WATCH: How to learn from your past to have a better future

In this Ascension Presents video, Fr. Mike Schmitz encourages us to have the right relationship to our past — to stop dwelling in it or ignoring it and instead to reflect and learn from it. We don’t need to be afraid of our past; we don’t need to let it determine our present and our future. If we’re living in the past, there is no way forward. To live in the present means you’ve looked at the past, lived in it, but now you’ve learned from it and moved on. Ultimately, that is what God calls us to do. Birthdays, new years, new seasons are typical times to do this, but we can do it every day. St. Ignatius of Loyola called this the Examen, where you go back over your day and ask God: Where were you today? Where did you speak to me? Where was your grace? And then you also ask: Where were you speaking to me and I ignored you? Where do I need to repent?  We must learn from the past to become wise.