"What you hold, may you [always] hold. What you do, may you [always] do and never abandon."

"What you hold, may you [always] hold.  What you do, may you [always] do and never abandon.  But with swift pace, light step, [and] unswerving feet, so that even your steps stir up no dust, go forward securely, joyfully, and swiftly, on the path of prudent happiness, believing nothing, agreeing with nothing which would dissuade you from this resolution or which would place a stumbling block for you on the way, so that you may offer your vows to the Most High in the pursuit of perfection to which the Spirit of the Lord has called you."

"quod tenes teneas, quod facis facias, nec dimittas sed cursu concito, gradu leui, pedibus inoffensis ut etiam gressus tui puluerem non admittant, secura gaudens et alacris per tramitem caute beatitudinis gradiaris, nulli credens, nulli consentiens, quod te vellet ab hoc proposito reuocare, quod tibi poneret in uia scandalum, ne in illa perfectione, qua spiritus Domini te uocauit, redderes Altissimo uota tua."

     St. Clare of Assisi, Second letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague, secs. 11-14, as trans. Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., and Ignatius C. Brady O.F.M. (Francis and Clare:  the complete works, Classics of western spirituality (New York and Mahwah:  Paulist Press, 1982), 196), but without the versification.  Latin from Walter Seton, "The letters from Saint Clare to blessed Agnes of Bohemia," Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 17 (1924):  515 (509-519).  St. Clare is here encouraging perseverence in the "life of the highest poverty" (sec. 1) in imitation of "the poor Christ" (sec. 15).