March 19, 2024 is the solemnity of St. Joseph, the foster Father of Jesus. On this occasion, Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation to Ernescliff College, Toronto. Today we go from the Trinity on earth, Mary, Jesus and Joseph, to the Trinity of heaven, Father, son and Holy Spirit. Matt 1, 20: But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from...
Mar 19, 2024•30 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ernescliff College on March 13, 2024. John 5:17-30: Jesus said to the Jews, ‘My Father goes on working, and so do I.’ But that only made them even more intent on killing him, because, not content with breaking the sabbath, he spoke of God as his own Father, and so made himself God’s equal. He gives signs of his divinity, indicating that his actions are the work of the Father. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger commented this passage in 2002 on the occasion of ...
Mar 13, 2024•24 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ernescliff College, Toronto on March 10, 2024. We started Lent with the figure of the devil tempting Jesus in the desert. First , this is an opportunity today to ask for conversion. Like the 40 years of the Jews in the desert, or 40 days of Moses on the Mountain, or Elijah 40 days too. It must lead to conversion, we can’t just roll on and on and stay the same person without real change, without deep conversion. That is the first goal, but ultimately w...
Mar 10, 2024•30 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation to a group of priests at the Manoir de Beaujeu, near Montreal on February 27, 2024. In one of his letters, St. Paul reflects his deep solicitude and his joy at seeing and experiencing the growth of the faith in the Ephesians. It moves him to thanksgiving and prayer. Eph 1, 15-20: For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayer...
Mar 05, 2024•31 min
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto, on the Feast of the Chair of Peter, February 22, 2204. Today’s feast is like the result of the prayer of Jesus, or better, the testimony that Jesus gave of his own prayer to the Father for Peter: “ The Lord says to Simon Peter: I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and, once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. ” (Lk 22, 32) That prayer was immensely efficacious. How could it not? God the Son, address...
Feb 23, 2024•20 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation to a group of diocesan priests at the Manoir de Beaujeu, near Montreal, on February 1, 2024. 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’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they...
Feb 23, 2024•32 min
Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on February 9, 2024 at Kintore College in Toronto. Base on the gaze of Jesus on the crowds. Mark 8, 1-10: A great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat. So Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them, ‘ I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. If I send them off home hungry they will collapse on the way; some have come a great distance.’ Here we see his mercy for the crowd. Mer...
Feb 11, 2024•28 min
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto. Matt 5, 13-16: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world." And he warned us of losing our tastiness, our virtue of bringing out the good, the winder, the humour of life. Or even the spice. The Nunc dimittis prayer by the aged Simeon can open our hope to being that light. (Lk 2, 25-32) Music: Adrift among the infinite stars by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com Thumbnail: Sime...
Feb 04, 2024•30 min
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 word. Just like with his word he could create the heavens and the earth. No need for special incantatio...
Feb 02, 2024•24 min
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.
Jan 27, 2024•28 min
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, during the 16th and 17th century. Music: Adrift among the infinite stars by Scott Buckley - released und...
Jan 25, 2024•26 min
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 do weird things, like wear bells, and holler out warnings to others, unclean, unclean…Many thought h...
Jan 23, 2024•26 min
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 he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being cr...
Jan 19, 2024•21 min
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 providence of God which would never be faced from his soul. Formation is “self-cultivation” . This is like i...
Jan 17, 2024•31 min
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 without knowing what is happening; mothers see their innocent lives cut short without knowing why. The...
Dec 28, 2023•30 min
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 a rich canticle about God’s intervention in her life, that the Church mandates all priests to recite...
Dec 23, 2023•27 min
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's will? Music: Adrift among the infinite stars, Scott Buckley, chosic.com...
Dec 21, 2023•31 min
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.
Dec 16, 2023•14 min
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: "The vocation is the providential thought of the Creator for each creature, it is his idea-plan, like a d...
Dec 09, 2023•30 min
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 evangelize. Bring souls to Christ. Today it starts with the most iconic phrase from Jesus: I will make...
Dec 01, 2023•17 min
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) - Choir of Blessed Pier Giorgio – Aumônerie de Nantes Thumbnail: Mihail Alivizakis Icon painter....
Nov 26, 2023•29 min
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 Zacchaeus. Both could not see Jesus: Bartimaeus because he was blind, Zacchaeus because he was too ...
Nov 23, 2023•31 min
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 meditation he preached on October 12, 1947. How do I really read the Word of God, Holy Scripture, to its...
Nov 20, 2023•29 min
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, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns...
Nov 12, 2023•19 min
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 Alink. Thumbnail: Basilica of St. John the Lateran, from Catholic News Report....
Nov 10, 2023•16 min
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 started to build and was unable to finish.” We are building a tower in this life. It must be well-built t...
Nov 08, 2023•30 min
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 toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. We must build on the solid foundations of interior life for us...
Nov 02, 2023•24 min
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 simplicity: “I have not needed to learn to forgive, because our Lord has taught me how to love.” this medit...
Oct 31, 2023•30 min
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 stabilize how we ourselves live out the New Commandment that our Lord gave us. Our Lord foresaw that there ...
Oct 20, 2023•32 min
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 faithful because he had converted to Christ. It had deep roots in his soul. Luke's Gospel is, above al...
Oct 20, 2023•32 min
