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 widower remarried, a committed runner, and an avid reader.
Events with Tim Oberholzer
Diffusions :: The Four AgreementsMay 7 - June 25, 2026
This book comes highly recommended from the employee lunch table at the Monastery of St. Gertrude! It was the subject of conversation at a meal recently. Several of us took note of the title. The book was required reading for all the children of one of our employees. Another employee referenced the four agreements during the job interview process. “Toltec knowledge arises from the same essential unity of truth as all the sacred esoteric traditions found around the world. Though it is not a religion, it honors all the spiritual masters who have taught on the earth. While it does…
The Letter : An Intimate PilgrimageOctober 27 - 31, 2026
In our digital age we voice agreement with a thumbs up. A frown face replaces thought. A quick typing of words, buried in the Inbox, awaits another quick reply. “Narrative is what we are missing most,” Abigail Carrol (A Gathering of Larks) observes, “the opportunity to hear our own sustained voice” as we form a relationship. She goes on to say, “in a letter we travel the space between ourselves and the person to whom we address our words, bridging geographical distance by creating spiritual connection.” We create Intimacy, an “into-me-see,” as Father Donald Nesti phrases it, that can transform…