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)

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #ChristCrucified #gloryOfGod #HermannCohen #service

Quote of the day, 20 January: Hermann Cohen

Holy Communion! That is my safeguard, and I ask only one thing of this great God, so full of love: that He grant me, at the hour of death, that inestimable grace of being able to receive Communion—the holy viaticum of the poor traveler!

Oh! it already seems to me that I see it, that delightful and ardently desired hour, when the chains that hold me captive far from my God will finally fall into dust.

Ah! it seems to me that I see it, that final hour, that hour of love! Yes—there, in my poor little cell, lying on the hard floor, surrounded by my Carmelite brothers, who will exhort me to weep for my faults and to lift up my heart to God, and who will sing the hymns of our homeland!…

And then I hear footsteps in the distance, and as it were plaintive voices chanting in cadence; it is a procession… it advances, it draws near to my narrow retreat. Oh my brothers, quickly, I beg you, scatter flowers along my path; it is my Beloved—it is Jesus, my Spouse, who is coming to fetch me!… He Himself!

Great God! You deign to descend into the hovel of this wretched and unworthy sinner! From where does this favor come to me? Unde hoc mihi? (Why has this happened to me? Lk 1:43). What! My God, You enter under my humble roof to visit me and to give me the kiss of peace—and I would fear Your justice?

But do You not Yourself come to reassure me by Your gentle embraces, and does not the priest, in showing You to me, say: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world… Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my wretched dwelling; but say only the word, and my soul shall be saved.”

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

Death Before the Eucharist (1860)

Note: On January 9, 1871, Hermann Cohen contracted smallpox while anointing two prisoners of war in Spandau—likely through a small scratch on his finger—and his condition steadily worsened. By January 13, he was confined to bed, already entrusting the work he had begun to others and expressing a calm readiness to be taken by God. On January 15, after a seizure, he received the last rites with visible joy and peace, renewed his Carmelite vows, and joined in the Te Deum, Salve Regina, and De Profundis, before bidding farewell to his brothers and requesting burial at St. Hedwig’s Cathedral in Berlin. As his strength failed further, he told the sister caring for him, “So I am going to die. May God’s holy will be done; besides, if I were cured, I would have to witness distressful things.” He gave his final blessing to those around him and died quietly on the morning of January 20, 1871, at the age of forty-nine—a true martyr of charity, having laid down his life in loving service, and yielding his generous soul into the arms of eternal love.

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.

Featured image: A Discalced Carmelite nun in Valladolid receives Holy Communion on Saint Teresa’s feast day in 2016. Image credit: Angel Cantero, Iglesia en Valladolid / Flickr (Some rights reserved).

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #death #Eucharist #HermannCohen #ServantOfGod

Quote of the day, 29 December: Hermann Cohen

We love happiness, and Jesus Christ—true happiness, the only happiness possible—is not loved.

We love riches, and Jesus Christ, the inexhaustible treasure of the Father, abundance itself, eternal superabundance, is not loved.

We love pleasure, and Jesus Christ, the purest of delights, is not loved.

Whence then, my brothers and sisters, comes a contradiction so glaring, so revolting?

Ah! It is because He is not known. If you knew Him, my brothers and sisters, you would all love Him.

We study and examine everything—except Jesus, whom we ought to know above all. Jesus Christ is not known.

At this thought, the hermit leaves his retreat, the missionary crosses the seas, the martyr ascends the scaffold. And what do they seek? They seek to make people happy by leading them to know Jesus Christ.

Who, then, is Jesus Christ? From where does He come? Who is His Father, His homeland?

To this question, the prophet Isaiah, seized by holy enthusiasm, cries out: Generationes eius quis enarrabit? —
“Who shall ever recount His sublime generation?” (Who could have imagined his future, Is 53:8).

Let us attempt it nevertheless, my brothers and sisters. And whatever modern Jews may say—those who, in disputing the mysteries of the Trinity, appeal to this text of Moses: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord” (Dt 6:4).

