A meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai preached at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, June 7 2025.

There is this incredible line in St. Paul in which he speaks of having the same sentiments that Christ Jesus had (cf. Phil 2:5).

“Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

To empty ourselves like Christ, we must step down from our throne of self-importance.

Music: Original track by Michael Lee of Toronto.

Mary was there at Pentecost, she was at the centre in the early community, so she plays her role in our life too. The Holy Spirit is like the active principle in our sanctification. Mary is called the spouse of the Holy Spirit: It was to her that the Holy Spirit went.

Johnny Nash sang that hit tune in 1972:

I can see clearly now the rain is gone

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

It's gonna be a bright, bright sun shiny day

He speaks about the pain is gone, bad feelings disappear, here is the rainbow I’ve been praying for.

He was praying to the Holy Spirit.

Music: Suspended In Amber WSR596 Unanswered Prayer

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto on May 28, 2025.

Jn 16, 12-15: Jesus said to his disciples: ‘I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come.

Music: Creg Riley Westarmusic. Suspended In Amber WSR596 Unanswered-Prayer_FULL_WSR59641

Thumbnail: Detail from Pentecost mosaic, Rosary Basilica in Lourdes, France.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ernescliff College on May 18, 2025. Upon entering the oratory, I notice the holy water font had a large artistically inscribed text just over the font itself, you can see it in large letters just as you dip your finger into the water: Domine, si vis, potes me mundare. Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean (Matt 8, 3). These are the beautiful words of a leper, who on his own initiative, elbowed his way through the crowd, he came up to Jesus and made this humble petition.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Thumbnail: Jean Marie Melchior Doze Jesus Healing the Leper, 1864, housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes, located in Nîmes, France

A funeral homily for Mr. Peter Rebello at the church of St. Clement in Toronto on May 20, 2025. Peter died from Leukemia on May 13, the feast of our Lady of Fatima. He was 77.

Music: Be not afraid by Bob Dufford with choir.org

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on May 18, 2025, at Lyncroft Center in Toronto.

The Lord took care to leave a deep impression on the disciples, the apostles, when he gave them the mandatum novum. (John 13)

It was like a special legacy that he wanted to leave behind. They remembered the words, his tone, but they especially remembered his gestures of tenderness and the warm tone of his voice when he knelt in front of them and washed their feet.

They never forgot that night. It stayed imprinted on their brain.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on a day of recollection in Ernescliff College on May 11, 2025.

I saw photos of Pope Leo XIV visiting Santa Maria Maggiore, praying in front of the Icon of Our Lady, Mother of God. She is showing us the child. She is showing us her son during the month of May when we have recourse to her.

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.

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 history.” Mary seems to stir up devotion in us. She awakens our faith and makes us strong.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Thumbnail: Icon of Mary in Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lancemore Centre in Toronto on May 11, 2025. We all must grow in fraternity. If the centres is like a garden, all the flowers need light, all need water. There is always somebody caring for the cleanliness, showing interest in people coming. Let us examine how we cultivate this special atmosphere around us.

Music: Regi Stone, All Heavens Declares. Straight Arrow records, 2003.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on April 27, 2025 at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto.

John 20, 21-23: After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive,they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’

He had to breathe on them to give them that power. The breath of the Holy Spirit, like a sweet aroma that touched them, that they breathed in, and somehow stayed in them as a supernatural power.

Music: Original track by Michael Lee of Toronto.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at St. Aidan's parish in Toronto, on April 22, 2025.

The nature of the Easter Octave is that it be filled with joy. This year it is mingled with a sorrow, and upheaval in which we feel orphaned, but also weighed down by the urgency of the moment. The Church really needs a shepherd. It needs its vicar. We are forlorn.

Dic nobis Maria, quid vidisti in via?
Tell us, Mary: say what thou didst see upon the way.

A big concern had been who would remove the stone. We must nurture the optimism that is proper to Easter, and maintain it all our life.