species of bread and wine

The receiving of the Eucharist under the species of Bread and Wine.

The church has always taught that the consecerated species of bread and wine are no mere symbol of the presence of Christ.

As a consequence, the Catholic Church first wanted to eliminate ambiguity, reaffirming that Christ was present both as body and as blood equally under both species of bread and wine.

And yet hundreds of millions of Roman Catholics the world over for nearly two millennia affirm that it is Jesus Christ who is present under the species of bread and wine.

Why was the sacrament of the eucharist instituted under the two species of bread and wine if Jesus Christ be present body and blood, soul and divinity, in the bread alone and in the wine alone?

The inscription of Abercius speaks of the fish (Christ) caught by a holy virgin, which serves as food under the species of bread and wine; it speaks, further, of Rome, where Abercius visited the chosen people, the Church par excellence.

The tradition continued in the Church in the East to commingle the species of bread and wine, whereas in the West, the Church had the practice of communion under the species of bread and wine separately as the custom, with only a small fraction of bread placed in the chalice.