SUNDAY, 6 a.m.

Animal Miracles: One Tuff Hero

ANIMAL PLANET This episode spotlights a brave retriever, a “miraculous” Rottweiler, a horse, a kitten, and a German shepherd that rescued two boys from icy water. TV-G.

SUNDAY, 5 p.m., 11 p.m.

Novena to Our Lady of

Perpetual Help

CATHOLICTV Boston’s mission church, the beautiful Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which was built in 1870, hosts a novena in Spanish (5 p.m.) and one in English (11 p.m.). Eucharistic adoration and a homily accompany the novenas.

SUNDAY, 9 p.m., midnight

Let It Snow!

SCIENCE CHANNEL New camera techniques reveal how snowflakes form and show that each flake really is unique; and computer-generated images illustrate snowflake secrets.

MONDAYS, 9:30 p.m.

Peace Is My Gift to You

FAMILYLAND TV Father Al Lauer (1947-2002), ordained in 1974 for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, founded a religious community, the Brothers and Fathers of Pentecost, as well as Presentation Ministries, St. Peter Claver Latin School for Boys, and Old St. Mary’s Pregnancy Center, all in Cincinnati. He also was a pastor, hospital and prison chaplain, retreat master, and national evangelizer. In this series, Father Lauer provides meditations on Christ’s words at the Last Supper: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you” (John 14:27). Re-airs 2:30 a.m. Thursdays.

TUESDAY, 7 a.m.

Civil War Journal

HISTORY The terrible cost of war was portrayed starkly in the battlefield photos taken by Alexander Gardner (1821-1882) after Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Petersburg and other bloody contests in the U.S. Civil War, although he “posed” some scenes. Gardner photographed Lincoln many times and, later, the assassination conspirators. In 1866 he published a book of Civil War prints. Advisory: TV-PG (for casualty images).

WEDNESDAY, 8 p.m.

Life on the Rock

EWTN “The Priesthood” is the topic of tonight’s guest, Benedictine Father Thomas Acklin of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pa., where he is a theology professor, counselor and spiritual director. The author of The Unchanging Heart of the Priesthood (2006) and The Passion of the Lamb: God’s Love Poured Out in Jesus (2006), Father Acklin encourages priests to “burn with the heart of God.” He says today’s seminarians are enthusiastic about their calling.

THURSDAY, 9 p.m.

Hoover Dam Reinvented

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL Engineers study gigantic Hoover Dam, which was built on the Colorado River between 1931 and 1936, and explain what they would do the same or differently if constructing it today. Re-airs 11 p.m. Saturday. Advisory: TV-PG.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.