We are so happy to be together during these days in Tallinn. You have come from almost every European country and from further afield as pilgrims to Estonia, to pray and share as a sign of hope on our continent today. You are tired after your long journeys, so I promise not to talk for too long.

Archbishop Urmas Vilmaa of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church and Regina from Missio Church in Tallinn are with us this evening.

- “What does it mean for your Church to take part in this meeting?”

Archbishop says some words about his Church’s participation

 

- “What does this meeting mean for you as a young Estonian?

Regina says some words

I remember my first visit to Tallinn thirty years ago. As I arrived at the Baltijaam train station with another brother, a group of young people was there waiting for us. They were singing and carrying flowers. The warmth of their welcome touched me immensely and I’ve never forgotten it.

Now we live in a different time, but is there not still the desire within us to go beyond our comfort zone which expresses our longing for communion with each other? It helps us to understand that we are called to something greater than what we see at first sight.

You have already received the Letter “Hoping beyond all hope”, which has been written for this meeting and those that will follow in the coming year. During these days, you will explore different aspects of this theme together. At a time where we can easily be discouraged by what we see in the world and in society, are we ready to listen to each other and discover what has been placed in the heart of each person?

To write this letter, I spent much time listening to young people who live in war zones. I was struck by their courage and resilience. Many of those I spoke to told me how important their faith was faced with the harsh realities of their existence.

Faith, which is a simple trust in God’s love and which understands through the Resurrection of Jesus that death will never have the last word. They shared their hope, a hope that is beyond all hope, because it counts on new life arising where everything seems lost.

We heard the Magnificat, the song of Mary, the mother of Jesus, during prayer this evening. A young woman, she was confronted with a situation that she had never imagined. Living in an occupied country, she understood the importance of faith in God and was able to say “yes” to what God asked of her.

She visited her cousin Elisabeth, who was also awaiting an improbable birth. Like Mary each of us need people like Elisabeth who confirm what we understood about what God is asking of us, but hardly dared to believe.

The confirmation of her cousin leads Mary to break out into her song of praise. She sees how God raises up the lowly and that the mighty will be removed from their thrones. Her vision is a world which, under the sign of God’s merciful love, is a world of justice and peace where no-one goes without. When I hear these words, then something in me dares to believe that situations can change and my hope is renewed.

During these days, I would like to invite you to sing the song of Mary. As you sing it, pray for situations to change. Let us remember people who live under oppressive regimes, but who long for justice and peace. I remember so well the singing revolution in 1991 which contributed to Estonia regaining its independence. So many of the young people I spoke with whilst preparing the Letter told me of the importance of song in renewing their hope and giving them the courage to persevere.

It takes courage to hope. In the Letter, there is a quotation from the Peruvian theologian, Gustavo Gutierrez. He writes, “God will not forget the covenant: loyalty is first and foremost memory. … To have a memory is not to remain fixed in the past. Remembering yesterday is important, but it is important because it helps us stake our bets on tomorrow.”

We cannot forget the past, but we can look at it in order to build today and step by step construct our future. Is that not how God acts? Through the Holy Spirit, God is constantly at work in and around us, transforming our hurts and crowning our joys.

Let us not forget the past, but let us dare to hope beyond all hope.

Today you have taken part in the celebrations of your host parishes. We know that many of you are staying in schools, halls and some of you in army centres which were used to welcome refugees in past years.

When I took part as a young person in the 1985 Barcelona Taizé meeting, at first I was staying in a large school. It was not what I was expecting and wasn’t easy. But little by little, it became an important experience of community life and sharing. Taking care of each other, being ready to serve and accepting a simple way of life shaped my outlook for the future.

During this meeting, you also have a wide range of different workshops to take part in. I hope that this will sustain you in your searching and enable you to encounter committed Estonians whose testimonies can encourage us in our journey of faith.

Yesterday, I said that we cannot forget the past, but we can look at it in order to build today and step by step construct our future. In so many of our countries, we are wounded by history and still carry the scars today. Others among you, notably those among us from Ukraine, are still experiencing the horrors of war. In a moment, we will be hearing from Andriana and Marta who come from Ukraine.

