Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows at Roseaire Conference center in Delray Beach, Florida.

Stabat mater dolorósa
juxta Crucem lacrimósa,
dum pendébat Fílius.

At the Cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last

It is these tears and this sorrow that she embraced heroically today. But she did this as she co-redeemed with her son. Let us ask the light today to understand and deeply integrate in truth, what this all means for us, this start, this dolorosa, this lacrimosa. 

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai, at Roseaire Conference Centre in Delray Beach,Florida, September 13, 2025.

In his encyclical, Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI explained that hope can be performative not merely informative. Christian hope is not just knowledge or belief about the future. There is more:  There is dynamic power that changes how people live and act in the present. Hope does something. It can make us bold and daring in approaching apostolic challenges.

Music: Michel Lee, Toronto.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Roseaire conference Center in Delray Beach, Florida onSeptember 6, 2025.

Lk 6: 1-15: Today we have another dispute of the pharisees with Jesus about the way of living the Sabbath. Jesus has authority over the Sabbath, he is Lord of the sabbath. He wants us to live out this time of rest in a way that goes beyond mere external compliance. Is it possible that there could be more of that trust in God? Less preoccupation. More of an abandoned prayer, to a God who loves us dearly, who cares for us, who has a plan for us, and uses our weakness, our limitations for his plans?

Music: Michael Lee, Toronto

Thumbnail: Vincent Van Gogh, The Prayer, 1882.

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