Still Running Off at the Keyboard

JOA BOLENDAS

A visionary. A book about her has been published by SteinerBooks. The translator is John Hill, of whom the website says:

John Hill was educated in Dublin and at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Zurich, where he also lectures at the C.G. Jung Institute. He is the author of numerous articles on Jungian themses.

Here is a website devoted to her. There seems to be a Melkite priest quoted approving her visions:

“I tell you frankly that personally I have never been attracted to apparitions, private revelations and charismatic utterances. I feel best in the sobriety of faith. But I admit fully that God can bestow such graces and he does it always for a purpose. It may be a grace for the person itself and for many others. I share fully Joa Bolendas’ hope for a more Johannine Church. The sober and beautiful wording of her revelations bear all the marks of authenticity.“
- Jacob Willebrands, Catholic Melkite Community of Lavra Netofa, Israel/Palestine

The Anthroposophists who were associated with the book I've linked above are also quoted. She is ecumenical and Protestant.

Nancy Parsons is quoted. Bob and Nancy are BIG supporters of Anthroposophical Waldorf Schools and have their own bookshop website.

One of Bolendas' books appers on the Lindisfarne Books website as well.

Therese Schroeder-Sheker, a contributor to both books, seems to be an "Artist and Clinician in Residence, The Catholic University of America, School of Nursing and Benjamin T. Rome School of Music." I wonder if she is teaching any "spirituality" courses at the Catholic University of America? She is an Oblate and some of her activities are funded by Fetzer, a funder of the Anthroposophical program associated with genetic engineering called Ifgene. She conducts Benedictine annual retreats according to the website.

So are we Anthroposophists now?

It appears from material I've read elsewhere and the Melkite priest's statement here that Johnnine Christianity is visionary Christianity. In this case Protestant visionary Christianity. Oh wait...we're wearing our ecumenical hat now. That makes it syncretistic visionary Christianity, I guess.

Here is Bob and Nancy's Bookshop. This is the same Nancy who recommended the book on Joa Bolenda at the website linked above. Bolendas books are featured here as well. Scroll down the list, and take a look at Rosicrucian Christianity, the emerging new theology based on visionary experiences. Meister Eckhart/Matthew Fox books are near the bottom. Thomas Merton is there. Father Murray Bodo is on the list. Is he familiar to anyone? Tessa Bielecki's books are there. She is the Mother Abbess of the Carmelite Spiritual Life Institute, in Crestone, Colorado, Maurice Strong's interreligious community experiment in the mountains. This Carmelite community consists of both men and women religious.

If you have time while you're in Bob & Nancy's Bookshop, check out the Christian "community" link where you will find several books on the holy grail. You will also find the cassette set "Saints Alive!" Here is the list of saints:

In addition to Joan [of Arc], Saints Alive! introduces us to:

Pericles - responsible for the Golden Age of Greece
Holy Lady Ammal - who showered miracles upon the needy when they called her name
Jesus - the master of masters
Sathya Sai Baba - who performs miracles so that others may believe
Our Lady of Fatima - an aspect of Mary whose prophecies shook the world
St. Therese of Lisieux - whose "little way" has become a great light
Krishnamurti - the teacher that "truth is a pathless land"
Sri Nityananda - one of India's greatest modern saints
St. Martin de Porres - a black man born in 15th century Chili, known as the "flying brother" who brings healing wherever he goes
Sri Ramakrishna - a revered saint of India, said to have come like a comet and left with a light that never dimmed
St. Colette - who consecrated herself to simplicity
Yogi Ramsuratkumar - a virtually unknown beggar saint whose profound acts of service were believed to have global effects on the material plane. "By simply putting a stone down, he changed the world."
George Washington Carver - "the man who talked to plants" and is still leading a people (and the world) out of slavery.

Once you meet these saints, they will always live in your heart. Thank you, Hilda!

Sigh.

But I was investigating Joa Bolendas...

Here is a vision of her angel.

Her books can be found at Therese Schroeder-Sheker's website along with a recording of Therese's described as:

Inside the Miracle includes Therese Schroeder-Sheker's rare recording of "The Prayers from the Four Directions," for voice and shruti box, the Indian hand-held bellows she always takes on tour. The prayers she sings are Hindi, Israeli, Irish and Latin.

Is this what an Oblate teaches at Benedictine annual retreats? Prayers from the Four Directions?

Joa Bolendas music is available at several websites including this one. She seems to turn up on recordings that include Byzantine and/or Gregorian chant.