A monk fought doubts about whether or not the Holy Gifts are truly the Body and Blood of Jesus or simply symbols or types of His presence. When his brother monks heard about his problem, they invited him to a Divine Liturgy during which they all prayed fervently that God would show him the truth through a miracle and banish his thoughts of disbelief. Following the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy the disbelieving monk explained to his brothers what he had seen in the Divine Liturgy.
“He told them that when the Deacon ascended the pulpit in order to read the Gospel, he saw that the roof of the Church opened up. Following the prayer of the bread offering, he saw the heavens open up and Fire descending upon the Holy Gifts. This was followed by a whole host of angels with a Child in their midst. Along with the angelic host descended two other beings of indescribable beauty. The angels then took positions encircling the altar table while the Child was enthroned upon the altar. When the priests approached altar to fracture the Host, I saw those two beautiful beings taking hold of the Child by the hands and the feet and slaughtering it with a knife while pouring Its Blood into the chalice.
The priests proceeded to fracture the Host into four pieces on the paten. These four fractured pieces of the Host immediately were changed into flesh. When the priest intoned the words “With the fear of God…” the brotherhood of monks approached and was offered the pieces of flesh. But as soon as the monks said amen, the flesh took the form of bread in their hands. But as soon as I approached, I was offered the flesh and I could not accept it. I then heard a voice whispering to me: “Man of God why do you not accept the gift? Aren’t you receiving it just the way you had asked for it?” “Forgive me, Lord, I cannot consume raw flesh.” “You should learn that if man could consume raw flesh, then the chalice would contain raw flesh, just the way you see it. But because people cannot consume it in that form, God ordained that it be the bread of the bread offering.
“If you believe that the consecrated bread is the Body of Christ, and then consume that which you have in your hand then the flesh that you are holding will became bread. He thanked God and he received Holy Communion
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