Dear Parents, Caregivers and Friends of St Mary’s School,

In the famous western movie John Wayne utters the thought provoking quote "looking back is a bad habit". Is it? We are often told to be reflective and thoughtful but is that the same as focusing on the past?

Delving into the past can never be a good thing it stops us going forward and focusing on what we might achieve.

They say that "those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it". But even that quote is future focused as it’s taking what has happened in the past and using it to plot a course for where to go to in the future.

People who are the victims of terrible crimes (either crimes committed against them or someone dear to them) are able to move on with their lives when they are able to forgive the person who perpetrated the crime against them (remember the famous scenes of Pope John Paul the second forgiving Mehmet Ali Agca the man who tried to kill him).

People who never forgive, never move on in their own lives and thus become a double victim; once from the original offense and the second time by putting themselves in a prison of their own making.

The rite of reconciliation deals with things in a really affirming matter. In it you own your sins, you reflect on why they were wrong and who they hurt and then you work out how to mend things and go forward. The mending is meaningful and designed to bring closure and enable people to go forward.

There is unfortunately the temptation to always look to blame someone else for our mistakes. While this gives us (perhaps) peace of mind in the short term, it teaches us and if we do it for our children, to abdicate responsibility for our actions.

Any successful people that I have worked with have always had the capacity to take it on the chin no

matter how bitter the message.

As Denis Waitley said "the greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the