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Monk on a Mission: Abbot Dan Nobles on Contemplative Prayer · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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As a bonus episode to our wholehearted series,
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I interviewed Abbott Dan Nobles.
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So you'll hear a little bit of his
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story of how he became a monk and
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his journey with healing prayer.
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And I think his reflections on contemplative prayer
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are really relevant to us thinking about how
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God works healing in our lives.
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I enjoyed this conversation.
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Well, it's so good to be on the
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call with you.
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And would you mind introducing yourself, Abbott Dan,
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to our listeners?
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Sure, I'm Abbott Dan Nobles.
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I'm the Abbott of the Christ Mission Anglican
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Benedictines, which is a dispersed order of Benedictines
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brothers and sisters from not only Anglican, but
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from a wide varied traditions of the historic
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church.
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So, yes, wonderful.
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And you just use the word dispersed, which
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is interesting.
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I know, at least for me, when I
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first learned about monastic orders, I always imagine
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people in a literal monastery hold up somewhere.
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So what is what does it mean that
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you lead a dispersed order?
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Well, it's a grand experiment.
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I often say that that our vows are
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Benedictine.
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We often live like Franciscans because we live
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in various communities across the United States and
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literally around the world.
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We have oblates in Hungary.
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We have brothers in Africa.
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We have brothers in England and Europe and
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Germany.
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So yes, and it's brothers and sisters.
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We have a priors for sisters.
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And right now, I am with the brothers,
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but I'm getting ready to establish a prior
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for the brothers.
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And then we would also have a prior
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for oblates and oblates or those who may
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not desire to take full vows, may not
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desire to embrace the entire little rule of
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Saint Benedict.
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But there's some aspect of Benedictine spirituality that
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they want to draw closer to God through
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that avenue.
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And so they'll come in for a season
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or for a lifetime and they will walk
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with us and we walk with them in
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that aspect of their specific Benedictine spirituality.
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So it sounds like there's a lot of
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different ways that people participate.
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Obviously, you're the abbot.
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So you have leadership responsibility for the whole
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community.
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Then you have some other leaders like the
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prioress and hopefully a prior at some point
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who kind of have, would you call that
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like pastoral leadership for the brothers and sisters?
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Yes, that's exactly what it is.
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It's sort of extension of my pastoral arm
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to care for the sisters, to pastorally care
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for the brothers in the same way with
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the oblates.
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So you'd have someone who who care for
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their needs.
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They don't, they're not, it's not a hierarchical
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situation, but it's a pastoral care.
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And I serve as the spiritual leader for
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the community.
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And with the opportunity for oblates, it sounds
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like it's not all or nothing.
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It's not like you have to commit to
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a lifetime under the rule of Saint Benedict
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or do nothing.
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There's an option to kind of test the
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water, so to speak.
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Well, exactly.
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And it also, when I first became the
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abbot, we did not have an oblation.
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It was either, it was vocational.
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So you either took vows or you didn't.
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But we had so many people who see
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the benefit of contemplative prayer, contemplative life.
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And they may want to explore an aspect
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of them.
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So we established like many physical monasteries have
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oblates.
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I began my Benedictine journey as an oblate.
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So we have many physical monasteries that would
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have such an arm.
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And it's rich for us because we have
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people who come in and want to share
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an aspect of life with us.
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It helps us to really hone in on
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that particular area of our journey.
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And while we're also as vocational, we're trying
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to embrace the entirety of the rule of
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Saint Benedict.
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Yeah.
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Well, that sounds like you've managed to open
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up some ways for other people to participate
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in a really rich way.
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I'm kind of curious of when when I
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was reading about Christ Mission, I saw that
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you served in the army for many years.
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So thank you for your service.
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Thank you.
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I was blessed.
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I'm curious how you kind of made the
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transition from a military life to a monastic
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life.
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You know, God has his ways to work
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with us.
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Yes, I drew, it goes way back to
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my running from my call of ministry throughout
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my teen years and then throughout my military
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career.
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But as I came to an end of
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my military career, the call to ministry became
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louder and louder.
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Now in calling, I look at the Greek
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word kaleo as call.
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And that word gives you an idea that
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calling is that we surrender and we empty
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ourselves of our desires and our plans and
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we receive and we accept the desires and
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the plans of the one who's called us.
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So as I left the military, that was
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sort of my heart list.
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I really wanted to just empty myself of
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myself and serve.
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Of course, I'm older as I'm doing that.
