Clean the Inside of the Cup: Theresa of Avila's Example
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on October 15, 2025 at Kintore College, Toronto. Today we celebrate Theresa of Avila, this 16th century mystic, who died in 1582. Her conversion led her to reform her order, emphasizing poverty, prayer, and contemplative life. Juan Diego was her contemporary, thousands of kilometers away in Mexico. Both discovered the nature of confidence in God, gounded in the inside of the soul. Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.
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28:34
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28:34
We Adore You O Christ and We Bless You: Do I Love the Cross?
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Cedarcrest Conference Centre in Belfountain, Ontario, on October 10, 2025.Today this has become a response for us in the Way of the Cross as we are introduced to each station. We are meant to look at the representation. Sometimes a picture, sometimes a painting. Sometimes just a simple cross.V: We adore You, O Christ, and we praise YouR: Because, by Your holy cross, You have redeemed the world. (Rise)We will say it today. This idea of the 14 stations started by those who could not journey to Jerusalem to spiritually participate in Christ’s Passion. Pilgrims in Jerusalem would process to various locations, praying and reading scripture at each spot. Franciscans became the custodians of the Holy Land sites. They would start these virtual representations in churches in Europe. They became standardized to 14 stations.
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30:24
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I will follow you wherever you go: The Founding of Opus Dei
Luke 9, 57: ..they met a man on the road who said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.This expression of willingness, this desire to follow the Lord, no matter what he asks, no matter where the Lord takes our life, no matter the pain I experience, no matter what city you want me to go, is a deeply felt disposition that the Lord blesses. We see it particularly with Therese of Lisieux, and today with the beginnings of St. Josemaria’s call, on October 2, 1928, the feast of the Guardina Angels.A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on October 2, 2025 in Lyncroft centre 2025.
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29:15
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29:15
There is an Invisible World Reaching Out to you: The Archangels
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai on Septemebr 29, 2025 at Lyncroft Centre, Toronto.John 1, 49-51: Jesus replied, ‘You believe that just because I said: I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.’ And then he added ‘I tell you most solemnly, you will see heaven laid open and, above the Son of Man, the angels of God ascending and descending.’The three archangels, Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, all have their role in the history of salvation. They are also present in the history and apostolates of Opus Dei. Here's how.Music: Michael Lee of Toronto.Thumbnail: Ivory panel at the British Museum of St. Michael, dating to the 6th Century.
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30:33
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Cultivate the Field that we are
A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at Cedarcrest Conference Centre in Belfountain, Ontario on September 25, 2025.Luke 8:4-15: With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, Jesus used this parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed.We are the crowd that the Lord is now addressing, as we see him now with eyes of faith. You see him as he speaks there in the Gospel.Music: Michael Lee of TorontoThumbnail: Jean-Francois Millet, The Sower, 1851.
Meditations by Fr. Eric Nicolai, a Catholic priest of Opus Dei in Ernescliff College, Toronto. They are times of prayer addressed to men or women, with the intention of providing a personal dialogue with the Lord Jesus Christ present in their midst. They are usually preached in oratories of Opus Dei.
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