Episodes
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Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches in Ernescliff College of the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, September 29, 2023. It is a special day in the archdiocese of Toronto, dedicated to St. Michael the archangel, thanks to Bishop Michael Powers who came from Montreal in 1842.
In October of 1932 Saint JosemarĂa made a retreat at the Carmelite convent in Segovia. There he received the inspiration to structure the apostolates of Opus Dei into three works, each under the patronage of an archangel: the Work of St. Raphael, for the Christian formation of young people; the Work of St. Michael, for those who had received a calling to live celibacy in the midst of the world; and the Work of St. Gabriel, for married people.
Thumbnail: An angel, from the retable of Cedarcrest Conference Centre, painted by Jose Ochoa.
Music: Cathedral Music by Oleg Kirilkov from Pixabay.
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Matthew 25:14-30. The Parable of the talents.
The man going abroad. The servants with different talents. The one with one talents digs a hole in the ground. To the others he says good, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.
priests on the need to have an adventuresome spirit regarding the gifts we have received. -
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Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Cedarcrest Conference Center north of Toronto on September 17, 2023. The focus is some notes of Saint Josemaria Escriva from 1932 in which he writes down a conversation with his spiritual director, Fr. Sanchez who spoke to him about listening to the Holy Spirit. "Don't speak, just listen."
Music: Waltz No 1 from Op 121 by Ferdinando Carulli Played by Cristian Garcia.
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Fr. Eric Nicolai gives this meditation to High School boys that are part of the OneUp program of Ernescliff College. It was preached on September 9, 2023.
Luke 5:17-26 The account of the paralytic lower down the roof by his friends. The Lord was moved by their faith. They asked him for the healing of another. Not simply for themselves. A group of friends that ask for their friend. Who took the initiative?
My sense is that one loved him especially, and had more faith, and then he led others along with this power request, that he had the initiative to open the roof. How can we help our friends?
Music: Tears Keep Flowing Tarrega lagrima, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink, 2015.
Thumbnail: Christ healing the paralytic at Capernaum, engraving by Bernhard Rode 1780
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Fr. Eric Nicolai welcomes the staff at Hawthorn School (Toronto) to a new academic year, with an appeal to embrace the new challenges with magnanimity and humble joy. St. Peter was called the rock by Jesus, even though he was often emotional and unstable. But with God's grace he became the support that others needed.
Music: Waltz No 1 from Op 121 by Ferdinando Carulli Played by Cristian Garcia.
Thumbnail: Jimmy Stewart from the movie, Its a Wonderful Life (1946).
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A meditation preached deep in the Ontario woods to counsellors at Camp Caribou on a lake near Barry's Bay, August 25, 2023.
It is based on the three commandments of love mentioned in th Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 22:34-40: When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question, âMaster, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?â Jesus said, âYou must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.â
On Youtube, see all the visuals:
https://youtu.be/AHba7XdIDjg
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A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai early in the morning in the woods at Camp Caribou for Boys, on August 23, 2023. The camp is located near Barry's Bay in Ontario.
You can see the filmed version here:
https://youtu.be/aUJSaYEuSdM?si=WoTHCscs5wlq9zMV
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A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai in a parish in Fort Alexander, Manitoba on August 7 2023.
There are traces of subtle humour in the Gospel. There is a touching moment when the Lord heals the blind man, somewhat gradually, testing him like a doctor might.
Matt 8, 22-36 Do you see anything? Looking up, the man replied, âI see people looking like trees and walkingâ.
Trees walking? What did he actually see?
Music: Bert Alink, guitar arrangement, Mossy Garden.
Thumbnail: Rembrandt, "Jesus Heals Blind Man", ink drawing, 1655. Rotterdam, Museum Boymans van Beuningen.
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Mt 13:1-9: âA sower went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a cropâa hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.â
With the different types of soil that the seed falls on, Jesus sums up the various types of people in the world. Different hearts. This is the real meaning of the formation we receive: it is meant to be an ongoing self-cultivation, like the irrigation of a field, or arable land that will lead us out of ourselves, out of the shell of our own selfishness, like a seed that breaks out and brings forth a plant: as we grow and mature, we thus grow in a capacity for sorrow, and for joy.
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A meditation preached at Kintore College by Fr. Eric Nicolai on July 17, 2023.
Matthew 10:34â11:1: Jesus said to his Apostles: âDo not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set/ a man against his father,/a daughter against her mother,/ and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;/ and oneâs enemies will be those of his household.
We think of the Lord as the king of peace. Peace on earth and goodwill to men. He heals and brings calm, after the agitation created by the devil.
But then these strange words that seem like there was a typo in the transcription. What does this really mean?
Thumbnail: Joseph John Rosenthal, The raising of the Flag at Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945.
Music: Carlos Gardel, Soledad, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink. Public domain.
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A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto in July 2023. It's all about the details of the parable of the sower who went out to sow.
Matthew tells us: âThe kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. âThe ownerâs servants came to him and said, âSir, didnât you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?â ââAn enemy did this,â he replied. (Matt 13, 24-29)
The weeds in our life. The danger of becoming toxic to others by our attitude and behaviour Rather we should have the qualities of good vitamins for the system.
Music: Chiquinha Gonzaga, Lua Branca, Arranged for guitar Bert Alink.
Thumbnail: Jean-Francois Millet, The Gleaners, Musée D'Orsay 1857
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A meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai on rest, preached at Lyncroft centre, Toronto, on July 2, 2023.
Mark 6, 30-32: "The apostles came back to Jesus. They told him all they had done and taught. Jesus said to them, `Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.' Many people were coming and going. They could not even eat. So they went away in a boat to a lonely place by themselves."
This articulates the promise of Jesus. Matt 11, 28: âCome to me all you who are weary and I will give you restâ.