Let us answer them: God is infinitely simple—simple in essence, simple in substance, simple by His infinite nature; yet He is also infinitely good, and goodness, by its very nature, seeks to impart itself.

Since, therefore, the goodness of God is infinite, it must necessarily impart itself in an infinite manner. Yet it cannot do so with the creature, since the creature is finite.

It is therefore necessary that God impart Himself to Himself in an ineffable and infinite manner. And this He does by imparting His essence, His nature, to distinct persons—without separating it, without dividing it—while remaining one and the same God.

It is thus, my brothers and sisters, by this blessed necessity of imparting Himself infinitely, that God begets His only Son, His beloved Son.

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

Le bonheur n’est qu’en Dieu (Sermon, Saint-Sulpice, 1854)

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: Photo by Burkay Canatar on Pexels.com

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #DivineSimplicity #HermannCohen #IncarnationOfChrist #JesusChrist

Quote of the day, 7 December: Hermann Cohen

We love happiness—yet Jesus, the only true happiness, is not loved!

We love riches—yet Jesus, the inexhaustible treasure of the Father, Jesus the abundance, the eternal superabundance, is not loved!

We love pleasure—yet Jesus, the delight of heaven, the sweetest of all joys, is not loved!

We love honors—yet Jesus, the glory of the elect, the immortal splendor of all who desire to be truly great—Jesus is not loved!

We love a simple flower on the roadside—yet Jesus, the flower blossoming from the purest and most beautiful of virgins, Jesus, the fragrant bloom from the shoot of Jesse, is not loved!

Weep, O mountains; let the hills pour forth torrents of tears—for the One who made you so beautiful, Jesus, is not loved!

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

Excerpt from Sermon 14 (1861–1863)

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: A honeybee gathers pollen on a purple flower. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com (Stock photo)

#attachments #augustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #hermannCohen #jesusChrist #love

Quote of the day, 10 November: Hermann Cohen

Yes, my God! Yes, my Jesus! I declare it: this life was mine, before I knew you; before I loved You. Yes, my brethren, I have experienced it; and may my bitter experience serve as a warning to you….

Never finding the happiness I sought, I was ever fleeing from that which pursued me, until, one day… I enter a church…

The priest at the altar raises in his hands a small white disc…

I gaze upon the Sacred Host, and I hear these words: Ego sum Via, Veritas et Vita—I am the Way, the Truth, the Life!

Great God, but can it be?…

Yes, Saul, on his way to Damascus, whither he was hastening as a rapacious wolf to ravage the Christian flock, fell to the ground on hearing this same voice: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting!” [Acts 9:4]…

“Lord, what am I to do?”

Do you not see, my brethren? Order is restored. He stretches out his hands, his arms, his heart, his soul, his will, his whole being, towards this true and only end, the will of God. See how he’s converted! May we do likewise.

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

Homily on Repentance
From Life of the Reverend Father Hermann by Abbé Charles Sylvain

Note: Father Augustine Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, OCD (Hermann Cohen) was born in a wealthy Jewish family in Hamburg on 10 November 1820. His life’s journey took him from Hamburg to Paris as a student of Franz Liszt and his career as a successful, internationally recognized concert pianist. In May 1847, he experienced a dramatic conversion when he substituted for a musician friend as music director for the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.  Two years later, Cohen entered the Discalced Carmelite friars in Le Broussey, France, took the name Augustine Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, and went on to exercise a rich and fruitful priestly ministry.

The Association of Hebrew Catholics offers a brief biographical article written by another Jewish convert and Discalced Carmelite, Father Elias Friedman.

We also recommend the official Discalced Carmelite biography of the Servant of God, published in Italian by the Postulator General.

Finally, we provide the official Prayer for the Beatification of the Servant of God Father Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, Hermann Cohen.

