When the presbyter receives communion, he turns towards the congregation and exhibiting the holy mysteries, calls again to those who wish to receive communion saying: "The holy things for the holy." They show their desire to accept the holy mysteries, borrowing the words of the Psalmist saying: "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord."
On communing the Body, the Presbyter says: "Verily this is the Body of Emmanuel, our God. Amen." The same thing happens at communing the Blood of Christ. In our Church, the laity as well as the clergy always receives Communion of the Body followed by the Blood - each separately.
In other Orthodox churches the laity receive the two elements put together.
Fr. Nikolai Gogol says: "In the early days of the Church the people partook of the separate elements just as the clergy do now and everyone received in his hands the most pure Body of our Lord and then drank from the chalice the most pure Blood. But when newlyconverted Christians - Christians only in name - began to carry away the Holy Gifts to their homes to use them for superstitious or magical purposes or behaved in an uncommonly manner in church, pushing one another and making noise and confusion, then St. John Chrysostom ordered the people not to receive any longer Holy Communion separately but in the mixed form and that It should not be given to the people in their hands but in a holy spoon which serves as a symbol of the tongs with which the fiery Seraph touched the lips of the Prophet Isaiah, in order to remind everyone of the purity of that which is touching their lips.
After first giving Communion to himself and then to the deacon, the servant of Christ becomes a new man, cleansed by Holy Communion from all his sins, truly holy at this moment and worthy to give communion to others.
In the first centuries, the elements were placed in the hand (not in the mouth) of each communicant by the clergy who were present, or according to Justin, by the deacons alone, amid the singing of psalms
Standing Up During the Communion
During the communion, the congregation is overwhelmed with feelings of sacred love, holy fear, internal joy and celestial happiness. They stand up eager to eat from this heavenly table.
They are the Bride who stands up to put her hands into those of her Bridegroom, hearing this blessedness, "Blessed are they who are called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb."
We do not kneel during the Communion, for this custom is strange to our rites, as well as to the early Church. Fr. Dix says that the practice of kneeling by anybody for communion is confined to the Latin West and began to come in only in the early middle ages.
Now we enter the heavenly kingdom with joy, singing the Psalm 150, giving glory to God who gave us this unspeakable Gift. He offers us the food of immortality, feeding us with the food of angels, the heavenly bread, which is prepared without human labor, having in it all that which is delicious and the sweetness of every taste.
We praise Him, for we are the poor who eat and are filled. We offer hymns to the Lord for His un-bloody Sacrifice by which we share in the sufferings and the divinity of Christ.
Finally the celebrant washes the vessels and his hands, giving thanks to God, asking Him to be with His ministers and His people. He takes some water in his palms and says: "O angel of this oblation, who flies up to the heights with this our praise. Remember us before the Lord that He may forgive us our sins."
He sprinkles the water upwards over the altar, passes his wet hands over his own cheeks as well as the cheeks of his fellow presbyter and lays his hand over the people's heads. Then he says the Benediction asking the Peace of God and distributes the "Eulogion"
Dix: The Shape of the Liturgy.
(the morsel of blessing).
He kisses the altar, turns round it once saying Psalm"O, clap your hands all you nations."