TV Picks 12.13.15

MONDAY, Dec. 14, 7pm, 11:03pm, 3:04am

Roanoke: Search for the Lost Colony

HISTORY What happened to the 117 English colonists who disappeared from Roanoke, Va., in 1590? Stonemasons Jim and Bill Vieira and researcher Fred Willard ask whether certain unusual stones offer clues. A re-airing. Advisory: TV-PG.
 

MONDAY-FRIDAY, Dec. 14-18, 3am, 6:30pm

You Did It to Me: Putting Mercy Into Action

EWTN Father Michael Gaitley of the Marian Fathers discusses our duty to carry out the works of mercy. Monday: Introduction. Tuesday: Feed the hungry; welcome strangers; shelter the homeless; bury the dead; forgive offenses willingly. Wednesday: Comfort the sick; instruct the ignorant; counsel the doubtful. Thursday: Remember prisoners and the souls in purgatory. Friday: Give alms and conclusion.
 

WEDNESDAYS, Dec. 16 and 23, 10pm

Time Scanners

PBS These new episodes use laser-scanning technology to probe ancient structures’ engineering secrets. The Roman Colosseum is the topic on the 16th. Jerusalem from Old Testament periods and the time of Christ is the subject on the 23rd.
 

THURSDAY, Dec. 17, 10:30pm

Christmas With the Nuns of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery

EWTN Mother Angelica’s Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration in Hanceville, Ala., sing carols. Re-airs at 3am Christmas Day.
 

SUNDAY, Dec. 20, 3:45pm

Come to the Stable

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES In this Henry Koster-directed 1949 Christmas comedy-drama based on a story by Catholic convert, author and ambassador Clare Booth Luce, two faith-filled French nuns enlist locals and overcome odds to establish a children’s hospital in New England. Loretta Young, Celeste Holm and Hugh Marlowe star.
 

TUESDAY, Dec. 22, 5pm

Catholic University of America Christmas Concert

EWTN This 25th annual concert took place Dec. 5 in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to benefit the Holy Family Hospital of Bethlehem Foundation. Re-airs at 8:30pm Christmas Day and 1pm New Year’s Day.
 

THURSDAY, Dec. 24

Christmas Eve

EWTN At 3:30pm, live, Pope Francis will celebrate the Solemnity of the Birth of Our Lord in St. Peter’s Basilica. (Re-airs 1am and 7pm Christmas Day.) The same Mass will air on NBC at 11:30pm. At 10pm will be Choral Meditations on the Nativity in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. (Re-airs 1pm Saturday.) At 10:30pm, live, the Solemn Mass of Christmas Eve takes place at the shrine. (Re-airs at midnight.)
 

FRIDAY, Dec. 25

Christmas Day

EWTN At 6am, Pope Francis will offer the Urbi et Orbi (“To the City and the World”) Message and Blessing. (Re-airs 9pm; and on Saturday at 2pm.) At 8am, the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word celebrate the Solemn Christmas Mass. (Re-airs at midnight.) At noon will be the Solemn Mass of Christmas at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.