SUNDAY, 6 a.m.

Feasts & Seasons: Lent and Eastertide

EWTN English journalist, lecturer and pro-lifer Joanna Bogle discusses the seasons of Lent and Easter, profiles saints whose feast days fall within them, and teaches the Catholic customs and dishes of these seasons. Re-airs 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

MONDAYS, TUESDAYS

Kateri Tekakwitha

FAMILYLAND TV At midnight Mondays and 10 a.m. Tuesdays, this series tells the life story of “The Lily of the Mohawks,” Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680). She was orphaned at age 4 in a smallpox epidemic and raised by her uncle, a Mohawk chief in New York. Remembering what her Catholic mother had taught her about the faith, she was baptized in 1676 and took the name Kateri (Catherine). Persecuted for Christ, Kateri moved to a Catholic village in Quebec where she could pray, do penance, and care for the ill and aged in peace. Her last words were “Jesus, I love you.”

WEDNESDAY, 7 a.m.

Last Words of Christ

CATHOLIC TV Composer and music director Msgr. Anthony Mancini of the Diocese of Providence, R.I., is the founder of the Gregorian Concert Choir. On this Ash Wednesday, he and the choir provide meditations on the Seven Last Words of Christ.

WEDNESDAY

Ash Wednesday

EWTN At 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., in the two-hour telecast Holy Mass with the Blessing and Imposition of the Ashes, Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Ash Wednesday Mass in Rome’s fifth-century Basilica of Santa Sabina. At 3:20 p.m., in an episode of Rome’s Hidden Churches: A Lenten Pilgrimage, Timothy O’Donnell tells about St. Sabina, who died for Christ in ca. A.D. 114 and the basilica that bears her name. The Dominicans have cared for the church since Pope Honorius III gave it to them in 1218.

THURSDAY, 8 p.m.

Extreme Trains: Overnight Traveler

HISTORY This episode follows the Amtrak Empire Builder on its runs from Chicago to Seattle, pictures the beauty of Montana’s Glacier National Park, and gives the history of the Great Northern Railroad. Advisory: TV-PG.

SATURDAY, noon

The Stratton Story

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES A hunting accident in 1938 cost big league pitching star Monty Stratton (1912-1982) his right leg, but with the support of his wife, Ethel, he made a courageous and successful comeback in the minors. This 1949 film biography stars James Stewart and June Allyson and features many actual major leaguers.

SATURDAY, 12:30 p.m.

The Victory Garden

PBS This new episode tours gardens in tough North Philadelphia, investigates a Connecticut root cellar, and watches a chef prepare a root vegetable casserole.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.