The PDFs below contain images of seventeenth-century printed books containing the Rule of St. Clare. Two 1621 printed books of the Rule of St Clare are bound with a 1622 printed version of the "Declarations and Ordinances made upon the Rule of Our Holy Mother S. Clare" (more commonly known today as the Constitutions of St Colette).
The first of these 1621 Rules was used by Eleanor Knott when, in 1948, she undertook a modern transcription of the Royal Irish Academy MS D i 2, the 1636 Rule in the hand of Br Mícheál Ó Cléirigh OFM. At the time this study was undertaken, the book was housed in the library of the Franciscan Friars of Merchant's Quay, Dublin, hence it has been referred to here as MQ as well as in a soon-to-be published article in Archivium Hibernicum, the journal of the Catholic Historical Society of Ireland. The PDF below contains pages 3-49 of the book i.e. the Rule only.
The second 1621 book has been housed in our monastery from time immemorial. It was printed in Spanish Flanders ( probably St Omer) in the early- seventeenth century and brought to Ireland by Irish sisters who sought to establish the Order in Ireland. This document is referred to as G (for Galway) in the upcoming article. The PDF contains all 80 pages of the book.
The third PDF contains images of the Rule of St. Clare printed in a 1684 book produced for the Poor Clare Community of Aire. This is a lightly edited edition of the 1621 Rule.
(Higher definition images of those contained in these PDFs can be requested from: poorclaresgalwayvocations@gmail.com.)
O God,
I pray that I may know You and love You
So as eternally to rejoice in You.
And if, in the present life, I cannot do so fully,
Grant that my love and knowledge may at least grow on earth
That my joy may be fully in Heaven:
A joy expected here and there fulfilled.
O Lord our Father,
You counselled or rather commanded through Your Son,
That we ask for this fullness of joy, and You promised to grant it.
I ask of You, O Lord, that which, through Your Wonder-Counsellor,
You encouraged us to ask and promised to grant:
That our joy may be full!
Let my mind meditate on this joy, my tongue speak of it,
My heart desire it, my words extol it,
My soul hunger for it, my flesh thirst for it,
My whole substance yearn for it,
Until I enter into the joy of my God
Who is Triune and One,
Blessed forever.
Amen.
