Summer
counted
Summer
counted
COUNTED
June, july, & August 2025
In the church calendar, more than half of the year is given over to “Ordinary Time.” Coming from the word ordinal, which means “counted,” this time is far from a mere placeholder between holidays. We are urged to count each day, each hour, each minute like precious stones on an altar.
Yet, this simple call is not an easy one. It is often hard to recognize the moments of our days, filled with miscellaneous and routine tasks, as the holy ground where we encounter God. And while life is punctuated with extraordinary and defining moments, we live in the ordinary and average, day in and day out. Whether it is due to sheer boredom from the monotony or sheer exhaustion from our burdens, we forget to notice the everyday glories which are teeming over in praise to their creator. How do we begin to have the ears to hear, the vision to notice, and the courage to join their song?
This season, we will seek to cast our eyes, once again, to what’s in front of us — at the glories found in the ordinary, the plain stuff that fills our schedules, our closets, and our worries — and not stopping there, but seeing through them to what Grand Story they participate in. It may, possibly, be only then that we can genuinely have the capacity to revel in the lilies of the field while not diminishing the reality of our pains and struggles. For only in the narrative of Christ’s cosmic story do both aptly fit In this season, we will focus on what “ordinary” truly is (and what it isn’t) and lean into each site of worship, no matter how routine, humdrum, simple, awful, or awesome it is.
For this is the day the Lord has made.
FOR THIS SEASON
-
-
Imagination Redeemed
Believe to See (Featured)
-
Wisdom in Creation: Josh Tiessen Lecture
Saturday, June 27, 2025
7:00pm-8:30pmRosas & Mimosas
Saturday, June 21, 2025
10:00am – 12:00pmBombadil: A Four-Week Study of Vocation, Calling, and Mastery
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
7:00pm
-
Visual Artist Feature
Musician Feature
June
June
Ordinary Places
The totality of our lives are mostly spent doing simple tasks: tying our shoes, doing the dishes, brushing our teeth. What are we as Christians to make of the humdrum days, tasks, and moments that pervade our schedules? What if Christians viewed those tasks, not as humdrum, but as gifts from God to mobilize the world immediately around us to the glory of God? We explore those questions this month!
Featured Content
CULTIVATING A NARNIAN HEART SERIES
This four-part series by Karissa Riffel explores how we can fulfill our calling as Christians by cultivating “Narnian” hearts that sow the kingdom on earth, growing “little Edens.”
Part 1: “The Planting of Toffee Trees”
Part 2: “Take of My Fruit for Others”
Imagination Redeemed Podcast (June Episode)
In every episode, we retell one of the great stories, then follow its illumination to delve deeper into conversation about how to enter into the life of the Christian imagination.
Finding the Great Story In the kitchen sink
Join us as we explore Disney’s Encanto and how our daily faithfulness in seemingly mundane tasks isn't preparation for the Great Story—it is the Great Story. Discover why there are no ordinary things, and how Christians can learn to mobilize the world immediately around them for the glory of God.
Want to dive in?
Subscribe to Anselm’s Substack to receive the full show notes, which includes: a detailed list of topics covered, resources mentioned in the episode, further recommended reading and listening, and discussion questions to utilize for further thinking and conversation with friends!
Anselm Voices
Anthony esolen’s “An Encounter with the Ordinary”
How does leaving a tenured professorship at Providence College for a small liberal arts college in New Hampshire, apply to the Anselm Society? Read Anselm Fellow Dr. Esolen’s motivations and see for yourself!
Gianna Soderstrom's "The Kitchen of Transfiguration"
Anselm Member and Arts Guild Assistant Director unpacks the gift that comes through faithfulness in everyday obedience to the small, unseen actions given to us by God.
Featured June Books
Dive into the Joy found in the Ordinary Moments. | View more books in“The Library”
Artifacts
Recommended Visual Media: Paintings, Films, Documentaries. (Click the images below to learn more!)
MUSIC Feature
FINDING MAGIC: IN THE MUNDANE
Noah Love reviews John Mark McMillan’s album Deep Magic in a new column from Anselm.
Artist Feature
Gatherings
Bombadil: A Four-Week Study of Vocation, Calling, and Mastery
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
7:00pm-8:30pm
Rosas & Mimosas
Saturday, June 21, 2025
10:00am – 12:00pm
Wisdom in Creation: Josh Tiessen Lecture
Saturday, June 27, 2025
7:00pm
July
July
The Poetry found in Presence
Do you find that summer—or life in general—tends to leave you feeling like you can't possibly keep up?
There's always the thing right in front of us; the tyranny of the urgent. It's hard to be still long enough to notice what's most important, and harder still to see through it to God's hand at work through it. This month, our content and gatherings are designed to help you with exactly this.
-
By Sarah Powell
He asked me,
“Why would you buy flowers?
They will only die.”“Of course
they will die. But
every day until they do,
I will walk into the room and smile because
they are waiting there
for me,
drinking water, basking in sun,
fully and completely
alive.” -
By Sarah Powell
Traverse these wild folds
desolate no more.
See, at the turning of the brook
awaits another traveler,
weary on his way.
Awaken, weary heart.
Rejoice to see another
wandering this twisting road with you.
Here among the vines and thistles
grow also wild strawberries,
And on the barks of the old crooked trees,
the moss is soft and green.
“Tell me a story,”
says one wanderer to another.
“It will be long.”
“We have time.”
So there comes forth a great mystery -
the soul of one
sifted down to words,
that it might be handed
off to another -
as a palm-full of soft sand,
or a perfectly smooth skipping stone.
“There you are,” says the one.
“Thank you,” says the other.
