There is a persistent myth that Catholics do not read the Bible. The truth is almost the opposite. The Church gave the world the Bible, and her entire life is built around it.
Yes, very much so, and the Church actually insists on it. The Second Vatican Council called all the faithful to seek "the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ" through frequent reading of Scripture, echoing St. Jerome's warning that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.
The Catholic Church is genuinely saturated with Scripture. Every Sunday Mass includes an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a letter from the New Testament, and the Gospel. Over a three-year cycle, the faithful hear most of the Bible read aloud. The prayers of the Mass are drawn almost entirely from Scripture. You have been hearing the Bible every Sunday your whole life, you just might not have realized it. The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful to learn the sublime knowledge of Jesus Christ by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures" (CCC 133).
The Catholic Old Testament includes seven books that most Protestant Bibles leave out, called the Deuterocanonical books. Here they are:
These books were part of the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament the Apostles actually used and quoted in the New Testament. The early Church accepted them as Scripture from the beginning, and the councils of Hippo and Carthage in the late 300s formally confirmed the full 73-book canon. That was the Catholic Bible for over a thousand years, until the Protestant Reformation removed the seven.
So the Catholic Bible does not have extra books. It is the original one. Protestant Bibles are the ones that changed. It was the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, who discerned which writings belonged to Scripture (CCC 120).
Catholics do not hold to Scripture alone, and interestingly, the Bible itself does not teach that either. St. Paul told the Thessalonians to hold fast to the traditions passed on to them, whether in writing or by word of mouth (2 Thessalonians 2:15). The Word of God comes to us through both Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, which flow from the same divine wellspring.
The Church does not stand above the Word of God but serves it, guarding and faithfully handing it on. Scripture and Tradition are not rivals but two streams of the one Gospel, and the Church's teaching office, the Magisterium, exists to serve them both (CCC 95).
The Bible did not drop from the sky fully assembled. For the first centuries of Christianity, many writings circulated, some true to the faith and some not. It was the Catholic Church, in her councils and through the authority handed down from the Apostles, who discerned under the guidance of the Holy Spirit which books were truly inspired.
This means the same Church that gave us the Creed, the sacraments, and the Mass also gave us the table of contents of the Bible. To trust the Scriptures is, in a real sense, to trust the Church that recognized and preserved them. God is the author of Sacred Scripture, who inspired its human authors and acts in them and by means of them (CCC 105 to 106).
Scripture is not a historical record that stopped being relevant. It is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), which means it is speaking to you right now, not just to people who lived two thousand years ago. When the Scriptures are read in the Church, it is Christ Himself who speaks (CCC 1088).
This is why reading the Bible is never just an academic exercise. It is an encounter. The same Word that spoke the universe into existence and became flesh in Mary speaks to you every time you open the page. To read Scripture prayerfully is to actually listen to God.
The Mass is the Bible prayed. The structure of the Liturgy of the Word, with its readings from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Epistles, and the Gospel, places Scripture at the very heart of Catholic worship. The Eucharistic prayers, the responses, the chants, nearly every word is drawn from or rooted in the Bible.
When you grow in Scripture, Mass starts to come alive in a whole new way. You start recognizing the echoes everywhere, hearing how the readings speak to each other, seeing Christ revealed across the whole sweep of salvation history. The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerates the Body of the Lord, for at the table of both the Word and the Eucharist she receives the bread of life (CCC 103).