In Your Presence

Luke 16:19-31: Dives and Lazarus.
Jesus tells this account of the rich man who feasted and seemed to enjoy life, but was oblivious to the poverty and the suffering of Lazarus, the poor man. It is an account that is full of details that fills us with revulsion, with shock and the callousness of the rich man. We are particularly grieved by his lack of empathy. He seems so unconcerned to help, to alleviate the poverty of Lazarus. He seems to be living in a bubble. He is unaware and unconcerned by the state of the poor man.
The problem was not his wealth but his lack of sensitivity. The poor man was not at all on his radar. He was not even aware of this guy. He would not have even remembered him. We must have others on our radar. Aware of them. Connect with them. Care about them and especially have the ability to listen carefully.
Pope Francis spoke of listening on January 26, 2022.
Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Thumbnail. Jean Pichore Workshop, The Rich Man at Table, Lazarus Barred at the Door. From a Book of Hours. French (Paris), c. 1500, Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France.

A meditation preached to priests at the Manoir de Beaujeu, east of Montreal, March 1, 2026.
Mt 8:26: "It is good to be with you here, Lord."
For the apostles, this moment involved all their senses: the sudden otherworldly luminosity, the towering figure of Jesus together with Moses and Elijah, the thundering voice of God the Father, the cloud covering them, the fragrance in the wind, and the peace of being with Jesus in all his divinity. Below is the upheaval caused by the curing of the epileptic boy. There are moments of darkness with fear, and others of light. Like the painting by Raphael Sanzio of the Transfiguration from 1520, the last of his life.
Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Thumbnail: The Transfiguration by Raphael Sanzio, 1520, in the Vatican Pinacoteca, Rome.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto, on February 21, 2026. Today’s Gospel gives us a brief snapshot of the call of Levi, or Matthew, the tax collector. Right there, at his post, doing his job, at the customs post, Jesus called him. He walked in, looked at him, and, like in slow motion, Matthew got up, and followed him (Luke 5:27). In front of the grumbling, the Lord declared: It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.’ (Luke 5)
Matthew fits into the beatitudes that Jesus later outlines as the blueprint of his followers.
Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Thumbnail: The Sermon on the Mount (1437-1445), Blessed Fra Angelico, Convent of San Marco, Florence.

A meditation preached on February 19, 2026, at Kintore College, Toronto.
In his 2026 message for Lent, Pope Leo speaks about listening.
The willingness to listen is the first way we demonstrate our desire to enter into a relationship with someone. Then he refers to the image of Moses standing in front of the burning bush.
He says: In revealing himself to Moses in the burning bush, God himself teaches us that listening is one of his defining characteristics: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry” (Ex 3:7). Hearing the cry of the oppressed is the beginning of a story of liberation in which the Lord calls Moses, sending him to open a path of salvation for his children who have been reduced to slavery.
This is a task we can discover during Lent, and identify some of the obstacles to proper listening.
Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College in Toronto, on February 11, 2026, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
The Lord speaks today about the kind of openness to God’s love we must have in the events of our life. He promises real resilience for us if we see his hand in our life.
Mark 7:14-23: At that time: Jesus called the people to him again and said to them, ‘Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.’
What truly wounds us spiritually is not what happens to us, but what we consent to interiorly. We might easily blame external circumstances: our environment, other people, temptations, past wounds. Our growth is not about managing behaviour, but educating the heart: learning to recognize interior movements and choosing which ones to welcome, which ones to reject. It was present in the heart of Bernadette Soubirous, born in January 9, 1844, in the foothills of the Pyrenees in southern France, in Lourdes. Here is the story.