Today Pope Benedict XVI turns 94. He was baptized on the very day that he was born. Re-born in the Holy Spirit. He affirmed in 2012 that he could say that life is good: "It becomes a true gift only if, along with it, we are given a promise that is stronger than any evil that could threaten us, if it is immersed in a power that ensures that it is good to be human, that there will be good for this person no matter what the future brings. Thus, with birth is associated rebirth, the certitude that, ...
Apr 16, 2021•26 min
In this meditation, Fr. Eric Nicolai speaks about the account of Christ washing the disciples feet, in which John says he loved them to the end (Jn 13:1). What does this mean? What do we mean by unconditional love? Do I really love even if I’ve lost feelings? Preached on April 9, 2021. #opusdei www.ernescliff.ca www.opusdei.ca https://www.lyncroft.ca Thumbnail: Jacopo Tintoretto. Christ Washing His Disciples' Feet , c. 1545-1555. Oil on canvas, 154.9 × 407.7 cm. Gift by general subscription, 195...
Apr 09, 2021•26 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches Easter Sunday at Lyncroft Centre. Yesterday we talked about the dark, materialistic dialectic of poets like Bertold Brecht and philosophers like Nietzsche, who said God is dead. We killed him. Very dire and sad visions. But now we have come out of that dark night. Against this background I think we can hear the message of Easter in a new way. Christ is risen! There is justice for the world! There is complete justice for all, which is able retroactively to make good all ...
Apr 04, 2021•31 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches a meditation at Lyncroft hospitality centre in Toronto. It is Holy Thursday, so he touches on the three great mysteries commemorated today: The priesthood, the Holy Eucharist, and the Commandment of Love. Music: J.S. Bach, "Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229. Thumbnail: Albrecht Durer, Engraving of the washing of the feet, 1510. Detroit Institute of Arts Museum. https://www.dia.org/art/collection/object/last-supper-43117 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn8BmK4a9nqgLi0kGWJieug...
Apr 02, 2021•28 min
A meditation at Kintore College, Toronto by Fr. Eric Nicolai on March 29, 2021. St. John the Evangelist gives us the account of Jesus' arrival at Bethany with Lazarus, Mary and Martha. He felt at home. Mary took this alabaster jar and broke it open. She did not carefully pry open the vessel, and simply offer a few drops. She was not stingy. She did not hold back. She did not keep any for herself, or for a future occasion. She gave it all. She is an example of generosity, magnanimity, and magnifi...
Mar 30, 2021•30 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches at Lyncroft centre. This is March 28, and coincides with the anniversary of the priestly ordination of Saint Josemaria Escriva in 1925. He recounts the symbols used today, Palm Sunday, and makes references to the moments leading up to Josemaria’s ordination. Thumbnail: The Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem by Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin (1842-1845). Located in the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris. Music: J.S. Bach, "Komm, Jesu, komm", BWV 229. https://musopen.org...
Mar 28, 2021•30 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches on the eve of Palm Sunday (March 27, 2021), inviting us to be enamoured with the figure of Christ and to meditate his passion and death this week. It can help us be men and women of real integrity. Music: J.S. Bach, "Komm, Jesu, komm", BWV 229. https://musopen.org Thumbnail: Bartolomé Murillo, Ecce homo, (17th century) private collection, Sothebys.
Mar 27, 2021•26 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches at Lyncroft centre on the eve of the fifth Sunday of Lent, and invites us along the lenten pathway, interiorizing the mystery of the cross. It can help us to grow in penance and mortification. Music: Adrian Berenguer, Fall (Album Multiplicity, 2017)
Mar 22, 2021•25 min
Meditation in Ernescliff College by Fr. Eric Nicolai, priest of Opus Dei, March 13, 2021/ There are punishments in the Bible, like the flood, the plagues, and they always have a pedagogical purpose. Like the serpents that bit people in the dessert, God told Moses to fashion a bronze serpent so that people could gaze on it and be cured. So the son of man would be lifted up on the earth, s that we would. gaze on him and be cured. Pope Francis said that the painful things we experience are painful,...
Mar 16, 2021•31 min
On March 13, 2013, Pope Francis was elected as the 266th successor of St. Peter, not so he could shine, and outdo everyone, but so that he could serve as Bishop of Rome, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, vicar of Christ, servant of the servants of God. What a responsibility. He is the visible foundation and source of unity, and as pastor of the entire Catholic Church. Cardinal Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, said that each new Pope is like a gift for the church, but that is slowly unwrapped,...
