The Church is based on the bible so to a Catholic, involvement in the Church is involvement in knowing Christ. In Mass, they have bible readings. If you go through Mass everyday, its said you read the full bible in a year.
The Church is 'based' on Jesus the Christ and from this community of believers is produced the NT. The Liturgy is founded upon the Temple or Synagogue;
The standing during the gospels is, in Jewish liturgy, the standing for the Torah. The prayers of the offertory are the prayers of the Jewish Benediction before a meal.
The Sanctus is a direct quote from the Jewish prayer the
Quedushah, while the ending of the
maranatha when we say “Come Lord Jesus” is there in the invocation for the coming of the Messiah in the Jewish
Shemoneh Esreh said daily.
The structure of the Mass recalls the structure of the Temple service and sacrifice. The beating of the breast at the
Kyries repeats the Jewish beating of the breast as a sign of mourning or of repentance.
The octave after Christmas or Easter, is the week kept by Jews after every major feast. The
beni-toi with its holy water, sign of baptism and once placed at the entrance of Catholic homes, takes the place of the
Shema Israel encased in the wall before the entry into Jewish homes. And the readings of the Easter Vigil are the Passover readings Our Lord would have known.
A lot of older Catholics havent read their bible because of Church politics.
More than that. Prior to Vat II Catholics were discouraged from reading the Bible. Now, with the explosion of Catholic scholarship going public the majority of parishes hold bible studies.
That and catholicism isnt sola scriptura. A lot of things are based on the bible but nothing completely made up.
For some of Catholic doctrine there is a recognizable basis in Scripture. For others only a slender basis is to be found, and still others Scripture is virtually silent.
