How to Properly Explain What Takes Place in Holy Communion

In the liturgical act of Holy communion the bread and wine become the actual Body and Blood of Christ. We must be careful not to think of this mystical event in a worldly way.

How do we best explain this mystical event that is beyond our rational understanding?

 The traditional Orthodox expressions include:

• “Changed” (metabállō / metavoli in Greek) – as in the Divine Liturgy prayer:
  “Make this bread the precious Body of Thy Christ… And that which is in this cup, the precious Blood of Thy Christ… changing them by Thy Holy Spirit.”
  This keeps the mystery while affirming something real occurs.
• “Become” – simple and biblical (e.g., “This is My Body… This is My Blood”), without philosophical explanation.
• “Made to be” – emphasizes God’s action, not our analysis.
• “Mystically become” – used in patristic writings to stress that this is a sacramental reality, not merely symbolic.

If you want to keep the mystical sense and avoid sounding too clinical, you might say:

“In the Divine Liturgy, by the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ—mystically, truly, yet beyond human comprehension.”