It was important that they not stay with his teaching superficially, or remain on the surface. He wanted them deeply formed. To make the Good News truly deeply integrated. They will later have to transmit it to others. They have to be good transmission lines. What really is the significance of rest? Are we habitually resting? And do we do it well in a way that restores us truly? When burnout is so prevalent, we need to see the true meaning of rest and leisure, and examine its relation to work.
Music: Carlos Gardel, Soledad, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink
Thumbnail: Masaccio The Tribute Money, 1424, Brancacci Chapel, Florence.
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Homily at the funeral of Fr. Joe Escribano who was among the original pillars of Opus Dei in Canada from 1959. It was preached in French and English by Fr. André Blais at St. George Parish in Ottawa.
https://opusdei.org/en-ca/article/father-joseph-escribano-1933-2023-a-pillar-for-the-beginnings-of-opus-dei-in-canada/
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Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on June 26, 2023 at Kintore College in Toronto. We know that Saint JosemarĂa EscrivĂĄ died in 1975: after stepping out of that elevator, looking at an image of our Lady, and at that moment he had accomplished his mission here on earth. Going up the elevator was like the first step towards heaven.
Days after his passing, Don Alvaro had to gear himself up for what was coming, and he wrote a long letter to all of us: Nuestro padre en el Cielo. Our Father in Heaven. I remember reading it often. God granted our founder a spiritual paternity that embraced everyone he came into contact with. And since this paternity was completely supernatural, it has only been strengthened by his going to heaven. Here's an account of what it should look like.
Music: Tears keep flowing, Tarrega, played by Bert Alink, 2015
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In the first half the 1940s, the number of people in Opus Dei started really increasing, and there were great pastoral needs. This is an account of the first priests of Opus Dei and how they came to be ordained. They were Alvaro del Portillo, Josemaria Hernandez de Garnica, and Jose Luis Muzquiz, ordained by Msgr. Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, the Archbishop of Madrid, in 1944. In this meditation preached on June 25, 2023, Fr. Eric Nicolai takes us through the history of these moments in Spain in the 40s. It was preached in Lyncroft Centre, Toronto.
Music: The Meeting of the Waters Arranged and played by Bert Alink
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The Solemnity of John the Baptist, the Precursor. A meditation preached in Lyncroft Centre, Toronto, by Fr. Eric Nicolai on June 24, 2023.
Lk 1, 57-66: The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy. (...) All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. âWhat will this child turn out to be?â they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him."
Good thing Zechariah agreed with the name John. His tongue was loosened and he gave praise to God with the Benedictus. Joy rippled out throughout the region. It was the thanksgiving and joy at understanding the beauty and grandeur of the divine vocation. Each one of us has a divine vocation, a divine purpose. Have I too been filled with wonder at what God has designed for me?
Thumbnail: Piero della Francesca, The Baptism of Christ, 1450s, tempera on wood (National Gallery, London)
Music: Francisco TĂĄrrega's "LĂĄgrima" performed by Pepe Romero on an 1888 Antonio de Torres
For more meditations, check my channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/EricNicolai/videos
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Mark 12, 14-17: Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay, yes or no?â Seeing through their hypocrisy he said to them, âWhy do you set this trap for me? Hand me a denarius and let me see it.â They handed him one and he said, âWhose head is this? Whose name?â âCaesarâsâ they told him. Jesus said to them, âGive back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar â and to God what belongs to God.â This reply took them completely by surprise.
In response to this trap, set between the pharisees and the Herodians, on the delicate question of taxes to Caesar, Jesus responds with this phrase: Hand me a denarius and let me see it.
Music: Francisco TĂĄrrega's "LĂĄgrima" performed by Pepe Romero on an 1888 Antonio de Torres.
Thumbnail: Julius Caesar 44 BC. AR Denarius was minted at Rome by moneyer M. Mettius 44 BC.
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A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai, June 2, 2023 in Ernescliff College, Toronto.
The account of Jesus cleansing the temple.
Mark 11, 11-26: So they reached Jerusalem and he went into the Temple and began driving out those who were selling and buying there; he upset the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those who were selling pigeons. Nor would he allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple. And he taught them and said, âDoes not scripture say: My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples? But you have turned it into a robbersâ den.â
He was in the temple, and he is in us, as we are temples of the Holy Spirit. Which is why we make the sign of the cross over our body, in honour of the Blessed
Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit but in the form of the cross.
Music: Waltz Op 121 No 1 Ferdinando Carulli Played by Cristian Garcia.
Thumbnail: Ippolito Scarsella Jesus Driving merchants from the temple, 1580, Capitoline Museum, Rome
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Luke 1:39-56: Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went with haste. She goes with haste. There is a sense of responsibility here. She knows and understands her mission. Her purpose. It has been said that after the consultation with the angel, she found her mission, her role in the theo-drama. She had pledged to accomplish it, and was excited. The ego-drama is the play that Iâm writing, Iâm producing, Iâm directing, and Iâm starring in.
God taps on our shoulder to tell us what he invites us to do.
Music: The Meeting of the Waters Arranged and played by Bert Alink.
Thumbnail: Master of the Life of the Virgin, The Visitation with a portrait of donor Johann von Hirtz, 1462.
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Acts of the Apostles 2, 1-11. "When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together."
Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches to a group of High School students at Ernescliff College in Toronto. On Pentecost the Church was born in Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit promised by Jesus descended on the apostles and disciples. Cardinal John Henry Newman reminds us that the Holy Spirit gives life to everything, and He turns âsinners into saintsâ.
Music: The Meeting of the Waters Arranged and played by Bert Alink.
Thumbnail: The Feast of Pentecost. Engraving by Gustave Doré in the Illustrated Bible.
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