In Your Presence

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