I spent the last week in Lebanon. With one of my brothers who hails from that country, we visited people from different religious communities during the time leading up to Christmas. You know that the Middle East is currently war-torn. We have many friends there and our visit was a small sign of solidarity with them.

The generosity of the welcome in a land where there has been so much destruction took my breath away. Buildings in many parts of the country are in ruins, yet people show incredible resilience by reopening their shops and clearing away the rubble. This resilience is a way of resistance to the violence that was unleashed.

There are currently so many uncertainties. War could return. Despite this, those we met shared the joy of Christmas. Their faith was the light that shines in the darkness.

We also met with a Muslim sheikh in the south of the country. His own home had been destroyed and some of the villages nearby are still inaccessible. The bombs were still falling when he also buried the Christian dead whilst waiting for the priest to come and perform the necessary rites.

When I spoke with young Lebanese during the time of the recent bombardments, you could sense their hope for a future of peace and justice. Their courage was palpable, even if despair was not far away. We heard the Apostle Paul this evening writing to the first Christians in Rome “We hope for what we cannot see.” I felt that very strongly as I listened to these young people. The meetings last week confirmed what I had earlier heard.

Jesus himself was born in poverty at a time when nothing was clear in the land where he was to live. We too can find ourselves in situations where we cannot see the path forward. We can feel angry and at a loss faced with certain realities, but can this spur us into action? A person quoted in the Letter who met with one of our brothers recently said “A creative anger is dwelling within me.” The simplest gestures can become a marker of our desire to hope.

And we heard also in the reading about the groaning of creation. Our wounded human family is part of the wounded creation, where everything is given, everything is fragile and everything is linked. What are the choices each one of us is called to make to show our care for our common home, God’s good creation?

When I visited Ukraine in May, I met with so many people, young and not so young, who gave their time and strength to help others. I think of the young man who was the director of an orphanage, a woman who runs training courses for emergency and trauma medicine, a widow, whose husband was killed last year, who runs an association for children with special needs.

I would like to ask Andriana and Marta from Ukraine to share some words with us.

 

– What enables you to hope in your current situation?

 

I will be honest, it is not always easy to keep hope when you see the unfairness that lasts for so long... But what helps us not to lose it, is faith. We believe that what is not possible for people is possible for God. There is always a sunrise after a dark night. We believe that He is always with those who suffer and feel our pains as well. We also know that He doesn’t leave us alone in this hard situation.

 

– How can we pray for you in the coming time?

 

In these hard and dark times it’s very important to stay united in prayers and stand together. We ask you to pray with us for sovereignty of Ukraine, for stopping aggression against our home country, for wisdom of the governments and for peace to come. Please pray for all those people who lost their lives because of this cruel and unfair war, who lost their relatives and homes, for our soldiers, who protect us every single day risking their lives. May every family have them back home safe and sound. For all those who are captured, injured, lost, who feel physical or mental pain, who suffer and are in need. Thank you for all your prayers, we can feel them all!

Tomorrow morning, you will read together the second part of the “Letter” Listening to people of hope as well as a Bible passage as indicated in the meeting app. Two of the questions you will share are “Have I met any witnesses to hope in my life?” and “What have I learnt from them?” Perhaps you can begin to reflect on this already this evening.

Our evening prayer will close with a time of prayer around the icon of the cross. All of you who wish may come and pray at the cross to entrust to Jesus your worries and troubles, as well as situations of suffering in the world. Christ welcomes each one of us, as we are, and as he did in his life on earth walks with us in our questioning and doubt, just as he shares our joy. He renews our hope.

We are already over half-way through our European meeting in Tallinn. I would like to say a big thank you to the Christian communities of the city and surroundings, to the civil authorities and to the team of young volunteers from different countries who have prepared our gathering.

