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.