#perpetual-adoration — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 22 June: Hermann Cohen

O adorable Sacrament, intoxicating spring where my parched lips drink deeply the first taste of eternal life! My heart overflows with joy… it needs to bless you and proclaim your praises in hymns of gladness and thanksgiving. For I have learned that my brothers in Paris now enjoy an ineffable happiness: each day they see you open the door of your prison of love, to be exposed before their dazzled eyes and offered to their perpetual adoration!

And the bells of the capital ring out to proclaim you; and the processions unfurl their banners to lead you in triumph; and the chief shepherd establishes in the churches where you are to be adored a solemn and magnificent worship… He invites Christians to adorn your altars; he calls your children to come and sing hymns and canticles to you; he himself presides over this admirable feast, which continues from sanctuary to sanctuary—a feast without end—and thus prefigures that eternal adoration which will be the joy of your elect, crowned in heaven [Rev 5:8–14].

And finally, as if we were witnessing a resurrection of the first centuries of your Church, and to crown the tenderness of his chosen flock, the august and pious Archbishop orders a general Communion for all, lasting three days… At this news, O my God, my chest swells; tears of joy moisten my eyes, and my thoughts carry me to those blessed courts where the multitude of your beloved children comes eagerly to receive, at the foot of your tabernacle, the Bread come down from heaven—the pledge of our immortality! [Jn 6:50]

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

Love for Jesus Christ (March 1851, first version)

Note: This excerpt comes from the original handwritten dedication to Love for Jesus Christ, a collection of forty hymns to the Blessed Sacrament composed by Hermann Cohen—then a Carmelite friar and deacon—at the convent in Agen in March 1851. Published under his religious name, Augustine Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, this version includes personal and historical references later removed from the printed edition. In it, Cohen celebrates the newly established practice of perpetual Eucharistic adoration in post-revolutionary Paris, uniting his musical vocation with a profound Eucharistic spirituality.

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 detail from the east window of Corpus Christi Church in Brixton was beautifully captured by photographer Lawrence Lew, O.P. The phrase Laudate Dominum omnes gentes is the opening line of Psalm 117. Blessed Anne of Jesus intoned this psalm when founding the first Carmel in France. Similarly, St. Constance of Compiègne intoned this same psalm as she led the procession of her sister martyrs to the guillotine. Image credit: Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P. / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How does the Solemnity of Corpus Christi move you to deeper love or adoration?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #CorpusChristi #Eucharist #HermannCohen #perpetualAdoration

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