The conditions have not always been easy, but you have created something through very simple means which will remain in the hearts of many people, both the meeting participants and the people of Estonia. Thank you for the courage and perseverance that you have shown, preparing paths of hope for us all.

This evening, we heard the reading from Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus is moved by compassion at the sight of the great crowd following him. His emotion will result in caring and effective action. At first he cures the sick among the crowd. But then night begins to fall. His friends want to send the crowd away to find food.

Jesus, instead of agreeing with them, asks his friends to look and see what they have already. They come up with five loaves and two fish, something which seems so inadequate faced with the size of the task. He gives thanks for the little that they have found, breaks the loaves and his friends distribute the food to the crowd. What is left over exceeds their needs.

Jesus refuses to resign himself to what seems like an impossible situation. The resulting meal is a foretaste of what is to come in fullness in God’s future. Our hunger and thirst will be satisfied on all their different levels.

This story can shape our hope which, as it is written in the Letter, becomes “like a ship’s anchor. It holds us firm when the storm is raging. It allows us to live out little signs of our faithfulness to the calling we have received and to the people entrusted to us. It is also like a helmet, protecting us from the adversity that can rain down upon us.”

You will be starting to think about your return home. What is the little that you have to offer to Jesus so that hope can flourish in your local community, in your Churches and chaplaincies? The smallest signs count enormously. The prophet Jeremiah bought a field in his city, despite the threat of its destruction. Signs of hope give courage to all, hope for the human family, hope for God’s good creation.

We can achieve so much through simple means. This meeting has been prepared by a small team of young volunteers, a few Taizé brothers and St Andrew’s Sisters and local Christians. Rather than looking for the spectacular, is it not the humble gestures of listening to each other, of building trust and friendship which communicate the essential of the Gospel and help us enter more and more into the mystery of communion which is the Body of Christ, the Church?

For many years, our Taizé community has been on a Pilgrimage of Trust. From time to time, this pilgrimage becomes visible like now during our European meeting in Tallinn, but also in the village of Taizé with the weekly youth meetings. It is a way of encouraging each other in our everyday faith journey, a way of letting Christ renew our hope so that we can face the challenges we meet wherever we are.

We would be very happy to welcome you in Taizé during the summer meetings, and perhaps some of you will be able to spend a week with us either before or after the Jubilee of Youth which will be held in Rome next summer.

But where will our next European meeting be held?
 It will take place in a country with seven main mountain ranges
 A country which produces over 1600 different types of cheese
 A country which has hosted the Winter Olympics 3 times
 In a city built on a beautiful river
 With a recently renovated cathedral

The next European meeting will be held in the city of Paris and the surrounding region of Île de France.

I would like to ask Archbishop Laurent Ulrich to say a few words to invite you all to come to Paris and Île de France from 28 December 2025 to 1 January 2026.

Archbishop speaks.

Brunette is from île-de-France : What will it mean for young people from the Paris region to host the next European meeting ?

Brunette speaks: "C’est une joie et une fierté de recevoir les prochaines rencontres européennes de Taizé à Paris et dans toute la région. Ça sera une fête. Nous avons des paroisses vivantes et dynamiques. On vous attend nombreux."

Tomorrow we will speak more about the Pilgrimage of Trust on Earth with some new ideas of how we can continue to renew together our hope over the next time. Now we will pray around the cross like on previous evenings.

This morning you read together the “Striving for hope” section of the Letter in your small groups. You reflected on the question “What helps us look beyond our difficulties when we are in trouble?”

What you have shared together will prepare you for your return journey because though what we experience during these days here in Tallinn is important, its value increases when it has an influence on our everyday life.

As I said yesterday, our meeting has been prepared by a team of young volunteers. This evening, two of them, Ismael from Bolivia and Natali from Estonia are with us. We would like to thank them for all their efforts. I would like to ask Ismael, “What enabled you to keep on hoping during the preparation, despite the obstacles that you faced?”