Mar 14, 2021•24 min
On March 6, 2021, Pope Francis had an inter-religious ceremony with leaders of Jews, Muslims, and representatives of other religions at Ur , the birthplace of Abraham, the common father of these religions. He is on a small stage, blown in the dry winds, surrounded by a stark desert where Abraham came from. They’ve laid out a wide red carpet in the audience. Everyone is separated. There is a small stage. A large screen. It is all centred around the covenant that God made with Abraham at Ur in Gen...
Mar 07, 2021•30 min
When we hear the words of Jesus who says Blessed are the poor in spirit , for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5). in Latin as beati pauperes spiritu. Joseph was poor, but he was not among the poorest of society of the time. He was not among the totally abandoned, bedraggled, homeless, that lived from hand to mouth. These would have been in the lowest class of society. The Lord gave them hope, some consolation. But Joseph had a trade. He was an expert, and worked for a living, as did so ma...
Mar 06, 2021•30 min
Readings for Thursday of the First week of Lent Book of Esther 12, 14-16, 23-25 Psalm 138 Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me Matthew 7, 7-12: Everyone who asks, receives. A homily by Fr. Eric Nicolai in a streamed Mass from Ernescliff College, Toronto. Music: Adrian Berenguer, Fall (Singularity 2017)
Feb 25, 2021•11 min
St. Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947) was from Sudan, she was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000. She was sold as a slave and beaten frequently, but eventually she found her way to Venice where she discovered a new master, kind and forgiving, Christ, the true "paron", the "master" who knew her and loved her. She was able to make her scars into an opportunity to love. Today we call this reframing. Optimal work website about reframing: https://www.optimalwork.com See Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical...
Feb 24, 2021•33 min
The Beatitudes Matt 5, 1-12: Today we want to enter and look at the foundations of our faith. What kind of woman does God want you to be? Let us go back to that hill, that mount, that grassy slope where our Lord stood, and transmitted to us what we have to be through the paradoxes of the beatitudes. The most noble words, the most magnetic and powerful words that our Lord proposed to these massive crowds on the hills of Judea were the beatitudes. They are made up of beautiful ideals, yet at the s...
Feb 23, 2021•27 min
This month we celebrate February 14, the founding of the women’s branch of Opus Dei in 1930 and Priestly Society of the Holy Cross in 1943. The priestly society is an association for diocesan priests attached to Opus Dei. We celebrate this day as a feast of our Lady, Mater Pulchrae Dilectionis , Mother of Fair Love. So what does this invocation mean? How can we deepen our understanding today of this? Fair love. Pulchrae. Beauty. Purity. It is at the beginning of this book of wisdom literature, w...
Feb 21, 2021•31 min
Today, January 31, 2021, we start the seven Sundays of St. Joseph, that just and upright man that God entrusted Mary and Jesus to. We do this in the Year of St. Joseph. We meditate on the joys and sorrows of St. Joseph. Like when he saw Mary pregnant. He was going to divorce her privately to make it look like he was the problem. It was a difficult decision, but then he went to sleep. That’s when God spoke to him. He went from a great sorrow, to a great joy. Pope Francis has a statue of the sleep...
Jan 31, 2021•30 min
Mark 4, 35-41: The account of the storm at sea. The whole time, during this storm, the Lord was asleep. Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said Be quiet! Be still…. The Holy Father Pope Francis used this account last year when the pandemic broke out and we saw the first signs of death and lockdown all around us in March of 2020. It seems as though the Lord was asleep. Some people are good, have faith, go to Mass, receive plenty of formation, but ...
Jan 30, 2021•24 min
Lk 14, 28: ”Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? Jesus said we are building tower. The daily building of that tower is also in our use of time. He says this to show that if mere human prudence means that a person should try to work out in advance the risks he may run, with all the more reason should a Christian embrace the Cross voluntarily and generously, because there is no other way he can fol...
Jan 28, 2021•30 min
January 23 is the anniversary of the election of the Prelate of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz which took place in Rome in 2017. He was elected, meaning chosen by his confreres. Simple ceremony. No big sudden changes. There is unity and continuity. Some changes that are really only cosmetic, that are changes with the times, and with the desire of the pope. He does not go and simply reverse everything his predecessor did. We are also in the Octave of Christian Unity. Jesus prayed for the unity a...
