Perhaps that's because we're encouraged to read, meditate upon, and pray over the scripture readings before Mass, at least in my parish. As Boatbums rightly noted in post #16, it's important to HEAR the gospel too. Our pastor wanted us to LISTEN to what God was saying to us during Mass.
I just didn’t see bibles in the Catholic churches at all.
You might not see them in mine either (apart from those who bring them and the book of the Gospels during the opening procession and Gospel reading) unless you know where to look. I can think of several places to grab one before Mass if I want one, but if you just walked in and were unfamiliar with the place you'd likely not know where to get one.
I started getting people posting to me that the bibles were furnished by the church, which I hadn’t seen either and which appears to have been false information.
Perhaps it isn't false information at all. There may be missals (containing scriptures used in that day's Mass) in the pews and full scriptures (Bibles) outside of the sanctuary where anyone who wants to borrow one for Mass is free to do so.
The Protestant churches I had been in were full of bibles, the people carried them in, not having a bible in hand would have been unusual.
I used to do that too, in part because it wasn't known ahead of time what text the minister would be preaching on. Mass readings are easy to find out ahead of time and many Catholics do their readings before church instead of in church. Peace be with you.
As a former Roman Catholic, I also can testify that amongst the Catholics there is very little scriptural knowledge or emphasis on the Bible at all. The little bit of scripture you hear in mass is usually out of context, or disjointed, and too little to be of any real value. If one wants to actually understand the mind of the author, to absorb what he is saying, then you must read through the whole thing on your own, paying careful attention to details. Hearing the Bible read aloud to you cannot replace a proper biblical study, which requires much reading and patience.
These are skills I did not learn as a Papist, since no one taught it, though I did learn them as a Christian later on. And not because anyone taught me, but only because it became natural for me, at that point, to hunger for what was written.
It is not an experience that one can compare to anything in Catholicism. It is a dry, dead place, but where I am now, it’s very much alive.
Man, what a waste of a post, it didn’t say anything on point.