Ismael says some words:

The answer to this question is simple, yet deeply profound and challenging: trusting in God. There are times when we lose trust in those around us, and even in ourselves and our abilities. But it was trusting in God that gave me hope throughout the preparation. Knowing that He has a plan, that He cares for that plan, and that He is present in every step allowed me to keep moving forward. That trust helped me see God in the people around me and in the small progress we made each day.

Something I experienced here in Tallinn strengthened this trust even more. I watched a documentary about Estonia where a woman said that, for Estonians, singing is a way of expressing their faith. That thought reminded me of a phrase by Saint Augustine: "To sing is to pray twice." Perhaps many Estonians, and even many of us, don’t realize it, but when we sing, God not only listens to us but loves us deeply.

That’s why I can say with confidence that trusting in God was the source of my hope. The certainty that He loves us, especially when we sing with our hearts, sustained me through every challenge and filled me with peace. Knowing that God loves us with an eternal love is what gives meaning to every step we take.

Natali “What do you hope for after the meeting, for the people of Tallinn and for the pilgrims who came to take part?”

Natali says a few words.

The challenge for all of us is how can we discern the presence of God in the midst of our struggles? Though we come from vastly different situations, how can we remain people of hope? In the Kikuyu language from East Africa, one of the attributes of God is that God is “hope-worthy”, God in whom we can put our hope.

It is above all in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that this becomes apparent. And yet, Jesus really experienced the hardship of human existence and even death. He did not flee it. If our hope is to grow truly then it means we must face the reality as it is, but to see it in the light of God’s promises. Nothing, not even death, can separate us from God’s faithful love.

And yet, even knowing that doesn’t always give us the answers that we are looking for. In this evening’s reading from Mark’s gospel, we meet the women at the tomb of Jesus. “Who will roll the stone away for us?” they say to each other. They accept their vulnerability. They don’t have the answer.

But when they look up, the stone has already been rolled away and they see a young man dressed in white. We are told that the women were alarmed. They are in a state of shock at what they see and hear. Something that they never dared hope for has happened.

The young man tells the women that Jesus has been raised. He is not in the tomb. And he says to them “go and tell his disciples and Peter”. The women become apostles, which means “sent”. They are sent to the male disciples and to Peter. The women’s raised status and new ministry is a symbol of the new creation, the renewed hope, that Jesus brings into being.

Jesus is going before them to Galilee, back to the place where the gospel began. It suggests a new beginning but also a return to the roots. But the women flee from the tomb, seized with terror and amazement. Because of that, we are told, they said nothing to anyone.

Mark uses the word translated as terror twice in his gospel – once to describe the reaction of his friends at the calming of the storm (Mk 4.41) and again to describe their reaction to Jesus’ transfiguration (Mk 9.6). Both these contexts suggest that we should better say awe than terror. The women say nothing to anyone because they are filled with awe.

The women need time to digest what they have experienced. Like them, you are returning to Galilee, to your home region. They journey together as many of you will do. You, like them, can become pilgrims of a hope that you carry within you. And that hope is perhaps a hope for peace.

During these days, from different backgrounds, countries, Churches and ages, have we not lived a sign of the hope that trust in the Risen Christ promises us? Because Christ is our peace and he gives us that peace, as pilgrims of hope, we become also pilgrims of peace.

Peace without justice is no real peace, but there is also an inner freedom which comes from the simplest trust, which we call faith. As we strive for a just peace wherever we live, will we do all that we can to remain free inwardly?

Every Friday in Taizé, we hold a prayer in silence for peace in our world. We may not have the answers we look for, but to remain in the presence of God can allow intuitions to rise within us. Some of these intuitions, as we share them with others, will perhaps lead us to act. As you will do tonight to welcome the new year, will you on returning home pray also for peace on a regular basis in your Churches and groups?

Could you also seek contact with someone who lives in a war zone and support them through regular emails or face-time talks? Would it be possible also to support people who live under oppressive regimes in some way as well? Many of you have met young people these days from Ukraine. Stay in touch with them! We will not forget you!

May the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Risen Christ, lead us all to become pilgrims of hope and pilgrims of peace. Are we ready to hope beyond all hope?