#hermanncohen — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 9 March: Hermann Cohen

Let us serve Jesus for His own sake. Let us say that it is good for us to be deprived of joy here below—to be humiliated and tested—and that Jesus always grants us far more than we deserve. We must love Jesus crucified; we must love His Cross. The glory of Tabor awaits us in heaven.

As for your husband’s wish to go to places of worldly amusement, I repeat that so long as you go only out of obedience and contrary to your own inclination, you need fear nothing. I would also advise that, whenever you can do so prudently, you allow some obstacle to arise—some legitimate pretext that prevents you from going. I believe it will be pleasing to our Lord if He sees you wisely arranging matters so that an outing of this sort comes to nothing.

Servant of God Augustine Mary of the Blessed Sacrament (Hermann Cohen)

Avis spirituels

Note: Join us as we pray the official Prayer for the Beatification of the Servant of God Father Augustine Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, Hermann Cohen.

Augustin-Marie du Très-Saint Sacrement 2020, Qui nous fera voir le bonheur? : sermons et autres textes, ed. S-M Morgain, Éditions du Carmel, Toulouse.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: This drawing of Father Augustine-Mary (Hermann) Cohen, O.C.D. is based on a portrait of the Servant of God that appeared in Dr. Boissarie’s medical documentation, Les grandes guérisons de Lourdes (The Great Healings of Lourdes). Father Cohen’s story appears in the section devoted to “Diseases of the Eyes.” Image credit: Discalced Carmelites (By permission)

Quote of the day, 18 August: Hermann Cohen

Faith is acquired through prayer, which, united to faith, imparts peace, love, wisdom, light, freedom—all of which are contained in Jesus Christ.

It is not possible for someone who does not love Jesus Christ to be happy.

We love happiness, and Jesus Christ, our sole happiness, is not loved. We love wealth, and Jesus Christ, eternal sufficiency, is not loved. We love pleasures and celebrity, and Jesus Christ, the most desirable one, splendor of eternal glory, is not loved.

Look, you who now listen to me, how is it that it takes a Jew to come here and beg Christians to adore Jesus Christ?

Sun, refuse to shine, clouds cease to pour down rain, melt away you rocks of granite! Daughters of Sion, holy virgins, take up the discipline, cover yourselves in ashes, weep, fast, keep vigil, Jesus is not loved, because he is not known! We study, we know everything except Him.

And even so, missionaries carry his name to the ends of the earth. Even so, martyrs die on the scaffold.

Servant of God Augustine Mary of the Blessed Sacrament (Hermann Cohen)

Sermon in Bordeaux Cathedral, 1852

Tierney, T  2017,  A Life of Hermann Cohen: From Franz Liszt to John of the Cross,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: Andrés López, The Sacred Heart of Jesus adored by angels, 1785, oil on copper. Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. PI 4459B. Source: Ojeda, A 2005-2025, Project for the Engraved Sources of Spanish Colonial Art (PESSCA), viewed 16 August 2025, https://colonialart.org.

#adoration #AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #HermannCohen #loveForGod #martyrs

Quote of the day, 22 November: Hermann Cohen

“I have finished with the world forever…”

Servant of God Hermann Cohen

At this stage in his story, Hermann Cohen, the recent convert, now intended to clear the debts he had incurred in his gambling days, and these were quite considerable. To achieve this aim, he resumed giving piano lessons.

At the same time, Cohen continued to join his friends in weekly nocturnal adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. Since his conversion [May 1847] and even before his baptism [28 August 1847], Cohen had expressed to friends the desire to dedicate his life wholly to God as soon as he was free to do so. It would take him two years to reach that point. It was a difficult period for him.

Cohen became involved with helping the poor through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul founded by his contemporary Frédéric Ozanam. Cohen found this work a great source of inspiration while he prepared to enter a religious order. He subsequently supported the society by making appeals for them and using his musical talents to give fund-raising concerts for the poor.

At this point in his life, Cohen began to compose music for a collection of hymns that were written by a friend of his. These were called, “Praise of Mary.” and turned out to be a successful venture as the hymns proved very popular.

Cohen needed to give a final concert to pay off all his debts. It was a resounding success. Some of his earlier concerts had not been well prepared.

A Marist friend, Father Reculon, who accompanied him to this last concert, tells us that there was thunderous applause at the final curtain. He added that if the audience had known this was the last time they would hear Cohen’s glorious interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, and Chopin, their enthusiasm would have broken all bounds.