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So when I'm in seminary, I'm in with
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with a lot of young young people and
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and as I was doing that, I needed
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to have community sort of my age that
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may sound strange, but it was I was
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looking for someone, you know, a little longer
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in the tooth.
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Sure, and I love my classmates, but I
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needed somebody that I could talk with.
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So there was in Gastonia, North Carolina, Belmont
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Abbey.
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And I started going to Belmont Abbey for
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retreats and the brothers there just just took
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me in and embraced me.
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And so I would continue on and that's
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where I realized that oh, I could be
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an oblate here.
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I could I could be a gift an
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oblate gift and and and receive a gift
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of their fellowship and that got me into
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this this journey.
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And then after seminary and after I was
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ordained into the Anglican Communion, I there I
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went on a convocation.
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I was talking to a to a fellow
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priest and said, you know, I need to
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escape for a little bit.
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I'm going to leave here and go and
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pray tears.
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And he looked at me strangely and he
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says tears.
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I said, yeah, that's you know, an hour
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of prayer.
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He said, well, I know he said, but
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that's a Benedictine tradition.
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Yeah, I'm an oblate in the Benedictine.
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He said, why aren't you vowed?
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I said, well, I'm an Anglican.
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Yeah, and and he said, well, you know,
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we we have Benedictine order.
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That's really well, I'm also married and he
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said, well, our our our vows we can
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be married.
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I said, well, tell me more about this.
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So, yeah, yeah, and and it was Abbott.
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Patrick Milan was the the Abbott and so
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I went into the order and at those
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days, it was called Anglican Communion Benedictines.
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And so I went into the order with
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with vows.
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He he made me the it's called a
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novice master.
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You're sort of the you're sort of the
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teacher of those who have just just taken
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vows.
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And so I started putting together structure there
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and through time Abbott Patrick, he became ill
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and he retired and he died shortly after
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me and the community elected me to be
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the Abbott.
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I've done that ever since so that's my
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thumbnail my journey.
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Yeah, yeah, that's that's really beautiful how you
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you kind of came into it just out
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of that desire.
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And then you realize that it kind of
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dovetailed with your own priestly and pastoral vocation
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eventually.
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Yes.
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Yeah, that's there's something about, you know, we
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talk about prayer warriors and the need for
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prayer warriors and that is true.
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There's also something about contemplative prayer that is
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so healing and and there's a rhythm of
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prayer.
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And if you're familiar with Lectio Divina that
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rhythm of prayer of of just hearing of
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of receiving internalizing responding and then resting in
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in the word.
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And so that's from my military background and
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some of the wounds that I suffered, you
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know, emotional wounds.
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I found great healing through that process and
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between that and then I don't know if
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you're familiar with but I'm also a youtuber.
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Yes.
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Yeah, I've seen some of the videos.
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Yeah.
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So wandering monk is my my trail name
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every hiker trail hiker you get a name
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and so yeah, my name started out being
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monk from my vocation.
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Yeah, and but the people that were with
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me, they said, yeah, but you're you don't
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stay you don't stay put, you don't stay
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in a monastery.
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You're you're always wandering.
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You're a wandering monk and so that name
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stuck and but between the trail and which
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is another very soulful experience and contemplative prayer.
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I found great healing and in that I
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wanted to share with others give a give
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a place a space for others whether they
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desire to be vocational or as we talked
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about earlier being an oblique.
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There's great benefit to contemplative prayer.
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I love how you're describing it not just
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in terms of what clerical Christians or monks
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were doing but also people who were doing
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common daily labor that the rhythm of prayer
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interlaced their lives as well for for me.
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That's something that I found really rich about
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the Benedictine tradition and I was wondering if
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you could speak to that as well.
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Let's say there's someone listening to this or
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reading this who doesn't know anything about the
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Benedictine tradition.
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They're just a normal Christian with a day
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job.
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How can this tradition inform or help them
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as they live their life?
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Well, I think for one thing it continues
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to call us back to our center of
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gravity.
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So if you're looking at the at the
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daily office, if you're looking at what we
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call the liturgy the hours of the rhythm
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of prayers as someone new comes into the
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order because we all have all of us
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in this order is dispersed order.
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We have day jobs.
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So as they come in, they're not accustomed
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to stopping for seven prayers a day.
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So what I encourage them to do is
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just if they do nothing more than take
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their phone and they put seven at the
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times of the offices, just a reminder and
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if they do nothing more than pause for
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the inventory, there is great benefit to just
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stopping and saying, oh God, come to my
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system.
