Our Lord loves the poor: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Matt 11, 4-5)

Our Lord includes this among the great wonders: Poverty. How can we live this virtue of detachment as priests? We have the example of the conversion of Zacchaeus, who gave his money to the poor and restituted.

This is a meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to priests at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Stoney Creek, Ontario, on September 22, 2026.

Music: enrique27naveda-cancion-triste-by Luis Enrique Guerra Naveda Pixabay

Thumbnail: Jean Colcombe, From Vita Jesu Christi by Ludolf of Saxony, French (Bourges), c. 1475-1500, Paris, BNF, MS Francais 178, fol. 89v_2. From http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2016/10/zacchaeus-little-man-in-tree.html

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto, on September 16, 2026.

The Gospel tells us about the different reactions of the people to John the Baptist and to Jesus. He comments on the lack of coherence present in these responses. The impossibility of getting coherent responses in light of the lives of John and of Jesus.

“To what then shall I compare the people of this generation? … They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.’” (Lk 7:31–32)

Thumbnail: Eduard Manet, Young Flautist, or The Fifer, 1866, Musee D'Orsay, Paris.

Music: enrique27naveda-cancion-triste-by Luis Enrique Guerra Naveda Pixabay

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to priests at Saint Augustine Seminary in Toronto on September 15, 2026.

Today's feast of Our Lady of Sorrows has an ancient and layered liturgical background. It is said to have started with the ancient Franciscan spirituality that meditated on Mary’s sorrows. We know that St. Francis himself suffered the stigmata, reflecting his closeness to Mary, who suffered a spiritual stigmata. 

The Great Rood crucifix in Westminster Cathedral is the perfect image to contemplate across these two consecutive feasts: yesterday’s Exaltation of the Holy Cross and today’s feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. 

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ellerton Centre in Toronto on September 14, 2026, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Yesterday we decorated with flowers the simple black cross in our oratories so that we could see it bloom today.

The hymn of Philippians 2, 6-11: "...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. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Thumbnail: Cross with garlands of roses from Ernescliff oratory

Music: Audiio MULVEY_Awakening_Awakening_Instrumental

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to High School boys at Ernescliff College, Toronto, on September 12, 2026.

Last week we celebrated the birth of Mary, the dawn of our salvation. She is the stella matutina, the morning star. It is a time of hope, for the Sun of Justice is about to rise; today, 8 days later, the name of Mary, in line with the practice of the Jews who would impose the name on the child 8 days after birth. 

Thumbnail: Leonardo Da Vinci, Sketch of St. Anne with Mary and Christ child and St. John, 1503, Florence.

Music: Lifting Dreams - Aakash Gandhi Youtube free

A meditation preached at Ernescliff College in Toronto on September 8th, 2026, by Fr. Eric Nicolai.

Today is the birthday of Mary, she is described as the “dawn of our salvation”. The arrival of a new person into the world is always a sign of hope. Mary opens up new possibilities for us in this academic year, just beginning.

Thumbnail: The Nativity of the Virgin, painted around 1400–1405 by Andrea di Bartolo, a Sienese painter.  Today housed in the National Gallery in Washington.

Music: Audiio_MULVEY_Awakening_Awakening_Instrumental

This meditation was preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on September 5th, 2026, at Ellerton Centre in Toronto.

‘He withdrew to the wilderness and prayed’ (Lk 5:16)

What did it look like to see the Lord withdraw into the wilderness? It was described as wilderness, a wild place because it was hostile to man’s control; there were no houses or comforts there. But it was a time of silent unity with God the Father. How can we pray like that in silence? It is hard for our generation to sit there without the comfort of devices. But we know inherently that if we sit there, alone with God, away from our notifications or the reels that make us laugh, we will still deepen in something we deeply need. We will come out of our prayer refreshed, rewired for the mission.

Music: Audiio MULVEY Awakening Awakening Instrumental

Sound effects: 11325622-police-siren-sound-effect-240674 on Pixabay.

Nature sounds: Meditation forest sounds of birds singing relaxation - 4 minutes - Tim Irving.

Tweeting-bird-sounds orangefreesounds

Thumbnail: Ivan Kramskoy, Christ in the Wilderness, 1872 Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on September 1, 2026, at the start of the new Academic year at Hawthorn School for Girls in Toronto.

Picture Jesus now coming forward: “And there was handed to him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written…"

Then with a sure voice:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 61:1–2) from Luke 4:17.

God’s gracious “year”—a jubilee of mercy, liberation, healing and restoration. We are now at the beginning of the academic year. A new moment of hope for all of us. How will we frame this hope?

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ellerton Centre in Toronto on the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 30, 2026.

Jeremiah is in utter anguish. He feels that he has failed. He’s in doubt. Maybe he has no vocation after all. He's in an inner crisis. Despite all the suffering he has experienced, he manages to complain to God and abandon himself to his healing.

Jeremiah 20, 7-9: Seduxisti me, Domine, et seductus sum.

You enticed me Lord, you persuaded me; you duped me, I felt duped. You overcame my resistance to your call, your all-encompassing vocation, your mission you have imposed on me. You chose me because you picked me out, you saw me like a wounded stag, and you loved me.

Music: Lifting Dreams - Aakash Gandhi Youtube free

Thumbnail: Rembrandt, Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, 1630, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on August 17, 2026 at Parkhill Centre in Ottawa.

Prayer in our life is an essential part of our existence of sons of God. It gives our resilience, and our purpose going. It is like the engine room of our interior life.

In the Gospel, we have the Pharisees complaining about the company that Jesus kept. This prompted Jesus to reaffirm the truth of God’s mercy through the most iconic parables of the Gospel: The conversion of the prodigal son.

Music: 'Undertow' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com

Thumbnail: Rembrandt, The Conversion of the Prodigal Son, 1661.