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 refuse such generosity. Those people are us, and we have been invited, despite our poverty. Fr. Eric Nic...
Oct 18, 2023•29 min
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 Alencon. But her gaze made them scamper away. She said the devil is a coward, and he flees from the ...
Oct 14, 2023•29 min
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 resolves to repay him by an act of worship. Regardless of what we do and think today, somewhere there h...
Oct 09, 2023•29 min
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft centre, Toronto, on October 7, 2023. Way 267: We've got to be convinced that God is always near us. We live as though he were far away, in the heavens high above, and we forget that he is also continually by our side. We are sons with a vision because we work in the world that is his world, created by him. Like Henri Nouwen’s account of the prodigal son, based on the Rembrandt painting from 1669, two years before his death....
Oct 08, 2023•26 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches in Ernescliff College of the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, September 29, 2023. It is a special day in the archdiocese of Toronto, dedicated to St. Michael the archangel, thanks to Bishop Michael Powers who came from Montreal in 1842 . In October of 1932 Saint Josemaría made a retreat at the Carmelite convent in Segovia. There he received the inspiration to structure the apostolates of Opus Dei into three works, each under the patronage of an arch...
Sep 29, 2023•31 min
Matthew 25:14-30. The Parable of the talents. The man going abroad. The servants with different talents. The one with one talents digs a hole in the ground. To the others he says good, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. priests on the need to have an adventuresome spirit regarding the gifts we have received.
Sep 28, 2023•30 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Cedarcrest Conference Center north of Toronto on September 17, 2023. The focus is some notes of Saint Josemaria Escriva from 1932 in which he writes down a conversation with his spiritual director, Fr. Sanchez who spoke to him about listening to the Holy Spirit. "Don't speak, just listen." Music: Waltz No 1 from Op 121 by Ferdinando Carulli Played by Cristian Garcia.
Sep 19, 2023•26 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai gives this meditation to High School boys that are part of the OneUp program of Ernescliff College. It was preached on September 9, 2023. Luke 5:17-26 The account of the paralytic lower down the roof by his friends. The Lord was moved by their faith. They asked him for the healing of another. Not simply for themselves. A group of friends that ask for their friend. Who took the initiative? My sense is that one loved him especially, and had more faith, and then he led others along...
Sep 11, 2023•22 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai welcomes the staff at Hawthorn School (Toronto) to a new academic year, with an appeal to embrace the new challenges with magnanimity and humble joy. St. Peter was called the rock by Jesus, even though he was often emotional and unstable. But with God's grace he became the support that others needed. Music: Waltz No 1 from Op 121 by Ferdinando Carulli Played by Cristian Garcia. Thumbnail: Jimmy Stewart from the movie, Its a Wonderful Life (1946).
Sep 08, 2023•28 min
A meditation preached deep in the Ontario woods to counsellors at Camp Caribou on a lake near Barry's Bay, August 25, 2023. It is based on the three commandments of love mentioned in th Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 22:34-40: When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question, ‘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, an...
Aug 30, 2023•26 min
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai early in the morning in the woods at Camp Caribou for Boys, on August 23, 2023. The camp is located near Barry's Bay in Ontario. You can see the filmed version here: https://youtu.be/aUJSaYEuSdM?si=WoTHCscs5wlq9zMV
Aug 26, 2023•29 min
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai in a parish in Fort Alexander, Manitoba on August 7 2023. There are traces of subtle humour in the Gospel. There is a touching moment when the Lord heals the blind man, somewhat gradually, testing him like a doctor might. Matt 8, 22-36 Do you see anything? Looking up, the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking”. Trees walking? What did he actually see? Music: Bert Alink, guitar arrangement, Mossy Garden. Thumbnail: Rembrandt, "Jesus He...
Aug 21, 2023•24 min
Mt 13:1-9: “A sower went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thi...
Jul 20, 2023•29 min
A meditation preached at Kintore College by Fr. Eric Nicolai on July 17, 2023. Matthew 10:34–11:1: Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set/ a man against his father,/a daughter against her mother,/ and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;/ and one’s enemies will be those of his household. We think of the Lord as the king of peace. Peace on earth and goodwill to men. He h...
Jul 18, 2023•26 min
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto in July 2023. It's all about the details of the parable of the sower who went out to sow. Matthew tells us: “ The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in yo...
Jul 12, 2023•29 min
A meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai on rest, preached at Lyncroft centre, Toronto, on July 2, 2023. Mark 6, 30-32: "The apostles came back to Jesus. They told him all they had done and taught. Jesus said to them, `Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.' Many people were coming and going. They could not even eat. So they went away in a boat to a lonely place by themselves." This articulates the promise of Jesus. Matt 11, 28: “Come to me all you who are weary and I ...
