Quote of the day, 3 September: Hermann Cohen

“The great obstacle to progress is that the Master has been excluded from all Laws, Constitutions, and Governments, Yes, the people have said ‘Our Laws are only human; the divine element goes for nothing‘.” #HermannCohen #Carmelite

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There is no progress apart from Jesus Christ. “Without me,” declares the Savior, “you can do nothing” [Jn 15:5]. The great obstacle to progress is that the Master has been excluded from all Laws, Constitutions, and Governments, Yes, the people have said ‘Our Laws are only human; the divine element goes for nothing.‘

England, Gentlemen, England has been pagan twice. Converted first in the second century, under her British Christian king Lucius, she relapsed into paganism under the Saxon rule. Converted a second time by the Benedictine monk St. Augustine, she has once more forfeited the tutelage and teaching authority of Jesus Christ.

But why should there not happen, in favour of truth and salvation, the same success which has prevailed in the case of nationality?

Why, I say, should not the Church have her terza riscossa [third redemption], her third decisive shock, finally victorious for the lasting religious unity of her children?….

Servant of God Hermann Cohen
Augustine-Mary of the Blessed Sacrament, OCD

Catholicism in England (excerpt)
Address delivered to the Catholic Congress 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: Et radicavi in populo honorificato This stained glass window in Our Lady of Victories church in London illustrates the centuries of Christian pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady in Walsingham, England. Learn more about this image captured by Father Lawrence Lew, O.P.