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

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)

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #birthday #conversion #HermannCohen #Jewish #ServantOfGod

Quote of the day, 19 September: Hermann Cohen

Now I wish to talk about the devisers of systems, the makers of doctrines, the practitioners of religious novelties. Yes, I have known them, known them only too well, these gentlemen, these prophets of the future. I have myself, to my shame, dogmatized with them, I have used the same zeal and ardor in propagating their new gospels…

But then one day thanks to God’s mercy, I opened the Bible and on the first page of that revered book, I found more light, more peace than in all their ramblings put together. Some verses alone of that divine book scattered my doubts and caused an unexpected and indefectible light to fall on my eyes, sufficient to clarify my understanding.

Servant of God Hermann Cohen

Father Augustine-Mary of the Most Blessed Sacrament, O.C.D.
Human Reason Left to Its Own Devices (excerpt)

Prayer for the beatification of Hermann Cohen

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

About the artwork: The Conversion of Saint Paul, Benvenuto Tisi, called “Il Garofalo” (Italian, 1481–1559), oil on panel, ca. 1525, Yale University Art Gallery.

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #HermannCohen #light #mercy #peace

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 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

Quote of the day, 24 May: Hermann Cohen

I am at Spandau where you made your First Communion in the sacristy. In this sacristy, I vest every day to say Mass and to preach to the French prisoners.

I have been named Chaplain to the five thousand three hundred [5,300] French prisoners of war who are here. 500 are sick with typhus and dysentery so that I am fully occupied.

Every morning, about 400 of these soldiers are conducted here with their company to my Mass, in such a way that they are all obliged to come and see me in turn.

Then I go to the hospital to minister to the sick, and in the afternoon I go to the barracks to visit those who are well.

Pray hard for their conversion. Those who are well have not all been to confession yet.

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

Letter to his sister Henrietta
6 December 1870

Note: Hermann Cohen contracted smallpox while ministering to the French prisoners of the Franco-Prussian War who were detained at Spandau prison. He died from the illness on 20 January 1871.

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

Featured image: Photographer Joerg Euken captured this image of winter in Spandau on 5 December 2016. Image credit: Joerg Euken / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
What would heroic fidelity to my vocation look like in this season of my life?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#AugustineMaryOfTheBlessedSacrament #chaplain #disease #familyLife #FrancoPrussianWar #HermannCohen #prisonersOfWar

Quote of the day, 16 May: Hermann Cohen

There may still be some who, from deference to the naturally staid, impassive character of the English, would counsel Catholics to maintain a certain reserve in their devotion to Mary, as though, indeed, there were any other than Mary who was to crush the head of error; as though there could be danger or excess where God has so wondrously surpassed Himself: can the love of Catholics for Mary ever rise to such a height, or can they honour her with glory so sublime, as that to which God Himself has chosen to exalt her?

As if this filial homage could be out of place in England, the birth-place of the devotion of the Holy Scapular, the favoured spot to which the Blessed Virgin came, bringing from heaven that pledge of salvation, to bestow it upon a Religious, not of Italy or of Spain, but on an English Saint, born and bred in England, English in his labors, in his mission, and in his election as General of the Carmelite Order.

This preference for England as the scene of that revelation, and the choice of an Englishman, St. Simon Stock, as the receiver of the promise attached to the Scapular is, to my mind, a pledge of the future conversion of that nation.

Servant of God Augustine of the Blessed Sacrament
Hermann Cohen

Lecture at Malines (3 September 1864)

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

Featured image: This close-up photo shows the monumental reliquary of St. Simon Stock in the chapel of the Carmelite priory in Aylesford, England. Image credit: British Province of Carmelites / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Do I believe there can be “danger or excess” in loving Our Lady as God exalts her?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#BlessedVirgin #BrownScapular #CarmeliteOrder #Catholic #Catholics #conversion #England #HermannCohen #Mary #PriorGeneral #scapular #StSimonStock