The bell is rung at 4 a.m. daily, which is the hour they rise in France. It was Catherine Tekakwitha’s practice to go to the Chapel at four o’clock in the morning and in prayers at the door of the Chapel. In the winter, she would walk barefoot through the snow to go to the Chapel.
Everyday, except on Sunday and the Feast days, at the end of the Masses they sing the Litanies to the Blessed Virgin Mary and some would stay by devotion to say their Rosary.
The village is separated in three bands and each having their Chief, and at noon the Chiefs would have them all recite the Angelus.
In the summer, from Monday to Saturday:
5 a.m., or at daybreak, the first Mass was said by Father Claude Chauchetière, but the bell was not rung. The Mass is said for those who were in greatest haste to get to work; that is, the French and the Natives. Catherine Tekakwitha would attend this Mass and the following Mass.
5:30 a.m., or at sunrise, the second Mass was said and Father Chauchetière was present, but he did not say the Mass and the bell was rung. The Mass was said for the Natives and the whole village attended the Mass; that is, both the Natives and the French.
7:00 a.m., the third Mass was said and again Father Chauchetière was present, but he did not say the Mass and the bell was rung. The Mass was said for the children. Father Chauchetière had them pray together after he gave a short instruction on the Catechism.
8:00 a.m. to 11 a.m., repast (meals) for the Jesuits Fathers at the residence of the Jesuits, Claude Chauchetière, Pierre Cholenec and Jacques Frémin, who would be at the Mission until the autumn of 1679.
11:00 a.m., the bell was rung for their examination of the conscience and at the same time the Angelus was sung, which Father Chauchetière said the Natives recite with great devotion three times a day. Catherine Tekakwitha would say the Angelus with exactness and wherever she was that even in the woods.
On Thursdays, Catherine Tekakwitha and the others would be present at the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. On Thursdays and the day before the Feast Days, the Chapel is cleaned by those, who are in charge of the cleaning.
The Natives would go during the day to visit the Blessed Sacrament when they went to the fields and when they return from the fields.
On Saturday evening, the bell was rung for prayers and they were accustomed to prepare themselves for Confession, which Catherine Tekakwitha joined to their customary preparation.
In 1679 and every Saturday afternoon, Catherine Tekakwitha and Marie Thérèse Tegaiaguenta, without anyone knowing of it, would go into a lodge in the middle of the cemetery and there taking into their hands willow shoots, which they mingled prayers with penance. This they would do again every Sunday afternoon.
Father Chauchetière’s occupation was visiting the sick and the Natives because their nature was very capricious (inconstant in feeling or purpose), which they themselves complain that they must be often visited either to give them encouragement, or to prevent and appease their disputes. He would work to making books for the Natives and would prepare the new comers for receiving the sacraments, and was also the Pastor of a hundred French lodges in Laprairie.
In 1677, Father Cholenec writes of the village of the Sault that twenty-two Huron and Iroquois lodges in addition to the Chapel and the Jesuits residence, and of having two Huron and two Iroquois Chiefs. Then in 1682, Father Chauchetière writes that there were in village of the Sault sixty lodges; that is, to say from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty families, as there were at least two in each lodge. Father Chauchetière writes that his work was made easier because he would sketch on paper his instructions and the Natives would read these with pleasure and profit, and these books are their mute teachers as Father Chauchetière wrote. He would also make his rounds in the village at 8 o’clock, or 9 o’clock in the evening.
In the winter, from Monday to Saturday:
6:45 a.m., or at daybreak, the first Mass was said by Father Chauchetière, and the bell was rung. The Mass was said for those who are in greatest haste to get to work; that is, the French and the Natives. Catherine Tekakwitha would attend this Mass and the following Mass.
On Saturday March 25, 1679 at 8 a.m. or after the first Mass, Catherine Tekakwitha made her vow of chastity in the presence of Father Cholenec. Catherine Tekakwitha would then remain in the chapel some hours at the foot of the altar after she had made her vow of chastity.
10:00 a.m., the second Mass was said and Father Chauchetière was present, but he did not say the Mass and the bell was rung. The Mass was said for the Natives and the whole village attended; that is, both the Natives and the French. In the winter, the Mass said for the children was perhaps absent, or perhaps the Mass at 6:45 a.m. was extended for the children to have them pray and for a short instruction on the Catechism.
11:00 a.m., the bell was rung for their examination of the conscience and at the same time the Angelus was sung.
On Sunday and on the Feast Days:
The Mass was said at 8 a.m. and the bell was rung. A reminder the Mass was said in Latin with the priest facing the altar, or with his back to the people. The Natives sung nearly the entire Mass, the men on one side and the women on the other side, alternately and in two choirs. The men were always placed on the Gospel side. After on the Gospel side, the Father preaches them a sermon, or has one preached by the Dogique. After the sermon the Dogique chants the Apostles’ Creed in his Huron language. At the end of the Mass was said the prayer to the King of France, King Louis XIV and as well as the Mass said after for the children. Bishop Saint-Vallier had written that a Mass was said also for the children in the Mission on Sundays. It was written that the prayers were said in the Huron language. The Iroquois Natives at the Mission preferred to say the prayers in the Huron language, because the language was easier for them to learn the prayers than their Iroquois languages. This we could say that Catherine Tekakwitha had recited the prayers in Huron as in her language, which was a past spoken Mohawk language, and also knew some knowledge of Old French and Latin because she had lived at the Mission for more than two years.
At 10 a.m., the bell was rung again and instead of the second Mass that they were in habit of hearing, they would recite the entire Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the usual prayers. After the Father said a few words regarding the special obligation imposed upon them to work with fervour for their salvation and to be an example and pattern to all the others in the village.
At one o’clock in the afternoon, the meeting of the Holy Family would take place.
At three o’clock in the afternoon, the bell was rung for the Vespers (prescribed prayers are said and sung on Sundays and Holy Days), While they take their places, the Father, the Dogique (or catechist, one who presides the public prayers of the Mission and indoctrinates the people in absence of the missionaries) and two Native choirboys put on their surplices on the Epistle, or Gospel side. Then all four advance to the middle of the altar, where the Father stands in the middle of the choirboys and the Dogique behind him with their backs to the people. All four would bend at the knee before the Blessed Sacrament and at the same time, all the people would stand. The Dogique chants Deus in adjutorium meum intende and everyone would sing with the Gloria Patri, and then the Dogique chanting all the Psalms. They would all stand at each Gloria Patri of which was said after each of all their Psalms, and remaining seated the rest of the time. They sung the Vespers in two choirs and after the Vespers there was the benediction, so that the sun has set by the time that all is finished.
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