Orthodox 1107
“Our nature yields no fruit though three times sought for; once indeed when we transgressed the commandment in paradise; the second time, when they made the molten calf under the law; thirdly, when they rejected the Saviour. But that three years’ time must be understood to mean also the three ages of life, boyhood, manhood, and old age.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of Luke, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Luke 13:6-9
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1843) ↗