And so they will walk.
Together now they will find the wild strawberries
beneath the prickly vines.
There at the bending of the brook
awaits another traveler.
Desolate no more,
traverse these wild folds. -
By Courtney Siebring
The night went dark
when transformers blew,
when all across our city
the mosquito hum of fridges
and fluorescent bulbs hushed.
All shut down
but we switched on,
lit candles,
told secrets,
played our grandparents’ games:
cribbage, spades,
ate softening ice cream.When I miss you now,
I walk past you in the hall,
down the basement stairs.
I trip the breakers
and come up in the dark
to find you. -
heat I
our sprinkler at dawn
waves bright fingers of water
toward the stone-dry skyheat II
baby lemon tree
sleeps beneath her summer tarp
dreams of future fruitheat III
dark Serrano leaf
drinks the sun like ambrosia
a staid desert godhaboob I
lightning, summer’s script
writes its song across the sky
thunder’s drums replyhaboob II
dusty desert clouds
turn the earth a brick-red haze
finally, the rainhaboob III
shards of palms litter
storm-swept streets. Nearby, roots-up,
torn aleppo pinebirds I
knocking from inside
a lone saguaro cactus
in a hole, two eyesbirds II
sprouting sunflowers—
just three grew; remaining soil
pocked with pecks of birdsbirds III
hens nip at the weeds
foraging sweet ants to eat
spurning bags of feeddistance I
postcard in our box,
ragged from a rugged trip—
a worn desert dovedistance II
daughter through the phone
shouts softly, “wish I were there”
Grand Canyon echoes -
And after the horas, l’chaims, the bright wine poured,
the urge with gleaming eyes to feast a little more,
the tender nestling while the revelry remains,
the dancing will draw out, legs begin to strain
from turning, paining one another, giving help
against each other’s weakness, making new wounds well—
then your wedding-guests will circle you around
again and dance to help your help, for love abounds
in dancing within dancing within the greater dancing still
of the Bridegroom and his bride, that, rising, fills
all things. When, at the end, joints stiffen, muscles groan,
and you are drawing near to your eternal home,
remember the dance that you are starting now
joins with the Dance that’s making all things new. -
By Betsy K. Brown
Dear child (if you happen to exist
within my waiting womb), I wonder if
we’ll take more trains together, you and me,
and you’ll look out the window, too. For now,
my passenger, there is no way to peer
out of your little car where you might sleep
if you are real, no way to know your route,
or if you’ll exit at the proper time.I see myself on a windowless train,
careering toward a city or a crash,
a form just fetus-small compared to earth,
still sitting, growing, waiting for a door
to open, let me out to breathe, to feel,
to think, and hence to know that I am real.
Featured Articles
Imagination Redeemed Podcast
In every episode, we retell one of the great stories, then follow its illumination to delve deeper into conversation about how to enter into the life of the Christian imagination.
Distraction and mastery
Join us as we explore the story of Taran Wanderer—a young man eager to skip to mastery but forced to learn that true craft begins with getting your hands dirty in the raw materials. Through Lloyd Alexander's tale of smithing, weaving, and pottery-making, we dive into why our souls, like Taran's hands, need to be trained in stillness before they can create anything worth keeping.
Want to dive in?
Subscribe to Anselm’s Substack to receive the full show notes, which includes: a detailed list of topics covered, resources mentioned in the episode, further recommended reading and listening, and discussion questions to utilize for further thinking and conversation with friends!
EARLIER ON THE PODCAST: “Making the Most of Our Time”
In Season 3, Episode 12, Brian welcomes back writer and storyteller Leslie Bustard to talk about how to cultivate thankfulness, and how it helps us to live well in the present moment. Leslie shares her real life experience in regards to gratitude, and shares a secret: life doesn't have to be ordinary.
Interview: Malcolm Guite on Pipe Smoking and Stillness
In our fast-paced, ever-connected world, we've largely forgotten the art of being still. But what if stillness isn't simply the absence of activity—what if it's actually a practice that requires intention, ritual, and presence?
Join Brian Brown and Matthew Clark as they sit down with renowned poet and theologian Malcolm Guite for a contemplative conversation about pipe smoking as a case study in the spiritual discipline of stillness.
Anselm Voices
Jane Scharl’s “The Importance of Formal Poetry”
Anselm poet Jane Scharl joins the table at the Believe to See Podcast to share her love of classic poetic forms, and to explain how poetic style reflects your view of the world.
Roger Scruton, “Living with a Mind”
On the poetry of Emily Dickinson and mastery in boredom, Roger Scruton recalls that in his little patch of suburban England, learning — especially those stuffy hobbies like poetry — would be treated in the same way as any other hobby: harmless and excusable, so long as you kept quiet about it.
Featured Poetry Books
Dive into the Joy found in the poetic verse. | View more books in“The Library”
Series Highlight: Why We Create
Poetry is a wonderful act of sub-creation, but it may spark some preliminary questions for us like, “Why do we feel the need to create, anyway? And is this important to the Christian Life?” Dive into our past series, “Why We Create” to learn our answers to these questions and much more!
MUSIC Feature
FINDING MAGIC IN THE MUNDANE
Noah Love reviews John Mark McMillan’s album Deep Magic in a new column from Anselm.
Artist Feature
SLOW NOTICING
Isaac Hans introduces us to
the rhythmic artmaking of Rebekah Blum, Anselm's
Summer 2025 Feature Artist
Gatherings
Philosophy by the Fireside
Saturday, July 12, 2025
6:30pm – 9:30pm
The Common Room
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
6:00pm – 9:30pm
by Andrew Klavan