Moroni 4

Moroni 4

Administration of the Sacrament

Moroni 4:1–2

1 The manner of their elders and priests administering the flesh and blood of Christ unto the church; and they administered it according to the commandments of Christ; wherefore we know the manner to be true; and the elder or priest did minister it—

2 And they did kneel down with the church, and pray to the Father in the name of Christ, saying:

Comments

As in the ordinance instructions in chapter 3, there are instructions for actions, and instructions for words. Verses 1–2 provide the actions. The appropriate officiators, elders and priests, administer the symbols of the sacrament. Thus, there is a need for correct authority to be used in sacralizing the common elements of bread and water into their greater symbolic meaning. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not teach that the bread and water are physically transformed, but only that they are changed from secular to sacred.

Kneeling has been understood as a means of showing reverence before God, and thus the officiators kneel.

Blessing on the Bread

Moroni 4:3

3 O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.

Comments

When the bread has been sacralized (sanctified), it is no longer for nutrition of the physical body, but for the nourishment of “the souls of all those who partake of it.” It is also a reminder of one of the two elements of the Atonement, the physical body. Thus, the bread becomes the symbolic remembrance of the Atonement’s reversal of physical death.

The covenant is “to remember.” Remembering as a simple mental action is not the type of remembering required here, but it is a remembering that invokes action. In this case, the action of keeping “his commandments which he had given them.”