This meditation was preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Roseaire Conference Center in Delray Beach, Florida, on September 3, 2025.

At the beginning of this annual course, we experience a feeling of appreciation, a sense of indebtedness and gratitude because God has wanted us here for something good. He has wanted something from my life. He wants all my heart, all my soul, all my mind.

Like Gregory the Great (+603), today's memorial, we want to come out of this truly revamped and renewed. Give thanks because we will be filled with a new oil change, high standard oil, a time to reinvigorate our strength, time to rest, time to live fraternity and to be with Our Lord.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation outside in the woods on the memorial of the beheading of John the Baptist at Camp Caribou near Barry's Bay on August 29, 2025.

 The church celebrates both his birth and his death. The to the death prelude is important: Mark 6, 14-16:  King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.” Others said, “He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.”  But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”

Then comes the flashback that explains this. Not all give their lives in martyrdom, but all saints were faithful to the end. We too, are part of that long chain of fidelity.

A meditation preached in the woods by Fr. Eric Nicolai at camp Caribou near Barry's Bay, Ontario.

Matt 23: 13-22: Jesus said: ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who shut up the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to go in who want to.

And the one most demanding statement from our Lord, the most uncompromising , harsh, forceful, consequential, indomitable, is the truth is about hypocrisy.

It must be counteracted by unity of life.

Thumbnail: Screen grab from the movie, The Godfather.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on August 17, 2025 at Lyncroft centre in Toronto.

Luke 12:49: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!

Lord, you have come to cast something in my life. What is this fire?

You want my life to show the fire of love.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

A meditation preached in the rectory of the Cathedral of the archdiocese of St. Boniface, Manitoba, August 5, 2025.

The account of Jesus walking on the water (Matt 14, 22-36) frightened the apostles, as they thought that Jesus was maybe not real. He becomes all the more real now in the anniversary of the dedication of Saint Mary Major, established in 431 in honour of the council of Ephesus that stated that Mary was the mother of God. That meant he was a divine person, born of Mary, with a true human and divine nature. He was not a ghost.

A meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai in Lyncroft centre in Toronto, preached on August 2, 2025, on the invitation to contemplation. We start with the scene of the transfiguration on Mount Tabor, where Peter is so captivated that he says: It is good that we are here. (Mark 9, 5)

Domine, bonum est nos hic esse.

What is the light that we must see to be dazzled in our contemplation of the divine?

Music: Original track by Michael Lee of Toronto.

Thumbnail: Carl Heinrich Boch - Transfiguration of Jesus, 1872, Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark.

A meditation preached at Kintore College, an Opus Dei student residence in Toronto.

Matthew 13:44-46: Jesus said to the crowds: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off happy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.  ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls; when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.’

The treasure means abundance of gifts; the pearl indicates the beauty of the Kingdom. The treasure is something stumbled upon; the pearl, the result of a lengthy search; but in both instances the finder is filled with joy.

Music: Original track Michael Lee of Toronto

Thumbnail: The Famous Ardagh Chalice

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on July 25, 2025, the feast of St. James, at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto. Jesus called James and his brother John as they mended their nets on the Sea of Galilee. Their mother approached Jesus, asking that her sons be seated on either side of him in his kingdom. Jesus replied, “You do not know what you are asking.” Jesus turned to the brothers: “Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?” “We can,” they declared. James was, in fact, the first apostle to share in the cup of martyrdom, under Herod Agrippa around the year 44. Saint Josemaria loved that readiness to follow Jesus, to go all the way. He underlined their response, "Possumus". We can frame this in terms of our readiness and openness to be well formed: to have the piety of children and the doctrine of theologians.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Thumbnail: James the Apostle, detail of the mosaic in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, 6th century.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Hawthorn School for Girls in Toronto.

Matthew 13:1-9: A sower went out to sow. Jesus at the lakeside. The people all stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables. He said, ‘Imagine a sower going out to sow. As he sowed, some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on patches of rock where they found little soil and sprang up straight away, because there was no depth of earth; but as soon as the sun came up they were scorched and, not having any roots, they withered away. Others fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Listen, anyone who has ears!’

The beauty of the hundredfold sown in souls. The Lord seems to speak with urgency, and with joy at the thought that his grace can indeed be sown in souls who will give many fruits, hundredfold. We have the desire to be that good soil, to make for a large tree, where the birds of the air can rest.

The seed fell into a mystical soul of Saint Bridget of Sweden, that brought many visions, a deep contact with the infancy of Christ.

The seed fell iinto the souls of these great saints. But it can fall into our soul too.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Thumbnail: Nativity, by Gerard David, 1495, Vienna Art History Museum

A meditation preached at Lyncroft Centre, Toronto, on July 20, 2025.

In Genesis 18 we have the account of the appearance of the Lord to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre.  It is a wonderful account, in the heat of the day, with the cicada and the grasshoppers buzzing and the heat haze. Then we get a mirror image of this with the account of Bethany, and Jesus being treated, with his apostles by Martha and Mary. (Luke 10:38-42)

It's all about where we can contemplate God and serve him in our life. Framing our stresses, anxiety, our multiple tasks in the light of God's love.

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.

Thumbnail: Andrei Rublev Icon of Three Angels at Oaks of Mambre, 1410 in Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.