"On Saturdays I watch the Mass from St. Patrick's in White Lake (Township) at 6:30 (p.m.), and on Sundays there's a Mass they do from a TV studio at 6," she continues.
That Sunday Mass is a rebroadcast on CTND of the "Mass for Shut-ins" that is produced at WJBK-TV (Channel 2) and first aired on that station at 6 a.m., Sundays.
Besides those regular programs, she also watches special Mass broadcasts, as when Cardinal Adam Maida celebrated Mass in Stockbridge, Mass., for Divine Mercy Sunday.
Birg says she believes watching Masses on television, with the camera close-ups of the priest's hands, has given her a deeper sense of the priest's actions at Mass, and that all the CTND programming she has seen has increased her knowledge of the faith.
She says she realizes watching a Mass on television is not the same as being there, but says it is a good substitute when a person cannot make it to church, if coupled with someone bringing Communion to the home.
"This man from St. Margaret of Scotland, Dan McGinnis, brings me Communion every Friday after he attends morning Mass. By the time he gets here, I've already heard the readings for the day on television, but he tells me what Fr. Ron DeHondt said in his homily and brings me the parish bulletin," she says.
The parish has a very active ministry to its homebound members, with dozens of volunteers making sure they are visited weekly.
"Dan's a retired Detroit policeman, and very involved in pro-life activities," Birg continues. "He also brought me a plant from church at Thanksgiving, a poinsettia at Christmas, some carnations for St. Valentine's day, and a lily at Easter. It really makes me feel like I'm still a member of the parish."
And she adds that her sister, Katy Carvill, who belongs to St. Michael Parish in Sterling Heights, brings her Communion every Sunday.
Twice widowed, Birg has four sons and a daughter from her first marriage, who have given her 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. In addition, she is close to the three children her second husband brought with him into their marriage, and their 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Birg says she thinks it is great how Catholic parishes now try to bring Communion to homebound parishioners: "Used to, if somebody brought you Communion — and it was usually just a priest who would do it — it was because you were dying."
Birg acknowledges that her own involvement in St. Margaret of Scotland Parish is nowhere near what it was when she could get around better, but she says she still sends in her offering envelope and tries to do some things, such as preparing a dessert when the parish houses homeless people through the Macomb County Rotating Emergency Shelter Team.
And she says she prays for all the persons on the parish's prayer list and for others who ask her to pray for them: "I've got such a prayer list, you wouldn't believe!"
Birg says she misses hearing Frances Bockington, St. Margaret's music director, and the parish choir sing at Mass, but she still plays some of her favorite sacred music on the piano or the electronic organ she has in her living room. As a teenager, Birg played the organ at St. David of Wales Church in Detroit during her years attending the parish high school.
"Fortunately, with all the arthritis I've got, my hands have been spared pretty much," she adds.
The CSA, which kicks off this weekend, is the annual campaign to fund most of the ministries of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Besides its support for the "Mass for Shut-ins" on WJBK-TV and for CTND, the CSA provides funding for Sacred Heart Major Seminary and for such archdiocesan ministries as the departments of Education and of Parish Life and Services, the Metropolitan Tribunal, campus ministry and hospital chaplaincies, and The Michigan Catholic.
