During a January 2008 General Audience, the Holy Father explored what St Augustine of Hippo meant when he said, God is “more intimately present to me than my inmost being” (De vera religione):

Saint Augustine taught that by belonging to the Church, we are so closely united to Christ that we ‘become’ Christ, the head whose members we are. As our head, Christ prays in us, yet he also prays for us as our priest, and we pray to him as our God. If we ask what particular message Saint Augustine has for the men and women of today, it is perhaps his emphasis on our need for truth. Listen to the way he describes his own search for God’s truth: ‘You were within me and I sought you outside, in the beautiful things that you had made. You were with me, but I was not with you. You called me, you cried out and broke open my deafness. I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you.’ Let us pray that we too may discover the joy of knowing God’s truth.