As for Cohen, he rejoined his friend in the dressing room of St. Cecilia’s Hall and threw out his arms in the dramatic gesture of the romantic.

“Ah,” he exclaimed, “I have finished with the world forever; with what joy, after my final note, I took my bow and bade it adieu.”

Timothy Tierney, O.C.D.

Chapter 6: From Franz Liszt to John of the Cross

Note: Biographer Father Tierney provides details concerning Hermann Cohen’s transition from the concert stage to religious life. Although we don’t know the precise date, Cohen’s writings indicate that his famous conversion took place in May 1847 in the Church of St. Valère. His baptism followed on 28 August 1847 in the Paris chapel of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion.

Tierney, T  2017,  A Life of Hermann Cohen: From Franz Liszt to John of the Cross,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: Father Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, O.C.D., the Servant of God Hermann Cohen seated at the double-manual keyboard. | Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #EucharisticAdoration #farewell #HermannCohen #inspiration #piano #selfDenial #ServantOfGod #vocation

It appears that in April 1849, Cohen made up his mind to enter the Carmelite Order.

In doing so, he was aware that his friend de Cuers would feel let down by this development; Hermann was leaving him to shoulder responsibility for the nocturnal adoration group on his own. He tried to reassure de Cuers on this point.

And it appears from letters Cohen wrote to his friends that he wished to become a priest precisely to support that movement. After all, Marie-Thérèse Dubouché’s group of adorers of the Blessed Sacrament was affiliated to Carmel, and Cohen had the same idea for a men’s group. From the beginning, he had the needs of the adoration group very much at heart and wanted to ensure its success.

Cohen arrived in Agen at 2:30 p.m. on July 19, the day on which Carmelites keep the vigil of a feast in honour of the prophet Elijah, who has special significance for the order. They were at that moment reciting vespers for the feast.

Dominic [Arbizu y Munarriz, O.C.D.], the superior, interviewed him, and Cohen asked to make an eight-day retreat. He wrote to his friend de Cuers, “St. Teresa will be my mother, the scapular my habit, a room eight feet square my universe. Yes I am so happy for I feel I’m doing God’s will.”

At the end of the retreat, rather than pack up and leave, he approached Dominic.

“I ask a great favour, Father.”

“What is it, my son?” asked Dominic.

“I wish to stay here in Carmel and be clothed in the holy habit.”

“Unfortunately, my son,” replied Dominic, “that is beyond my powers to grant. Our Constitutions and the apostolic decrees formally forbid admittance to the novitiate of someone recently converted from Judaism.”

Not to be put off, Cohen interjected, “Oh, Father, try to get that requirement dispensed; for I know well that God wishes me to be in Carmel.”

“Very well,” said Dominic. “Just go to Le Broussey, and I’ll do what I can.”

Servant of God Hermann Cohen
Father Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, O.C.D.

Note: Count Raymond de Cuers and Marie-Thérèse Dubouché were Cohen’s colleagues and collaborators in the establishment and eventual expansion of perpetual adoration in Paris in the 1840s. Father Dominic, a friar from Navarre, restored the Discalced Carmelites in France beginning in Bordeaux in 1840, the first foundation since the French Revolution.

Tierney, T  2017,  A Life of Hermann Cohen: From Franz Liszt to John of the Cross,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: At the Discalced Carmelite convent at Czerna, Poland, the friars gather with lighted candles to sing the Salve Regina before the image of the Mother of God. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/19/cohen-19jul49/

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #DiscalcedCarmelites #Elijah #friends #HermannCohen #perpetualAdoration #persistance #vocations

You must try to maintain a deep peace in yourself and not allow yourself to become troubled. Ask Jesus to command the winds and the storms and bring about calm and tranquility in inner life. The world cannot give peace. Jesus the Lamb of God has come so that we may have it abundantly.

But of course we shall only have perfect peace in heaven. Here below where we are only in transit, we must keep aspiring to that peace which awaits us in the arms of God. One day we shall fall asleep and rest, as the Psalmist says, in Him who Himself is eternal peace.

Servant of God Hermann Cohen
(Augustine of the Blessed Sacrament, O.C.D.)

Various spiritual counsels

Tierney, T  2017,  A Life of Hermann Cohen: From Franz Liszt to John of the Cross,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: Latvian photographer Aleksejs Bergmanis captured this view of sunset above a sea of clouds in October 2017. Image credit: Aleksejs Bermanis / Pexels (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/05/09/cohen-peace/

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #calm #heaven #HermannCohen #interiorLife #Jesus #LambOfGod #peace #rest #ServantOfGod #storm #world