In Your Presence

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation as the introduction to a retreat for priests of various dioceses at the Manoir de Beaujeu, near Montreal. It was preached on February 28, 2024. Mark 1:21-28: Today’s Gospel about the authority with which Jesus spoke in the synagogue of Capernaum. It was a place of quiet, to read the Word of God, and to pray. Jesus simply spoke. That is the power of his wor...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation to High School boys at Ernescliff College in Toronto on January 27, 2024. It is a commentary of Gospel of Mark 4:35-41 about Jesus calming the storm from the boat of Peter. He mentions how we may have dark storms in our life, but we must confide in God's providence, who is always present next to us, even if he seems to be asleep.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Kintore College, Toronto on the Feast of Saint Francis de Sales, and the memorial of Our Lady of Peace, the advocation for the Prelatic Church of Opus Dei in Rome. This is where St. Josemaria rests, beneath the main altar. Peace can be sewn in our soul through ongoing formation. St. Francis de Sales excelled at this in a time of upheaval in Europe, duri...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this Introduction to a retreat for High School Boys at Cedarcrest Conference Centre, north of Toronto, January 20, 2024. Saint Fabian and St. Sebastian. Two early Christian martyrs. Luke 5, 12-16: The story of the leper. He lived in isolation, cut off from normal contact with others. Unable to interact normally. Looked down upon because of his contagion. He was forced to...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Kintore College in Toronto, on January 18, ant the start of the Octave of prayer for Christian unity. Mark 3:7-12: Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him. From Judaea, Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordania and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him. And...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation to a group of priests in Toronto, on January 16, 2024. Like brother Lawrence's experience in the 17th century, he saw a tree in the winter, and it was just branches, without leaves or flowers. But upon looking at it, he received the grace to realize that within just a few months that tree would be totally in bloom. This gave him a deep view of the prov...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on retreat at the Manoir de Beaujeu, west of Montreal, on December 28, 2023. Today the Holy Innocents. The priest’s vestments are red, the color of martyrs, in memory of those Innocents who gave testimony to Christ, as the opening prayer says non loquendo sed moriendo , not by speaking but by dying, as first fruits for God and the Lamb. The children die wi...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation to families at Kintore College in Toronto, on December 22, 2023. But today we get the explosion of joy in her Magnificat: Hearing such praise from her cousin, Our Lady replied with words which have become that most beautiful hymn of jubilation: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour .  Magníficat ánima méa Dóminum . It is such...

Mary went with haste, and did not procrastinate. Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on December 20, 2023 at Hawthorn School for Girls in Toronto. Luke 1:39-56: Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. What is the real meaning of that haste. How do we apply it to our life when focused on God&#...

A corrected version of the meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Dec 7, 2023. Matt 7, 24-27: Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock. Music: Carlos Gardel, Soledad, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink. Thumbnail: Eugene Burnand, House on Rock, 1890s.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation to a group of young men at Ernescliff College in Toronto, on December 9, 2023. The Gospel of Mark 10, 17-31 tells the account of the young man who presented himself to Jesus and asked what he must do to obtain eternal life. A challenging exchange ensued. To dig into this, we must have a deep understanding of what a vocation is. Here's one definition: &...

We have just begun today the novena to the Immaculate Conception. It starts with the feast of St. Andrew, the brother of Peter. The two became the most effective apostles ever, and they remained faithful to the end, both of them dying by crucifixion. Peter in Rome, Andrew in Greece. The novena has this tone of apostolic zeal. This sense of fervour that we want to be faithful apostles, and truly ev...

St. Josemaria had a magnanimous soul, he drew beauty, and great dreams of ambition to sanctity out of others. What is our greatest ambition? He said: The greatest ambition of the children of God in Opus Dei . . . must always be to serve. Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation in Ernescliff College, Toronto, on the eve of the Solemnity of Christ the King. Music: Lauda Jerusalem (Psalm 147) - Cho...

Yesterday we had the passage from Luke about the blind man who is healed by Jesus also in Jerico. From Matthew we know the blind man’s name, Bartimaeus. Today Luke 19 tells us about another man, also in Jerico, but on the opposite side of the social spectrum. Not a poor blind man without power, money or standing. But a publican, a tax collector who worked for the Roman occupation, and his named is...

Today's reading is from Luke 18:35-43, about the blind man of Jerico, healed by Jesus. This passage lends itself to our prayer, because we can easily conjure up the image, the sounds, the atmosphere, the smells, that the blind man was experiencing. We weren’t there, and we too are blind, in a way. And he reacted. Saint Josemaria has a long commentary on this passage in Friends of God , from a...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached today November 11: at the 11th hour, the 11th day, the 11th month in 1918, the bugle sounded to announce the ceasing of all hostilities. Today we remember the fallen. Now Poppy is emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem "In Flanders Fields" written by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae.  In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, r...

After the 313 edict of Emperor Constantine which conceded to Christians the freedom to practice their religion, Pope Silvester dedicated the Basilica of St. John the Lateran as the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome. It was dedicated in 324. What does this mean to us today? Fr. Eric Nicolai gives a brief explanation at Kintore College, Toronto, on November 9, 2023. Music: Julia Florida played Bert Al...

Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches in Kintore College from today's Gospel: Luke 14, 25-33: ‘And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers would all start making fun of him and saying, “Here is a man who s...

Psalm 127: Nisi Dominus aedificaverit domum, in vanum laboraverunt, qui aedificant eam. Nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem, frustra vigilat, qui custodit eam. Psalm 127: Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toi...

Letter from the Prelate of Opus Dei, February 2023: 7. Understanding also has a close relationship with the extraordinarily important reality of forgiveness: both asking for forgiveness and forgiving. In April 1974, our Father told us that “the most divine reality in our life as Christians, as children of God in Opus Dei, is to forgive those who have hurt us.” And then he added, with great simplic...

It pains us to see such hatred exploding now in the world, from the divisons in politics, the screams, the demonstrations, the protests, and the denunciations. Women against men, left against right, liberal against conservative. The divisions go on. We are not really in a position to offer political solutions. People have been trying for years. But as Christians, we can seek to refresh and stabili...

St. Luke, evangelist and apostle, responsible for the Gospel and for Acts of Apostles. A native of Antioch in Syria and a physician, and one of the early converts from paganism . He accompanied St. Paul on a considerable part of his missionary journey. He was also his companion while in prison at Rome. He was in the thick of it. He saw the growth of the Church. He saw the drama. But he remained fa...

Matthew 22:1-14: The King who sought to invite people to the wedding feast of his son, but nobody would come. What is to be done? There is nothing for it but to send out into the streets and lanes of the city, the highways and hedges of the countryside, and bring in the poor, the lame, the halt, and the blind, and fill up the vacant seats with guests less favoured, guests who cannot afford to refu...

Luke 11:15-26: Today’s Gospel has words of Jesus speaking about the devil, and the attempts of demons to overtake us. But if the devil is divided, he falls apart. Unity in the church is what keeps it together. Grace also gives unity to our soul. St. Therese of Lisieux recounts how one of her earliest memory was that of a dream. She saw the fiery looks of two devils staring at her in the garden at...

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on October 9, 2023 at Ernescliff College in Toronto. Psalm 116, 12-13 sings: What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. What a question. What can I render to the Lord, for all that he has really given me? For all he has done? The psalmist feels indebted to God and he res...