Larger Catechism, week 43

Q. 168. What is the Lord’s supper?
A. The Lord’s supper is a sacrament of the New Testament,^[1077] wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine according to the appointment of Jesus Christ, his death is showed forth; and they that worthily communicate feed upon his body and blood, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace;^[1078] have their union and communion with him confirmed;^[1079] testify and renew their thankfulness,^[1080] and engagement to God,^[1081] and their mutual love and fellowship each with the other, as members of the same mystical body.^[1082]

Q. 169. How hath Christ appointed bread and wine to be given and received in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper?
A. Christ hath appointed the ministers of his Word, in the administration of this sacrament of the Lord’s supper, to set apart the bread and wine from common use, by the word of institution, thanksgiving, and prayer; to take and break the bread, and to give both the bread and the wine to the communicants: who are, by the same appointment, to take and eat the bread, and to drink the wine, in thankful remembrance that the body of Christ was broken and given, and his blood shed, for them.^[1083]

Q. 170. How do they that worthily communicate in the Lord’s supper feed upon the body and blood of Christ therein?
A. As the body and blood of Christ are not corporally or carnally present in, with, or under the bread and wine in the Lord’s supper,^[1084] and yet are spiritually present to the faith of the receiver, no less truly and really than the elements themselves are to their outward senses;^[1085] so they that worthily communicate in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, do therein feed upon the body and blood of Christ, not after a corporal and carnal, but in a spiritual manner; yet truly and really,^[1086] while by faith they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified, and all the benefits of his death.^[1087]