"And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble" [Ps 65[66]: 14).... What did his mouth speak when he was in trouble?"Marrowed holocausts I will offer up to you." What does marrowed mean? I will keep my love for you, and it wont be on the surface; my love for you will be in my marrow. Nothing is more inward than our marrow. Bones are more inward than the flesh, but the marrow is more inward even than bones. Whoever worships God simply on the surface desires more to please men; feeling something else inwardly, he does not offer a holocaust of his marrow. But when God sees into the marrow, he accepts the person whole and entire. (Augustine, EnPs 65[66]: 15; PL 36, 699)

Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

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