A meditation was preached at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto on March 30, 2025. The story of the Prodigal Son is a story of conversion, an account of the role that bonds have in our life, and how we must be more aware of them, and strengthen them.

Music: Regi Stone "How Can I tell You", Experience Music 2002, released 2015.

Thumbnail: Pompeo Batoni prodigal son (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

A meditation preached in Ernescliff College, Toronto, on March 28, 2025.

Its been 100 years since that day in which a young 23-year Josemaria Escriva was ordained to the priesthood in the Basilica of Our Lady of El Pilar in Zaragoza, Miguel de los Santos.  
There are things that we invite into our soul that leave us with a permanent imprint, a mark, an impression, like a long-lasting, expensive perfume that can become attractive to those around us. This is the story of the expansive grace of a man's ordination to the priesthood.

Thumbnail: Josemaría Escrivá

as a seminarian in Saragossa.

Music: Original track by Michael Lee of Toronto

Today is a solemnity, in which the exclusive focus is this intimate dialogue between a celestial creature, and the holiest woman ever created. Imagine the angel, see her bow in reverence, we hear her response, we image her fear, we sense concern, her slight confusion about her becoming mother, the reassuring response of the angel, his promise that ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God". That is shadow of the Holy Spirit. It was a reference to the to the shekinah. The holy of holies. (Exodus 13:21-22)

That power now we understand is by the coming of the Holy Spirit, and he notes emphatically: “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Lk 1:37).”

A meditation preached in Ernescliff College on March 25, 2025

Preached on March 21, 2025 at Kintore college in Toronto. What is the nature of penance and mortification during lent?

This is the most important of penance:To prepare the way so that Christ might actually live in us.

Augustine would say: A vessel must be empty if it is to be filled, and if we are to be filled with the life of God we must be utterly empty of self.

Music: Original track by Michael Lee of Toronto.

Thumbnail: Duccio, The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain, 1308-11, Frick Collection, New York.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft Centre, Toronto, on March 19, 2025. Joseph was in a state of emotional upheaval, until God told him in a dream what was happening with Mary. He knew what he had to do. He did not turn around in circles.

Joseph’s response was immediate: “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Mt 1:24). Obedience made it possible for him to surmount his difficulties and spare Mary.

The imagination has been called "The Crazy Woman of the House." How can Joseph intercede to help us put our imagination under better control?

Music: Original track by Michael Lee of Toronto

Thumbnail: Mosaic from St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to university students at Ernescliff College in Toronto on March 11, 2025.

Matt 5, 20: Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

He speaks of virtue that is not deep. Only surface depth. Merely appearance. Its a real challenge that the Lord offered us. He wants something deeper, a more authentic line from you and me.

Music: Original track of Michael Lee of Toronto, Ontario.

Thumbnail: J. Kirk Richards of the judgment of Christ by Pilate.

A meditation preached at Ernescliff College by Fr. Eric Nicolai on Sunday March 9, 2025.

Luke 4, 1: Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being tempted there by the devil for forty days.

We picture now led by the spirit, docile and at one with God’s plan. He is not resisting. As man, as the word incarnate, he is fulfilling his purpose, that now starts within moment of human detachment. 

Why does Jesus go to the desert? Why did he need to go out?

Music: Michael Lee of Toronto 

Thumbnail: Roualt, 1937

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto, on March 1, 2025.

Convertímini ad me in toto corde vestro, in ieiunio et fletu, et in planctu, dicit Dóminus. Turn to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning, says the Lord.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto on March 1, 2025.

The ancient hymn that I have heard you sing so beautifully right here is the Anima Christi, the soul of Christ.

O bone Jesu, exaudi me. Intra tua vulnera absconde me. Ne permittas me separari a te.

O good Jesus, hear me. Within your wounds conceal me. Do not permit me to be parted from you.

The wounds of Christ, a sign of the intensity of His love for us. They would not heal if he had not risen. What do they mean for us today?

Music: Original music by Michael Lee of Toronto.

Thumbnail: Caravaggio, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas 1601, Sanssouci Picture Gallery, Potsdam.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft centre in Toronto on February 23, 2025.

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. (Lk 6, 27)

They are jarring words, fighting words, discordant for our secularized society, but nevertheless, true and authentic divine words that seem to ask so much of us. They have been handed down to us over the centuries so that they be like the blueprint of our life.