Painting: Maurice Denis, “Le mystère catholique,” (1889)
After a number of years experiencing the annual cycle of readings in the traditional Latin Mass, I grew aware of the manner in which it approaches Gospels in general, which is freer and more subtle than we find in the Novus Ordo lectionary. In the latter, it seems that the guiding assumption is that one must always “follow the pericope,” i.e., the entire literary unit (except, I guess, for the omitted verses and the short…