In Your Presence

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation at Ellerton Centre in Toronto on the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, August 30, 2026.
Jeremiah is in utter anguish. He feels that he has failed. He’s in doubt. Maybe he has no vocation after all. He's in an inner crisis. Despite all the suffering he has experienced, he manages to complain to God and abandon himself to his healing.
Jeremiah 20, 7-9: Seduxisti me, Domine, et seductus sum.
You enticed me Lord, you persuaded me; you duped me, I felt duped. You overcame my resistance to your call, your all-encompassing vocation, your mission you have imposed on me. You chose me because you picked me out, you saw me like a wounded stag, and you loved me.

Music: Lifting Dreams - Aakash Gandhi Youtube free
Thumbnail: Rembrandt, Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, 1630, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Fr. Eric Nicolai preached this meditation on August 17, 2026 at Parkhill Centre in Ottawa.
Prayer in our life is an essential part of our existence of sons of God. It gives our resilience, and our purpose going. It is like the engine room of our interior life.
In the Gospel, we have the Pharisees complaining about the company that Jesus kept. This prompted Jesus to reaffirm the truth of God’s mercy through the most iconic parables of the Gospel: The conversion of the prodigal son.
Music: 'Undertow' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com
Thumbnail: Rembrandt, The Conversion of the Prodigal Son, 1661.

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.”