Don Swift and Associates

08/17/2023

Thursday, August 17

Matthew 18:21–19:1

Not seven times but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:22)

Jesus’ parable can be challenging, especially when we’ve been deeply hurt by someone and are still struggling to forgive them. It’s true, of course, that God has forgiven us such a large debt that we should forgive the much smaller “debt” that someone else owes us. But sometimes it’s difficult even to get to the point of wanting to forgive another person. So let’s look at how our unforgiveness might be affecting us.

We may have experienced the pain of abuse, betrayal, or neglect, but that pain is only magnified when we hold onto it. Then we become weighed down by bitterness and resentment. These burdens prevent us from living in the fullness of peace that Christ won for us on Calvary. Jesus came to liberate the captives (Luke 4:18), and extending forgiveness frees us from the prison of our negative thoughts and feelings. It helps us to love others as Christ loves us.

Praise be to God that our ability to forgive does not depend only on us! Earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells us, “Ask and it will be given to you” (7:7). So even though this task of forgiveness can seem impossible, the Lord promises that if we ask, he will soften our hearts and help us to begin moving along the path of forgiveness.

Even so, it’s important to keep in mind that forgiveness does not often come instantaneously. Pursuing it requires just as much patience and mercy with ourselves as it does for the ones who have wronged us. There will surely be moments when we fall back into anger and frustration. But each time we do, we can call on the Lord and ask for more of his mercy and grace. It’s a prayer that he loves to answer.

“For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). Don’t let the bitterness and resentment of unforgiveness shackle you. Believe that with God’s grace, you can live in the freedom that is yours in Christ.

“Jesus, I want to be free! Help me forgive all those who have hurt me.”

Joshua 3:7-11, 13-17
Psalm 114:1-6

08/10/2023

HR Professional Position

A manufacturing company in northern Texas is seeking a person qualified to manage the Human Resources process for their organization. There are around 150 employees, mostly hourly. The position entails day-to-day HR duties, benefits management, and hiring. Good pay and relocation expenses provided.

If interested in discovering more information please contact Don Swift by responding to this posting, email at [email protected], or phoning 765-617-5510.

05/07/2023

May 7, 2023

5th Sunday of Easter

O sing a new song to the Lord,
for he has worked wonders;
in the sight of the nations
he has shown his deliverance, alleluia. Ps 98 (97):1-2

John 14:1-12
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. (John 14:2)

What’s your dream home? Maybe it’s a beachfront villa or a cabin on a picturesque mountainside. Maybe it’s a castle high on a hill or a modern apartment in a bustling city. Each of us has a different picture of what is ideal.

When Jesus told his disciples that he was returning to the Father in today’s Gospel, he said he was going to prepare a place for them. And just as it is with our dream homes, those heavenly abodes aren’t one size fits all. In fact, there’s one that is made just for you!

Does this mean each one of us gets our own personal “dream home” in heaven? Yes and no. Heaven isn’t a resort filled with personalized vacation homes. But it is very real, and it’s a place where each of us receives the deep rest and refreshment we need. The Catechism tells us that heaven is “the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness” (1024). That means that Jesus has each of us in mind as he prepares to bring us to our perfect dwelling place. He knows us through and through. He knows our deepest yearnings. He knows what makes for our ultimate happiness. And he is preparing a place suited just for us.

But that “place” is so much more than a dwelling. It’s where we will find God himself, the One who quenches every thirst and satisfies every longing. Nothing that we currently experience could add to the happiness that we will know when we see the Lord, our God, face-to-face! We will be with him fully and without hindrance. Our eyes will be opened to the beauty and holiness and power of God, and that vision will take our breath away.

Jesus promised to take us to himself so that where he is, there we also may be (John 14:3). In his presence, everything is fulfilled. And that makes heaven infinitely better than a dream home!

“Lord, thank you for preparing a place for me!”

Acts 6:1-7
Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
1 Peter 2:4-9

09/26/2022

The door between control and freedom

Life, we come to believe, is a straitjacket. As the years go by, we learn to think thoughts someone else produced. We do the things someone else tells us are good for us. We see the world the way everybody else does. We call good what the world calls good, and bad what the world calls bad. We live in prisons of our own making.

The very thought of being myself in the midst of a standard brand collection of social automatons is terrifying. We would be shunned, we fear. We would be ridiculed, we’re sure. The unwritten rule, we know, is that we must “go along to get along.” And we do. As Jean-Paul Sartre says in his most famous Theater of the Absurd work, there is “No Exit.” There is, the play tells us, no way out once we set the pattern of it all. Once we subject ourselves to the eternal struggle of having to fit in to everyone else’s expectations. Once we take on the morality of the world and call good bad and bad good. But there is a way out of such false judgments.

The door between control and freedom is in the mind. My mind. What I think about life determines the way I will live it. How I view the world around me is the world I will find around me. The way I interact with others is the way others will treat me, too. I can be happy, in other words, if being happy is enough for me. The task is to begin to trust my own decisions, my own ideas, my own judgments until I know better not to.

It is the willingness to be someone I do not want to be, a carbon copy of the people around me, that denies me the chance to grow and flower, to become and believe, to pursue and produce the best of me. Whether what I care about is what everybody else around me cares about or not.

I know a woman who got up one morning and started one of the most beautiful gardens in town right in the middle of the inner city.

I know an eye doctor who simply closed his office one summer and went to Central America to open up eye clinics for children who could hardly see.

I know a woman who mobilized the population to make sure that over 2000 families a year get Christmas gifts in their small homes, too.

It’s all about being willing to think differently, to live differently, to follow the brash new ideas within us to build the world around us all over again. No matter how foolish anyone else thinks it is.

Rumi was right when he wrote, “Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.” To be happy, free yourself from what’s blocking you from being able to be the rest of yourself. Eventually it will be a gift to all of us.

––excerpted from The Monastic Way by Joan Chittister

09/25/2022

September 25, 2022

All that you have done to us, O Lord,
you have done with true judgment,
for we have sinned against you
and not obeyed your commandments.
But give glory to your name
and deal with us according to the bounty of your mercy. Dn 3:31, 29, 30, 43, 42

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION:

Alleluia, alleluia.
Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, he became poor,
so that by his poverty you might become rich. 2 Cor 8:9
Alleluia, alleluia.

GOSPEL: Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.”

GO FORTH TO LOVE AND SERVE THE LORD WITH YOUR LIVES.

PRAYER STARTER:

“Help me not to pass by someone who needs my help.”

Amos 6:1, 4-7
Psalm 146:7-10
1 Timothy 6:11-16

09/25/2022

This is my lovely wife of almost 52 years. And today is her 74th birthday. My heart is struggling with the joy she must be experiencing dancing with Jesus in her eternal home. I miss her loving presence, her wisdom, her humor, her exuberant joy, her radiant smile, and her great devotion to her family. She was my best and most intimate friend. And, she was the quintessential mother who influenced and raised three very exceptional and successful children. Happy birthday, my beloved. Life will never be the same without you! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

09/25/2022

September 25, 2022

All that you have done to us, O Lord, you have done with true judgment, for we have sinned against you and not obeyed your commandments. But give glory to your name and deal with us according to the bounty of your mercy. Dn 3:31, 29, 30, 43, 42

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION:

Alleluia, alleluia.
Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. 2 Cor 8:9
Alleluia, alleluia.

GOSPEL: Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’ He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’”

GO FORTH TO LOVE AND SEEVE THE LORD WITH YOUR LIVES.

PRAYER STARTER:

respond.

“Help me not to pass by someone who needs my help.”

Amos 6:1, 4-7
Psalm 146:7-10
1 Timothy 6:11-16

09/08/2022

September 8, 2022

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Feast)

Let us celebrate with joy the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, for from her arose the sun of justice, Christ our God.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION:

Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, holy Virgin Mary, deserving of all praise; from you rose the sun of justice, Christ our God.
Alleluia, alleluia.

GOSPEL:Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23 (or Matthew 1:18-23)

The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king.

David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph. Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos, Amos the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile.

After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,
which means “God is with us.”

GO FORTH TO LOVE AND SERVE THE LORD WITH YOUR LIVES.

PRAYER STARTER:

“Hail Mary, full of grace, pray for me to say yes to God’s plan for me.”

Micah 5:1-4
Psalm 13:6

09/07/2022

03/07/2022

Life Coaching

Life Coaching is a process. When the steps necessary are taken the individual digs deep into him/her self and touches the elusive inner self and taps the desires and dreams he/she has always known are there.

Message me if you would like more information.

01/07/2020

Every single day, my to-do list is a reminder of all the other projects I haven’t started. The passion projects that I ‘just don’t have time’ to do. And when I do have time? That familiar friend—fear—comes knocking at my door.