants more, she wants to speak and understand more deeply what her life is really all about, especially with 5 husbands in tow. Conversions are always possible, even if your...

2 Cor 6, 1: As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says: “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. The reason of our life is that we exist for one single reason: to be the best version of ourselves. Not a low grade. High definition movie. This is the o...

Matt 14, 12: John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus. Jesus was deeply affected by the sad news of John the Baptist's death. So he wanted to be alone, to pray. But people came after him, so he cured them and taught them. Then came the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish. At Herod’s banquet, we see false pride, arrogance, victimizati...

The prophet Ezekiel speaks about the merciless destruction of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but then God says touch no-one with the mark on their foreheads . (Ezekiel 9). What is this mark? This is the letter TAU, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The form of a cross. It is reminiscent of the mark of Cain (on his brow), which protected him from the punishment he deserved. Fr. Eric Nicolai sp...

Luke 6:39-42: "Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,” when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye.’" This i...

Saint Josemaria liked the aspiration, Regnare Christum volumus, and it became the episcopal motto of don Alvaro de Portillo. What does it mean? We have to go back to the origin of kings in the Old Testament. The book of Judges ended with its haunting antiphon, “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21, 25)” This stark conclusion connected...

In Today's recollection at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, Fr. Eric Nicolai reflects on how we can really pray properly, deeply, effectively, and piously, in a way that shows abandonment, and real love. It is our essential means of communication and union with the Blessed Trinity. The Gospel often speaks about the Lord withdrawing: "He withdrew to the wilderness and prayed" (Lk 5:16): it was prayer an...

A meditation for the staff at Hawthorn School for Girls in Toronto, preached at the start of the academic year on August 31, 2022 by Fr. Eric Nicolai, the chaplain. https://hawthornschool.com Music: excerpt from Eminem, Lose Yourself (2002) Recordações do passado (Souvenirs from the Past) a Valsa for piano (1885) by Ernesto Nazareth arranged for guitar by Bert Alink. For more meditations, check my...

Readings from Tuesday in the 22nd week in Ordinary Time: 1 Corinthians 2, 10-16: After his failed attempts in Athens, Paul makes his way to Corinth, and he speaks about the spiritual person and the animal person: "An unspiritual person is one who does not accept anything of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor 2, 15). The Vulgate says: Animalis autem homo non percipit ea quæ sunt Spiritus Dei. St. Josemaria...

With his invectives against the way the scribes and Pharisees observed the Law, our Lord does not despise or reject the Law; he is simply telling people to get their priorities right: there is no point in attending to secondary details if one is neglecting what is really basic and important — justice, mercy and faith. Preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Camp Caribou near Barry's Bay, Ontario. Music: C...

Luke 13, 22-30: Strive to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed. Who are these many? It seems limited to a certain type of people, even if many are called. The person has to adapt himself, he has to be a certain way in order to enter. It is a call to conversion . I want to pass through that door Lord. The narrow door of fidelity to my vocation....

Matt 22, 34-40: ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’ We cannot give the Lord the scrap...

But we cannot really experience the mercy of God without true conversion . We see this in the beautiful account of the father with two sons in Luke 15. There was the younger one who left in an escapade of sensuality, and then there was the older brooding one who stayed behind in his own resentment. Are we the younger one or the older one?  A virtue that brings us together is hospitality. Heb...

In Revelation 12: The woman flees into the desert, where she is miraculously fed (an allusion to the manna of the Exodus). It is added that the woman is given "the two wings of the great eagle" like the people of the Exodus (Ex 19, 4). The belief in the Assumption is ancient. But Pope Pius XII wanted to make it more clear. On the 1st May 1946 Pope Pius XII decided to send a letter to all the bisho...

From the Gospel of Sunday 20th Week in Ordinary Time: Ignem veni mittere in terra, et quid volo nisi ut accendatur? I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! (Lk 12:49.) Like Moses standing before the bringing bush, let us now take off our shoes, our sandals, because we are on holy ground , we are close to the love of God. In this oratory, we are used to coming in...

Today, August 9, is the 80th anniversary of the death of St. Edith Stein, killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz along with thousands if other Jews. She was a profound and an intense woman. Just look at her photo as a Carmelite, with those penetrating eyes. It is said she was always an over-achiever. Born in Germany in 1891, she studied under Edmund Husserl, and converted to Catholicism, and even...

One of those central untouched aspects of the spirit of Opus Dei turns around friendship: our surrounded by friends, how we deepen in them, experience them, encourage our friends, get help from them. The Beatles used to say I Get By with A little Help from my Friends . It was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, released on their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. How painf...

Jeremiah 26, 11-16: First reading is from a sermon by the prophet Jeremiah in the temple. He’s warning them that the temple will be destroyed. So there is this confrontation between Jeremiah and the authorities of Judah. He declares his innocence like Christ and is eventually saved by the intervention of the king.  In the Gospel of the day we have the account of the death of John the Baptist...