In Your Presence

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.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ernescliff College on January 26, 2026.
Mark 3:22-30: The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘Beelzebul is in him’ and, ‘It is through the prince of devils that he casts devils out.’ So he called them to him and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last.
Satan’s strategy: division, confusion, and counterfeit good. He wants to confuse good and evil, make it all amorphous.

The devil wants to divide. He is bothered by unity. He is irritated by a Hail Mary recited together. It is like a nuclear blast against his own cohesion. The devil always wants to scatter and divide. He wants to pit one person against the other. He wants to divide. He wants comparisons and division.
Don’t let him win. Satan wants to divide a family, the church. It Omnes unum sint.
Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Thumbnail: St. Michael the Archangel vanquishing the devil. Lorenzo Zucchi after Stefano Torelli 1725 Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on retreat to priests at the Manoir de Beaujeu, in Coteau du lac, near Montreal, Canada.
At his most urgent hour, when the apostles are on retreat with their Lord in the garden, a place far away from the hubbub of the crowds, the Lord lets go a searing complaint to his priests:
“What! Could none of you stay awake with me one hour?” (Matt 26, 40) We have to stay awake with him in this retreat. The word hour is present 7 times in John. Fulton Sheen refers to each hour in detail. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. (Jn 12, 23). The hour for us has now come to respond to his demands, to examine all the layers in which we can be his priests, and truly embrace our mission.
Thumbnail: Andrea Mantegna, Christ in the Garden of Olives 1455, egg tempera, National Gallery, London.
Music: Angelic, by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with license.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Lyncroft Centre in Toronto, January 18, 2026. Today’s Gospel presents the account of Jesus' baptism seen through the lens of John the Evangelist. Its the Evangelist’s take. The Baptist appears in the description. (John 1:29-34). But John the Evangelist here interprets the baptism not simply as an event, but as a revelation of identity and mission. Jesus' mission is to be the Lamb that will take away the sin of the world.
We need humility to recognize our sins, and embrace God's forgiveness. Have I really done that?
Thumbnail : Francisco de Zurbarán, The Lamb of God, 1635, Prado Museum in Madrid.
Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Angelic, with license.

A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai to university students at Ernescliff College, Toronto, on January 16, 2026.
The account of the paralytic lowered by his friends in front of Jesus.
Mark 2:1-12: When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralysed man carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralysed man lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralysed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’
Many souls seek to come closer to Jesus. How can we place them in front of Jesus?
Thumbnail: Mosaic from the Basilica of Sant'Apolinnare in Nuovo, Ravenna, 5th century.
Music: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Angelic Choir, with licence