The Choosing of the Lamb involves selecting offerings and placing them on the altar, presenting them before God for sanctification.

The secret of the Church’s endurance, vitality, unity, and strength throughout time is her adherence to the sacrament of the Eucharist as a spiritual foundation for our relationship with God.

For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.

— 1 Corinthians 10:17

Make us all worthy, our Master, to partake of your holies for the purification of our souls, bodies, and spirits, so that we may become one body and one spirit, and find a share and inheritance with all the saints.

— Introduction to the Litanies in St Basil’s Liturgy

The bread should be prepared by a Deacon, the first rank of priesthood. Before we start the liturgy with Matins, the Priest should check the bread and the wine. If none of the loaves are good enough to be chosen, the liturgy cannot take place.

The bread should be circular, having no beginning and no end to symbolise the eternity of our Lord.

It is stamped in the centre with a large cross representing Jesus, surrounded by twelve small crosses representing the Twelve Apostles, their successors, and priesthood in general. Together, they make up the Espadikon. It demonstrates that the Lord Christ is present in the midst of the Church, gathering around Him the believers who are members of His Body. The rest of the offering represents the rest of the people of God gathered around it, and connected to it through the sacred priesthood.

Emmanuel our God is now in our midst. (…) Behold, Emmanuel our God (…) is with us today on this table.

— The Fraction of the Heavenly

Around the crosses appears the stamp of the Trisagion, "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal”. This is a confession of the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and His power and eternity.

The bread is pierced in five places around the central crosses in reference to the three nails that hold Jesus on the cross, the crown of thorns and the spear that pierced His side. There are three on the right of the priest and two on his left as he holds the offering.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

— Isaiah 53:5

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

— 1 Peter 2:24

And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’

— Zecharaiah 13:6

His wounds are presented before us at all times to remind us of His love and His salvific pains for us.

My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door, and my heart yearned for him.

— Song of Solomon 5:4

The bread is made from pure wheat and is leavened. The leaven or yeast symbolises our sins which the Lord Jesus Christ bore for us. The sin of the world was placed on the Lamb so He may lift it from us. Christ alone is sinless, yet He carried all of the sins of the world.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

— 2 Corinthians 5:21

The mixture is placed in the fire and the yeast withers and dies. Likewise, Christ carried our sins in His body and ascended with them to the Cross to kill sin in the redemptive fire of the cross. The offering contains yeast, but it is dead yeast. The Church has sin, but it is dead sin. The members of the Church do sin, as no one can claim that we, while on Earth, to be free of error. However, the effect of sin is nullified everyday through repentance and confession.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

— 1 John 1:8

The bread is not salted, because Jesus Christ is the salt of the world. Christ’s body is the salt that seasons the world and preserves it from corruption, giving it an acceptable taste. Therefore, it does not need the addition of salt.

The offering presented is a model of the Church, consisting of a large group of wheat grains, with each grain representing a Christian. So we can contemplate that when the wheat is ground, this grinding process symbolises the pain we go through in spiritual life — the pain in asceticism, the fatigue of standing in prayer before God, and also t he pains and troubles of service, hardship, and persecution.

The strongest churches are those who have endured pain and persecution. If the Head of the Church, our God, is crucified, then the Body (the Church) must also be crucified. If the Church gives up carrying the cross, it will not be the Church of Christ, for the cross is inseparable from the Church.

The grains of wheat must be ground and become fine flour.

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

— Luke 9:23

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

— Matthew 10:38

Without grinding, each grain remains individual and not united with the others. With grinding, it becomes difficult to distinguish between them. The Church transforms from individual scattered members into one Body. But the flour has not yet become one Body (entity), and how easy it is for it to scatter again. Water, symbolising the Holy Spirit, binds the flour into one Body, just as the one Spirit makes the Church one by descending upon it.

When the offering is placed on the altar, it is as if the Church presents itself as a sacrificial offering of love to her heavenly bridegroom. Christ, on top of the altar, is sacrificed for the Church, and the Church, under the altar, is sacrificed for Christ.

When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.

— Revelation 6:9

The number of loaves offered must be odd, representing Christ among His holy disciples, whom He sent out two by two. Therefore, the offering in the basket represents the apostles with the Lord Christ in their midst. Or it represents the believers with Christ among them, distinguished.

This number will be proportional to the expected number of people attending the prayer. Every servant among us that toils in bringing the people to the Church to receive salvation through Christ in the sacrament of communion, will receive the honour of being represented by an offering placed beside Christ. The Priest will also stand at the end of the liturgy to cut these offerings and distribute them as a blessing to the people. This means you are invited to be torn and broken to be consumed so that the people of Christ may receive the blessing.

Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

— Hebrews 4:11

The wine must be grape wine, pure and red in colour. The Priest must smell the wine to ensure that it has not soured. The wine will be mixed with water as the mixture of the blood and water poured out of Jesus side when He was on the cross.