Jan 23, 2021•25 min
Today Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches about the first reading from the Second Sunday of ordinary time, the account of Samuel’s vocation (1 Sam 3, 3-10, 19.) We start with the back story of Hannah, who was childless. She went to Shiloh, to the temple. She prayed ardently. The priest there was Eli, who was pretty flaky, and he in turn had two sons who also became priests, and they were Hophni and Phinehas. They were corrupt, and immoral. In fact the book of Samuel itself says that they were “ scoundrels...
Jan 17, 2021•30 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches about the empathy of Jesus, how he saw in the depth of the soul. Matt 9, 35-36: Our Lord began to go to the towns and villages preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and curing the sick and the afflicted ... There two attitudes of the Lord that we too must have: empathy and urgency, both seem to fit together in a unique puzzle that gives us the loving face of Jesus. Music: Adrian Berenguer, FAll, album Singularity (2017) Thumbnail: Raphael, Miraculous draught of fishes (15...
Jan 13, 2021•31 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai gives one of the first meditations at a retreat at Ernescliff College, Dec 26, 2020. This is on the mystery of vocation. God chooses and calls everyone: He chose us in Christ, that we should be holy and blameless in his presence through love (Eph 1:4). He chose Abraham in Christ. He chose Sarai his wife. He chose Jacob, changed his very name to Israel, and then saved Moses from sure destruction, and chose him to lead his people. He chose David. He chose Jeremiah, and Ezekial, an...
Dec 28, 2020•31 min
Preached Christmas Eve at Kintore College: Psalm 88: 2-5: I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord. I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord; through all ages my mouth will proclaim your truth. Of this I am sure, that your love lasts for ever, that your truth is firmly established as the heavens. This is from this evening’s responsorial psalm. A beautiful exultation of who we will give praise through hymns and songs when we adore God. Isn’t it wonderful how Christmas is known for carolling, fo...
Dec 25, 2020•25 min
A frequent subject of 19th century paints was the land. There was a movement that came to be known as the Barbison school. Painters went out and painted it right there in the fields and along the forests. One subject that has always appealed to me is the sower who sows his seed. Jean-Francois Millet had a wonderful genre painting of this which he repeated over and over in between 1850 to 1870. It expressed profound personal conviction that he had to be a real sower of peace and of joy . Thumbnai...
Dec 19, 2020•31 min
What does the word advent even mean? It comes from the Greek word parousia, which means presence, or arrival. Advent means the arrival of the Lord that has already begun but has only just begun. It has begun silently. John the Baptist ended up in prison. He was expecting Jesus to come with his winnowing chaff. Instead he came quietly, with only some miracles and healings. He sent his own disciples to ask Jesus if he was really the one. “God’s presence had begun... but what a difference from what...
Dec 12, 2020•22 min
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai in Lyncroft centre, Toronto, in the early morning of December 8, 2020. In his eternal design for his Son to become man, God also chose Mary as the Mother of the Word Incarnate. This plan had an essential effect both in the manner in which the Word would become flesh—the Word not only became man; he became the descendent of Adam—and on the form of Mary’s motherhood would take. Her's is a perfect and complete motherhood in all its aspects; in it the person...
Dec 08, 2020•29 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches in Lyncroft centre on December 5, 2020: Advent, time for a new conversion. How is that going to happen? In this recollection this is not som much like ascending to a hight mountain, but imagine now that your task is to clear the ground for the helicopter to land (got that image from Bishop Robert Barron). Like the Vietnam scenes in a Francis Ford Coppola, with the wind blowing as helicopters landing and the soldiers with the drill sergeants clearing the place for their ...
Dec 05, 2020•27 min
Today, November 28, is the anniversary of the Apostolic Constitution “Ut Sit” from 1982, in which Pope John Paul II establish Opus Dei as a Personal Prelature. It was the definitive canonical suit that Opus Dei needed in order to have that new energy in the mission of the church. Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches on this 38th anniversary in Lyncroft centre and explains its significance. Music: FALL - Adrian Berenguer (Album Singulairty) from Musopen.org
Nov 28, 2020•31 min
Catherine Labouré was a nun in the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity on Rue du Bac in Paris. On November 27th, 1830 Our Lady appeared to her and entrusted Catherine with the task of forging of the Miraculous Medal. The Virgin said that the medal would be a sign of love, a pledge of protection and source of grace for those who would trust in it. The Virgin herself showed Catherine what the medal should look like. This medal started being circulated in France. She really did everything she ...
Nov 27, 2020•25 min