Jul 02, 2023•29 min
Homily at the funeral of Fr. Joe Escribano who was among the original pillars of Opus Dei in Canada from 1959. It was preached in French and English by Fr. André Blais at St. George Parish in Ottawa. https://opusdei.org/en-ca/article/father-joseph-escribano-1933-2023-a-pillar-for-the-beginnings-of-opus-dei-in-canada/
Jun 30, 2023•28 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on June 26, 2023 at Kintore College in Toronto. We know that Saint Josemaría Escrivá died in 1975: after stepping out of that elevator, looking at an image of our Lady, and at that moment he had accomplished his mission here on earth. Going up the elevator was like the first step towards heaven. Days after his passing, Don Alvaro had to gear himself up for what was coming, and he wrote a long letter to all of us: Nuestro padre en el Cielo . Our Father in...
Jun 28, 2023•32 min
In the first half the 1940s, the number of people in Opus Dei started really increasing, and there were great pastoral needs. This is an account of the first priests of Opus Dei and how they came to be ordained. They were Alvaro del Portillo, Josemaria Hernandez de Garnica, and Jose Luis Muzquiz, ordained by Msgr. Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, the Archbishop of Madrid, in 1944. In this meditation preached on June 25, 2023, Fr. Eric Nicolai takes us through the history of these moments in Spain in the 4...
Jun 25, 2023•29 min
The Solemnity of John the Baptist, the Precursor. A meditation preached in Lyncroft Centre, Toronto, by Fr. Eric Nicolai on June 24, 2023. Lk 1, 57-66: The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy. (...) All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was with h...
Jun 24, 2023•28 min
Mark 12, 14-17: Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay, yes or no?’ Seeing through their hypocrisy he said to them, ‘Why do you set this trap for me? Hand me a denarius and let me see it.’ They handed him one and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose name?’ ‘Caesar’s’ they told him. Jesus said to them, ‘Give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.’ This reply took them completely by surprise. In response to this trap, set between the pharisee...
Jun 08, 2023•29 min
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai, June 2, 2023 in Ernescliff College, Toronto. The account of Jesus cleansing the temple. Mark 11, 11-26: So they reached Jerusalem and he went into the Temple and began driving out those who were selling and buying there; he upset the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those who were selling pigeons. Nor would he allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple. And he taught them and said, ‘Does not scripture say: My house will be called a ...
Jun 03, 2023•29 min
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 with haste. She goes with haste. There is a sense of responsibility here. She knows and understands her mission. Her purpose. It has been said that after the consultation with the angel, she found her mission, her role in the theo-drama. She had pledged to accomplish it, and was excited. The ego-drama is the play that I’m writing, I’m producing, I’m directing, and I’m starring in. God tap...
May 31, 2023•25 min
Acts of the Apostles 2, 1-11. "When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together." Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches to a group of High School students at Ernescliff College in Toronto. On Pentecost the Church was born in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit promised by Jesus descended on the apostles and disciples. Cardinal John Henry Newman reminds us that the Holy Spirit gives life to everything, and He turns “sinners into saints”. Music: The Meeting of the Waters Arranged and play...
May 28, 2023•20 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches at Lancemore Centre on May 22, 2023. St. Augustine speaks about the overshadowing of Mary: At that moment, the Holy Spirit, who had already possessed Mary’s soul from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception, came upon her with such exceptional plenitude that He formed within her the sacred Body of Jesus. Justly, therefore, does Mary deserve the name of Spouse of the Holy Spirit: she is His possession, His sanctuary, His temple....
May 23, 2023•27 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Lyncroft Centre on Ascension Sunday, May 21 2023. Ascension is traditionally celebrated 40 days after after Easter Sunday. So he was with them for 40 days, in and out, instructing. That’s why it falls on Thursday after the 7th Sunday of Easter. Early Fathers of the church celebrated it on Thursday. It was know to be a great feast. This now is the hour that the lord spoke about. All four Gospels, presuppose that the period of the risen Lord’s appearanc...
May 22, 2023•29 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches a meditation in Kintore College on May 13, 2023. We are unique with are own personal stories. Yet we have a lot in common, a series of bonds that holds us together with a common vocation, a common faith in which we are united. There is real communion among us, we are not isolated verses. Compendium: 194. What is the meaning of the “communion of saints”? This expression indicates first of all the common sharing of all the members of the Church in holy things (sancta): th...
May 16, 2023•29 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches to Lyncroft Centre in Toronto on May 6, 2023. We can ask him to stir up the fire of our faith. Put little twigs and branches into the fire. The best twigs to get that faith raging is the devotion to our mother, as Mother of God. It may be small now, but little aspirations, glances at images of our Lady are there to awaken something within us. Josemaria would as to “Stir up that fire of faith. Christ is not a figure that has passed. He is not a memory that is lost in his...
May 10, 2023•29 min
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, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said: ‘I am the Way, the...
May 09, 2023•28 min
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 guitar by Bert Alink. For more meditations, check my channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/EricNicolai/v...
May 04, 2023•27 min
