In Your Presence

Meditation by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ellentor Centre in Toronto, May 29, 2026. Today is the memorial of Pope Paul VI, Giovanni Battista Montini, a man of courage in a time of upheaval.
Gen 12, 1-16: God speaks to Abraham: leave your country, your family, and go to the country I will tell you. So he responded by going to that unknown country. He was open to what God wanted. It took courage and fortitude and magnanimity to undertake such a massive task, to be the father of a nation.
We need this human virtue of fortitude, but it must also be supernatural, done out of love.

Music: Mulvey Awakening

In preparation for the solemnity of Pentecost, we have been trying to see all the things that can happen if we really become docile to his presence in our souls. For the apostles, it was manifested by a powerful wind that shook the house that they were in. Like a powerful tornado, a divine presence that no one could ignore. The result was that their lives were imbued with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. A meditation preached on the eve of Pentecost at Kintore College, Toronto, May 23, 2026.
Music: Audiio MULVEY Awakening Instrumental.
Thumbnail: Bernini's Holy Spirit in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.

Preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Kintore College, Toronto on May 21, 2026. As we prepare for Pentecost, let us consider the first gift of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, which enables you to see how good and great the Lord is and, fills our life with flavour, so that, as Jesus said, you may be “salt of the earth”.

Music: Audio MULVEY Awakening Instrumental
Thumbnail: St. James the Greater Catholic Church, Concord, NC. Wikimedia

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Hawthorn School for Girls in Toronto on May 20, 2026.
During the month of May we prepare for Pentecost and also increase our devotion to our blessed Mother, Mary. There is an intimate connection between Mary and the Holy Spirit.  Mary attracted the Holy Spirit like a magnet at the Annunciation, and when she was at the centre of the apostles at Pentecost.  Two moments in which she served as a powerful attraction to draw down the Holy Spirit onto the world, onto the church, unto us and our priesthood. The two are connected.
We need Mary, we need the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Music: Audiio MULVEY Awakening Awakening Instrumental
Thumbnail: Juan Bautista Maíno (1581-1649), La Pentecôte 1615, Prado Museum.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ellentor centre in Toronto on the solemnity of the Ascension, May 17 2026.
This is a feast, but it is often under-celebrated. Even the iconography is odd. It shows the apostles standing in a circle, looking up, with Jesus out of the picture, as he floats up to heaven. You can only see his feet. It’s like the feast of the feet of Jesus.
Music: Audiio_MULVEY_Awakening_Awakening_Instrumental
Thumbnail: