Hi, my name is Father Mike Smiths and this is Ascension Presents.

So all of us are called to, to, at some point, assess the past so we can look forward to

the future.

And that's, I think that's what New Year's do, that's what birthdays do, that's what

the anniversaries do, they're, that's what seasons do, is they give us a time to stop

to look at the past and to stop and to look in the future.

I think when it comes to the past, when it comes to the past, a lot of us are tempted

to do two things with the past, either we're tempted to ignore the past or attempted

to live in the past.

So many of us, kind of barrier heads in the sand, we just, we just kept living, we just

keep moving forward, we, we just kept, nope, I can't stop, I can't look at the past

because why?

Because I'm scared of it or because I don't have any time to look at the past or for whatever

reason we tend to ignore the past or we become gripped by the past.

Like our, our past then ends up defining us, our past ends up kind of ruling our lives,

it rules our thoughts and dominates us and so we live in the past and, and can't move

forward because if, if you're living in the past or even if you're ignoring the past,

there is no clear way forward, you have no future.

In fact, if you're ignoring or living in the past, you're not even living in a

present well because to live in the present means I've looked at the past and I've lived

in the past but now I've learned from the past and I think that's what ultimately the

church and the Lord is calling us to do.

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