In Your Presence

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Camp Caribou near Barry's Bay, Ontario, on August 25th, 2026.
Today, the Gospel speaks about the distaste that Jesus had for those who relied on appearances, on image, on looking good to others. Those who spent time cultivating a public image. It is a rather blistering accusation.
Matt 23, 24-26: Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that the outside may become clean as well.’
Music: Regi Stone, All Heavens Declare.
Thumbnail: Rembrandt, Jesus preaching. Etching, Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

A meditation on the feast of St. Bartholomew, preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Ernescliff College on August 24, 2026.
He preached in India and Armenia. For Bartholomew: “he shed his skin”: both in martyrdom and spiritual transformation, putting off the “old self” so that the new person may emerge.
Thumbnail: detail from Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, 1536.
Marco d’Agrate’s statue in Milan Cathedral, known as the San Bartolomeo scorticato:
https://mainlymuseums.com/post/1174/the-anti-david-st-bartholomew-by-marco-dadrate-1562/
Music: Lifting Dreams - Aakash Gandhi Youtube free

In 1975, Pope Paul VI told Blessed Alvaro del Portillo: "Collect everything that the Founder has written, because it is already a treasure belonging to the whole Church.”

Maximilian Kolbe had a vision of our Lady who offered him two crowns: a white one for virginity, a red one for martyrdom. Which do you want? I’ll take both.

that Mary is and a sign of hope and comfort for your people on their pilgrim way. 
(Assumption preface)
Thumbnail:
Esteban Márquez de Velasco (1652–1696) , Dormition of the virgin Mary, Art Gallery of Ontario.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on August 1, 2026 at Ellentor Centre in Toronto.
Matt 14, 22-36: Jesus walks on the water, and calls out to Peter: Come!
Water in the ancient world was always seen as a place of instability. It was a scary place when you had these rickety boats. But Jesus informs everything we do. It is our life of faith. Our faith must inform our vision, the way we think, the way we work. It leaves its fingerprints everywhere we go. There you will find the DNA of faith.
Music: pulsebox-piano-music-free-music-552725 pixabay free
Thumbnail: Walking on Water, by Ivan Aivazovsky (1888), private collection.