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Oh God, make haste to help me and
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then go on with life.
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But you're pausing to come back to that
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center of gravity for us all that we
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need him to come to assist us.
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We need him to make haste to help
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us and then we can move on.
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Yeah, it strikes me as you describe that
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experience hiking that it doesn't require something extreme
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or something impressive.
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It just requires an openness to God showing
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up.
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God can show up on a hike.
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God can show up, you know, while we're
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checking our email, God can show up while
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we're doing the dishes.
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And those are all things that even the
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Vow members of your community are doing because
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they have day jobs and some of them
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like you have family responsibilities as well.
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So it's not about not having those everyday
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activities.
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It's about a committed way of welcoming God's
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presence in them.
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And that's true regardless of whether we're in
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monastery or whether we're dispersed because the monk
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in the monastery is doing the same thing.
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They have their prayers, they go work, they
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have prayers, they have a period of study,
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they have prayers, they have chores to do.
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And I have young brothers and sisters will
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say, you know, it would be so much
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easier in the monastery.
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Don't look at it quite that way.
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Parts of it might be.
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But, you know, when you're even godly monks
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living in the monastery together, probably have some
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personality conflicts.
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It's going to happen.
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And so there's things that we work through
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regardless of whether we're cloistered or whether we're
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dispersed.
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And rather than looking at someone else, the
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best thing to do is just look at
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your situation where you're at because that's where
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God wants to meet you.
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Yeah, and it really does.
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Everything gets back to that.
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Why do we do anything?
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We do it because God wants to have
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a relationship.
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So if we look to see where is
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he working, what's he doing?
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And we pray for eyes to be able
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to see it and ears to hear his
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voice.
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If we do that and join him where
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he's at, there's relationship rather than I'm praying
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for him to bless my plans.
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God has his plans.
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God is God.
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I'm not.
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He's not a genie that I can rub
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the bottle.
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He's God.
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So my plans are nothing.
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His plans are perfect.
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If I can trust him, I can I
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can have that blessing of relationship with him.
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That's cruciform life.
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I'm getting close to the end of my
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questions here for people who may be curious,
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maybe listening to this reading this and they
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want to learn more.
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I know you offer some digital resources.
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What's a good next step for somebody to
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connect with the Ministry of Christ Mission?
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Probably the best place would be to go
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to our home page www.Christmission.us. And
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in there, there's all kinds of links.
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If you hover over a picture, that picture
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may flip and there might be something hidden
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behind it and there will be some information
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there and there will be a link to
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another page and it will continue to drive
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you down.
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And it's sort of my way of obeying
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Saint Benedict in the rule.
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He talks about if someone wants to come,
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you need to make it not too easy
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to get in.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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So when you get there, explore it.
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It's just part of it.
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You have to sort of intentionally challenging website
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design for the purpose of spiritual formation.
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This is amazing, Abedneh.
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I've never thought of that.
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That's amazing.
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That was the reason I did it that
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way.
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So it's there, but all the information is
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there.
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And then a couple of things.
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My email is there.
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You can contact me.
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You can text me.
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We'll set up a time to chat and
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talk.
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There is also a YouTube channel for Christ
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Mission.
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And just look up Christ Mission.
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You'll see it on YouTube.
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And there's also Wandering Monk.
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And then there's also the Wandering Monk.
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And there, it's a little more subtle, but
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there's always a message in there.
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But folks may not recognize it.
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Well, I feel like you've kind of put
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your arm around us during this conversation.
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All of us will get to listen to
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this or read it.
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So thank you so much, Abedneh.
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Yeah, really, really grateful.
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I was wondering, you know, the name Benedict,
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Saint Benedict, founder of the Benedictine Order, has
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to do with blessing, like benediction.
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So I was wondering if you could pray
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a prayer of blessing to just end our
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time for everyone who's been part of this.
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Yeah, I would be glad to.
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In the name of the Father, the Son,
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and the Holy Spirit.
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Almighty God, we praise your name.
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You alone are worthy of honor and glory.
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And Father, now I pray your blessing upon
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Chris as he presents this to an audience.
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I pray your blessing upon the audience that
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hears it.
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May they have ears to hear your voice.
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Lord, give them eyes to see your face.
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Give them hearts to desire.
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Father, I pray their blessings.
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I pray that you give them peace.
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Peace that can only come from you.
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Peace that pass us all understanding.
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I pray in the name of our Lord
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Jesus who lives and reigns with you and
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the Holy Spirit, one God, now
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and
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forevermore.
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Amen.