In Your Presence – Details, episodes & analysis

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this recollection at Hawthorn School in Toronto on October 23 2024.

We are preparing the centennial of Opus Dei, founded on October 2, 1928.

It was a shower of grace, that Saint Josemaria received on that day. We must ensure that we maintain the beauty of this charism, to ensure that it never go stale, or lose its vibrancy.

Music: Choir of the Roman College of Holy Mary.

Thumbnail: Cover of The Way published by Doubleday.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on October 18, 2024 at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto. Luke the Evangelist was born a Greek and a Gentile from Antioch in Syria. Luke is symbolised by the ox, a symbol of strength and of sacrifice. But also Luke wanted to preserve the face of Mary for us. He is the painter of Mary: Tradition says he produced the first devotional icons of the mother of God. He preserved her yes to her vocation. He'll help preserve our yes to the vocation to Opus Dei.

Music: Carlos Gardel (1890-1935), Soledad, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink.

Thumbnail: Luke Painting the Virgin, by Giorgio Vasari 1565 Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, Florence.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on August 29, 2024 at Kintore College, Toronto.

Matt 14, 1-12: The account of Herod’s court, with the trendy crowd, an atmosphere of sensuality, a mood of decadence, the latest fashions, everyone vying for attention and positioning themselves in the right place to be noticed. Naturally alcohol was predominant for everyone. Certainly no self-restraint, and as a result, all judgment was disordered, immature, uncontrolled and even abusive.
He was blinded by his own passions, because of what he saw. One of the greatest services we can render to people today is to awaken in them the desire for personal prayer, that silent, interior prayer of the heart so recommended by all the saints in the Christian tradition. 
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Music: 'Undertow' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com

Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches a meditation in Kintore College on May 13, 2023. We are unique with are own personal stories. Yet we have a lot in common, a series of bonds that holds us together with a common vocation, a common faith in which we are united. There is real communion among us, we are not isolated verses. Compendium: 194. What is the meaning of the “communion of saints”?

This expression indicates first of all the common sharing of all the members of the Church in holy things (sancta): the faith, the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, the charisms, and the other spiritual gifts. At the root of this communion is love which “does not seek its own interests” (1 Corinthians 13:5).

Music: Francisco Tarrega, Lagrima, played on guitar by Pepe Romero.

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Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches to Lyncroft Centre in Toronto on May 6, 2023. We can ask him to stir up the fire of our faith. Put little twigs and branches into the fire. The best twigs to get that faith raging is the devotion to our mother, as Mother of God.

It may be small now, but little aspirations, glances at images of our Lady are there to awaken something within us. Josemaria would as to “Stir up that fire of faith. Christ is not a figure that has passed. He is not a memory that is lost in history.” Mary seems to stir up devotion in us. She awakens our faith and makes us strong.

Thumbnail: Abraham Bloemaert Virgin and Child 1625 Art Gallery of Ontario

John 14, 1-6: ’Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God still, and trust in me.

There are many rooms in my Father’s house;

if there were not, I should have told you.

I am going now to prepare a place for you,

and after I have gone and prepared you a place,

I shall return to take you with me;

so that where I am

you may be too.

You know the way to the place where I am going.’

Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said:

‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.’

The Lord Jesus understands the internal upheaval of the apostles. He sees clearly that they are troubled, that they are anxious and nervous. I may not even have shown externally, but he could read their hearts well. Now he reads our hearts and invites us to be men and women of peace.

Music: Tears keep flowing by Bert Alink.

Thumbnail: Mission of the Apostles. Byzantine ivory plaque. Paris, Musee du Louvre 10th century. From article by Robert Bergman, "A School of Ivory Carving in Arnalfi", Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal (v. 9 1974).

John 10, 11: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai at the start of a university retreat at Kintore College in Toronto. On the theme of the good shepherd, whether we actually hear his voice.

Thumbnail: William Holman Hunt Hunt light of the world, 1851, Keble College, Oxford.

Music: Ernesto Nazareth, Confidencias, arranged for guitar by Bert Alink.

For more meditations, check my channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/EricNicolai/videos

You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48). Fr. Eric Nicolai preaches at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, on April 26 2023. The message “Be perfect...” might cause us to wilt. How can I be perfect even as a human being, much less “as the Father is perfect” – the Infinite, Omnipotent God whom I cannot see, whom (it seems) I know only from a distance? This is an impossible vocation! Indeed it is... if I am relying only on my own efforts. This is why a Gospel reduced to mere human moralism is always either oppressive or watered down to a purely human proposal.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to a group of High School students at Ernescliff College on April 24, 2023.

Today's Gospel is about Jesus walking on the water: as the apostles imagined he was a ghost, he said do not be afraid.

Jn 6:16-21: When it was evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid. But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” They wanted to take him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading.

Music: Chiquinha Gonzaga composer, Lua Branca (Arranged for guitar by Bert Alink).

Thumbnail: Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, Jesus walks on Water, 1849 St. Petersburg.

Preceding the account of the washing of the feet, St. John says: John introduces this gesture. It is not present in the other synoptics: “Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (Jn 13:1).

He loved them to the end. We should reflect on the meaning of such a phrase, whether in my life, in your marriage, it can be said I have loved, and served to the end of my abilities, or 80% or 50%, or if I have given a lot but then seek out compensations in giving myself extra comforts or other forms of compensation. Or maybe it’s 90% at work, but only the leftover at home.

This is a meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai in Ernescliff College at a recollection on April 12, 2023.

Thumbnail: Christ Washing the Feet of the Apostles by Meister des Hausbuches, 1475 (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin).

Music: Ernesto Nazareth, Confidências (played by Bert Alink) Museopen.org.

For more meditations, check my channel:

https://www.youtube.com/c/EricNicolai/videos

www.ernescliff.ca

www.opusdei.ca