[Officium]
Sabbato Quattuor Temporum Septembris

[Oratio]
O God, Who hast chosen healthy fasting, as a mean to do good both to bodies and to souls, we humbly implore thy Majesty, that the godly prayer of such as be fasting this day may turn away thy wrath, and may be effectual to gain for us thy blessing in time and in eternity.
$Per Dominum

[Lectio1]
Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Luke
!Luke 13:6-17
At that time, Jesus spoke unto the multitudes this parable: A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. And so on. 
_
Homily by Pope St. Gregory (the Great.) 
!31st on the Gospels.
Our Lord and Redeemer speaketh unto us sometimes by words, and sometimes by deeds, sometimes one thing by words, and another by deeds, and sometimes the same thing both by word and deed. In the portion of the Gospel which hath this day been read, ye have heard, my brethren, two things, the parable of the fig-tree and the history of the woman which was bowed together. In both is a manifestation of the Lord's mercy, but in the one by a parable, in the other by an example. But the barren fig-tree signifieth the same thing as doth the woman bowed together, and the patience shown to the fig-tree the same thing as doth the healing of the woman bowed together.

[Lectio2]
What is the fig-tree a type, but of mankind? Of what is the woman bowed together by a spirit of infirmity a type, but of the same mankind? Man was originally placed in a garden like the fig-tree, and created upright like the woman, but man fell away by his own willful fault like the fig-tree he brought forth no fruit like the woman he ceased to stand straight. When he willfully went into sin, because he would not bring forth the fruit of obedience, he lost his uprightness. The nature which had been created in the image of God, continued not in honour, but cast aside the state wherein it had been placed and made. The lord of the vineyard came thrice to the fig-tree, for God hath come in hope, and in warning, seeking fruit from mankind under three successive dispensations, that is to say, before the law, under the law, and under grace.

[Lectio3]
It came before the law, in that by natural understanding, He let all know by example of Himself, what and how they should do toward their neighbor. In the law He came teaching. After the law He came by grace, opening, manifesting His merciful Presence. But after all these three years He yet hath to complain that He findeth no fruit upon the fig-tree, for there are still some degraded minds which the inborn voice of the natural law doth not control, which the commandments do not teach, and which the wonders of the Incarnation itself do not convert. Of what is the dresser of the vineyard a type, but of the Episcopacy? For these are they who have the government in the Church, and are therefore truly called the dressers of the Lord's vineyard.

[Ant 2]
Give light, O Lord, to them that sit in darkness, * and guide our feet into the way of peace, O Thou the God of Israel.