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.
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You Hypocrites! The Urgency of Unity of Life
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.
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I Have Come to Cast Fire to the Earth
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.
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The Apostles Believed in Ghosts
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.
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I'm Dazzled, Lord
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.
Meditations by Fr. Eric Nicolai, a Catholic priest of Opus Dei in Ernescliff College, Toronto. They are times of prayer addressed to men or women, with the intention of providing a personal dialogue with the Lord Jesus Christ present in their midst. They are usually preached in oratories of Opus Dei.
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