I think we have all to some degree experienced stillness or had glimpses of what a still mind is, what it means to be still and allow that knowledge of God that is both our knowledge of God and God’s knowledge of us, not through thought, not through imagination, not through cognition or reflection, but just to arise. It’s something utterly other than us but also something that is utterly intimate and one with us. So ‘with our minds made still and ready to receive’ because in this stillness, we are in that place where we can be most open. To receive what? The gift. And it’s the ultimate gift of Being. There’s no other gift that is worth having actually than the gift of Being, the basis of everything. And it’s this gift of Being which is God’s gift of self because God is Being.

Laurence Freeman, OSB