👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾The #Sea of #Thoughts(#Bahre #ḥasāb) and the Sage Who Reached It
(Part 1)
Beloved children of the Orthodox faith, grace and peace be multiplied to you. Today let us reflect on a mystery handed down in the Church, a subject both profound and wondrous: the Sea of Thoughts what it means, and who is the blessed sage that attained its depth. May the Holy Spirit enlighten us as we consider this teaching.
What Is the Sea of Thoughts?
The Sea of Thoughts is a name given to the ordered measure of time, a numbered era. It is called a sea because of its vastness and depth, just as the waters of the ocean spread out beyond sight. In the same way, the Sea of Thoughts includes not only the simple counting of numbers addition, subtraction, multiplication to fix the days of feasts and fasts, but also the contemplation of the sun, the moon, and the stars.
For time itself is not random, but is arranged by God and entrusted to the stewardship of the Church. Humanity, in obedience to divine wisdom, arranges the divisions of days, months, and years so that both social life and the worship of God may proceed in order.
The Science of Time
This holy science of measuring time is called Bahre ḥasāb. The word is joined from two parts:
Bahir — meaning time or period.
Ḥasābe — meaning counting, reckoning, or measure.
Thus Bahre ḥasāb signifies a numbered period or world-year.
It is likened to the sea because of its vastness: its depths contain secrets upon secrets, hidden meanings and mysteries, just as the ocean has unfathomable paths. In this way, the reckoning of times is not merely practical but spiritual it reveals the order of God’s creation and guides His people in their worship.
The Sea of Thoughts in the Church’s Library
The wisdom of the Sea of Thoughts is preserved within the treasury of the Church. Our spiritual library is founded upon four councils or pillars:
1. The Old Testament
2. The New Testament
3. The Book of the Monks
4. The Elders (Haymanote Abew)
And beyond these is a Fifth Council, which is divided into two ways: the path of Abu Shakar and the path of the Sea of Thoughts itself.
This shows that the Sea of Thoughts belongs within the very heart of the Church’s teaching authority it is no invention of man, but part of the wisdom guarded by the Fathers.
The Sage Who Reached the Sea of Thoughts
Many holy men desired to enter this sea, but only by the will of God was it revealed. The one chosen was Saint Demetrius, the twelfth bishop of Alexandria.
In his youth he was a simple man, devoted to agricultural work, with no reputation for scholarship. Yet God, who exalts the humble and confounds the proud, filled him with the Holy Spirit and opened to him the mysteries of the times.
Thus it was through Demetrius that the Church received the system of timekeeping, the calendar by which the feasts and fasts have been ordered for centuries.
The Meaning of Demetrius’ Name
The name Demetrius is full of mystery. It means mirror. Just as a mirror reflects what is hidden from the eye, so Saint Demetrius revealed to the Church the hidden feasts and the hidden order of time.
A mirror shows what is far away so Demetrius made clear what was distant and unseen.
A mirror shows what is subtle and fine so Demetrius brought to light what was delicate and concealed.
A mirror shows what is scattered so Demetrius gathered together the mysteries of time into one clear vision.
For this reason the Fathers called him a mirror, for through him God revealed the concealed treasures of His calendar.
Continues 👇🏾