TV Picks 04.26.2009

SUNDAY, 8 a.m., live

Missa Cantata for Good

Shepherd Sunday

EWTN In John 10:14-15, Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I will lay down my life for the sheep.” This Missa Cantata (sung Mass) in the extraordinary form will be celebrated at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Ala. Re-airs at midnight.


MONDAY, 9 p.m.

Battles B.C.

HISTORY This episode, “Ramses; Raging Chariots,” charts the major battle of Kadesh, in Syria, between Egypt’s Pharaoh Ramses II (“the Great”) and Muwatallis II of the Hittites in 1275 B.C. Ramses had sent his forces toward Kadesh, wrongly thinking the Hittites were far away; but after being set upon by the Hittites, the Egyptians managed to fight their way out. Advisory: TV-PG.


MONDAYS, THURSDAYS

Gospel of St. Luke

FAMILYLAND TV “The beloved physician” is what St. Paul called his missionary companion, St. Luke, who wrote the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. At 9 p.m. Mondays and 10 a.m. Thursdays, this series offers commentaries on St. Luke’s Gospel.


TUESDAY, 9 p.m.

Frontline: The Released

PBS Karen O’Connor and Miri Navasky follow up their documentary “The New Asylums” (2005), about the nation’s hundreds of thousands of mentally ill who are in prisons, with this film about what happens to the mentally ill after they leave prison and try to fend for themselves. Psychiatric treatment for mentally ill ex-prisoners is poor or nonexistent; and within 18 months, nearly two-thirds of them are back in prison for new offenses.


TUESDAYS, 5:30 p.m.

Prayer in the Catechism

CATHOLICTV In this new series, Father Benedict Groeschel of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal discusses how the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church treat prayer. Re-airs 2:30 p.m. Wednesdays, noon Fridays, 4:30 a.m. Saturdays.


WEDNESDAY, 5:30 p.m.

How Do They Do It?

SCIENCE CHANNEL This episode spotlights the inner workings of cargo ships, excavators and newspapers.


FRIDAY, 7 p.m.

How It’s Made

DISCOVERY CHANNEL This program reveals how to prepare fresh-cut flowers, manufacture adhesive tape, make tofu, and produce lottery tickets.


SATURDAY, 4 p.m., live

Kentucky Derby

NBC Post time will be roughly 6:04 p.m. for the 135th running of the country’s most prestigious thoroughbred horse race, the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Derby.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.

Miniature from a 13th-century Passio Sancti Georgii (Verona).

St. George: A Saint to Slay Today’s Dragons

COMMENTARY: Even though we don’t know what the historical George was really like, what we are left with nevertheless teaches us that divine grace can make us saints and that heroes are very much not dead or a thing of history.