Pope to Cardinals-elect: Keep your eyes raised, your hands joined, your feet bare

By Christopher Wells

Pope Francis has written a personal letter to the 21 men – bishops and priests from around the world – whom he will raise to the Cardinalate at a consistory set for December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Noting that their elevation to the College of Cardinals will associate them with the Roman Clergy, the Bishop of Rome reminds them that membership in the College “is an expression of the Church’s unity and of the bond that unites all the Churches with this Church of Rome.”

'Eyes raised, hands joined, feet bare'

In his letter, the Pope Francis invites the Cardinals-elect “to embody the three attitudes with which an Argentinian poet (Francisco Luis Bernárdez) once characterized Saint John of the Cross, and which are also applicable to us: ‘eyes raised, hands joined, feet bare.’”

Explaining these three attitudes, the Holy Father tells the soon-to-be Cardinals that their new service within the Church will require them to “lengthen your gaze and broaden your heart” to see further and love more fervently.

They must keep their hands joined in prayer to enable them “to shepherd well the flock of Christ,” the Pope said, adding that prayer is “the realm of discernment” that helps discern God’s will and follow it.

Finally, the Pope said, they must keep their feet bare “because they touch the harsh realities of all those parts of the world overwhelmed by pain and suffering,” which will demand from the new Cardinals “great compassion and mercy.”

Concluding his letter, Pope Francis thanked the Cardinals-elect for their generosity and assured them of his prayers “that the title of ‘servant’ (deacon) will increasingly eclipse that of ‘eminence.’”