May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace!

For nearly two thousand years Christians have greeted one another with these often quoted words of the Apostle Paul when they have gathered for worship. These words are also one demonstration of the apostolicity of the Church - we preach the same Gospel as the apostles once preached - and they tell of the continuity of the Church of Christ through the centuries.

In the Church of God we wish one another grace and peace. We need these in order to live as Christians in this world. We need them in order to sustain hope, and we need grace and peace in order to communicate the Gospel in the Europe of today.

The big question facing Europe and the peoples of Europe concerns hope. Times of peace have followed waves of war and violence. Brother has once again risen against brother, hate has driven thousands and thousands of people from their homes as refugees.

On our prosperous continent numerous social problems have plunged masses of people into poverty, marginalization and accompanying hopelessness.

Many now look at us Christians and at the churches expecting to see signs of hope. We are also observed by many political leaders, by many teachers and educationalists, by mothers and fathers, by many people concerned about the future of our environment, by many who are losing hope for the future. How do we bring the message of grace and peace from God, our Father and Lord Jesus Christ? Do we have visions which inspire hope, are there road-signs to point the way to a better future?

Just such a situation was encountered by St. Bridget when she arrived in Rome from the distant North. She was weighed down by concern over three things. The moral and spiritual state of her people and its leaders - today we would say their world of values - caused her profound anxiety. But the political situation in Europe was also under threat. The most powerful states were at war with one another. Instead of building a world for all to share and instead of taking care of the welfare of citizens there was a struggle for power, there was national self-interest, hatred and violence.

The third concern of St. Bridget was the Church's urgent need of spiritual renewal. Against this backdrop, when we think of our own time it is easy to join in St. Bridget's prayer:

"Lord, come quickly and lighten the night,
Say to me that nothing happens without Your permission
and that nothing that You permit is hopeless.
O Jesus, Son of God,
as You were silent before those who condemned You,
restrain my tongue until I have reflected on
what and how I should speak.
Show me the way and make me willing to follow it.
It is precarious to delay, and it is dangerous to continue the journey.
So fulfil my longing and show me the way."

The way, the task, the vision, that was shown to St. Bridget was this: "Go back and preach the Word of God."

To preach the Word of God. That is grace and peace. This is what is needed by the world. The way of grace and peace always brings one face to face with two impassable things: truth and repentance.

Truth and repentance are needed in our society in its search for justice and a lasting world of values.

Truth and repentance are needed by the peoples of our continent in their search for a common road to the future, one where peace, justice and mutual respect prevail.

God's Word calls Christians to truth and repentance, those who seek the path to unity in accordance with the will of the Lord, in order that they might present a credible witness to the world.

St. Bridget's penitential sermon sounds familiar in our church in Finland, where we are accustomed to reading and hearing the teaching of our 16th-century teacher, Father in Faith Martin Luther. His famous theses of 1517 began like this: "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of penitence."

"Go back and preach the Word of God," Bridget was told. On the road pointed out by God's Word I see today's signs of hope, on the path of repentance and truth, which leads to grace and peace.

Visions of hope are where individuals and nations humble themselves and repent of what they have done wrong.

Visions of hope are where national leaders, teachers and decision-makers passionately seek the truth as the guiding principle for their decisions and their future.

We feel the touch of truth where God's grace and forgiveness renews a person.

Hope fills our hearts where hate and oppression give way to peace, where selfishness gives way to brotherhood, where nations shake each other's hand and people live in harmony with their neighbours.

The vision of hope is clear where Christ's disciples find paths they can tread together after having travelled separate paths.

At this very moment we Lutherans and our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers rejoice that we can express our common view of justification, which is something of great importance to us, in the words of the Joint Declaration:

"In faith we together hold the conviction that justification is the work of the triune God. Together we confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works." - Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification,11.

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace!