The Source of Miracles

September 14, 2009
Bestselling author McGowan (The Expected One
) calls the Lord's Prayer “the most powerful tool for changing your life—and changing the world—that you will likely ever encounter.” McGowan offers a unique perspective by pairing the prayer with the rose with six petals, the middle point of the labyrinth in the floor of Chartres Cathedral. The six petals and the middle coincide with the teaching points of the Lord's Prayer, which McGowan exegetes with depth and personal insight, based in part on the miracle of her son, who was expected to die as an infant but survived. Each section—faith, surrender, service, abundance, forgiveness, overcoming, love—taps into McGowan's premise that the Lord's Prayer is the source of faith, love and forgiveness and “in combination, those things are the source of very real miracles.” She draws heavily on the Bible as well as such sources as the gospels of Philip and Mary Magdalene; some may quarrel with her definition of evil as “the failing of your own nature.” Many readers, however, will discover new depths and dimensions in the age-old Lord's Prayer.