It is the Solemn Teaching of the Church that in the Blessed Eucharist Christ Himself – His Body and Blood, His Soul and Divinity – is really, truly, and substantially, contained in the species (accidents, appearances) of bread and wine; that His presence is effected by transubstantiation, i.e., by a change of the substance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ; that He is wholly present both under the species of bread and under the species of wine; that when the sacred species of the bread or the wine are divided, He is wholly present in each part or division; that the Real Presence begins, the instant the consecration is completed; that it is not restricted to the moment in which the Blessed Eucharist is being consumed; that it continues in the hosts that may be reserved after Holy Communion has been given; and that Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is to be worshipped with the supreme worship due to God alone (Council of Trent, Thirteenth Session, 11 October 1551, Chapters 1-6, Canons 1-11).
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