Tim Oberholzer
Tim Oberholzer is Executive Director of the Center for Benedictine Life. In addition to managing the operations of the CBL, Tim facilitates in-person retreats and on-line programs. Tim also accompanies others as a spiritual director.
Tim spent five and a half years as a Trappist monk at New Melleray Abbey in Peosta, Iowa. Deep prayer and reflection led him to leave the community prior to making solemn profession. He moved to Idaho to be closer to his parents, discovering the Monastery of St. Gertrude through a job posting for the innkeeper position at the Inn at St. Gertrude.
Tim earned a business degree from the University of Notre Dame, studied philosophy and theology at the University of St. Thomas, and completed the Stewards of the Mystery spiritual direction training program.
Tim is a remarried widower, a committed runner, and an avid reader.
Events with Tim Oberholzer
Diffusions :: Glittering VicesApril 25 - May 16, 2024
The vices mark things we need to leave behind. That is our starting point. … [An] adequate and effective response invokes “graced disciplines,” daily rhythms of discipleship that bridge a life held captive to vice and a life that shines with beautiful virtue. — from the Preface of Glittering Vices by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung This book discussion will follow Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung’s Second Edition of Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies chapter-by-chapter. In this 10-week journey, our group will meet via 1 1/2 hour Zoom sessions, Thursdays, 6-7:30 pm (Pacific) 9-10:30 pm (Eastern),…
Journaling: The Sanctuary of the HeartJuly 15 - 19, 2024
What is sacred space? How do you enter it? What are you being invited into? How will you greet the Divine shining through this transparent world? The Center for Benedictine Life at the Monastery of St. Gertrude welcomes the monastery of your heart. Here, the quest within and the world without join hands. Prompts of the Spirit and their counterparts in key moments, find a voice in the sanctuary of your journal, the sanctuary of the heart. Journaling, Joan Chittister says, is an “x-ray of your soul.” It gets beneath our facades to the bone, blood, tissue, and the spiritual…
Don't Tell Me What To DoNovember 15 - 17, 2024
The novice to be received comes before all in the oratory and promises stability, fidelity to the monastic way of life, and obedience. This is done in the presence of God and the saints. — Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 58:17-18 People often share that they would be a good fit for monastic life, “if it wasn’t for that obedience thing.” What is “that obedience thing?” Why is obedience considered onerous? What about “blind obedience?” Isn’t that equally problematic? Where is the virtue in obedience? Let’s find out together. For St. Benedict, obedience is much more than “doing what someone tells you to…