We past a grave yard yesterday and my five year old asked what it was so I explained it to her. She knows Jesus rose from the dead. And so I explained our spirit goes to heaven when we are berried. I had no idea how to explain to her what our spirit is any help please?
Humans are made up of material body and spiritual soul. Stand with your daughter and look in the mirror. One sees two wonderful bodies which can hug each other. We don’t see our soul because it is the invisible part of us.
Our invisible, spiritual soul is what connects us to God. Even though we cannot touch our soul or see it in the mirror, it is what makes us human and different from all other creatures. God made us to be both material, that which we see, and spiritual, that which we don’t see. God always sees us completely as we truly are and He loves us very much.
Because of our spiritual soul we can know Jesus Who is God and we can love Him. Our spiritual soul gives us the power to hug Jesus. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says we are created to be in friendship with God. (CCC paragraphs 355-368)
God, our Creator, sees each one of us, mother and daughter, as very special people because we are both spiritual soul and material body. Hug 
Caution.
Last year, I posted my simple definition of soul – that which connects us to God. I was corrected by loads of proper definitions for soul. To cover one’s arse, one could add something about learning all about the soul as one grows older.
Blessings,
granny
The human person is worthy of profound respect from the moment of conception.
Link to Catechism of the Catholic Church – www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm
It’s kind of like the battery power that operates the machine. Even if the machine breaks or dies, the power still goes on forever. :o I don’t know if that’s good or not—I don’t have kids.
I have used the following image in teaching about the soul to CCD and RCIA classes.
Consider this:
After 7 years all of our tissues and cells are replaced. We are (no doubt) a new person - materially. As a note, for some time scientist thought that parts of the brain did not replace themselves but remained with us until death; apparently, that is not so - they do.
Now if we are completely a new person (materially) every seven years are we a new person in form. I say “no” and that form that is always that never changes, is called a “soul.”
A small booklet on the soul has been published by Ravi Zacharia entitled, ‘The Soul.’
Could a child understand that? I doubt it; but I think a child believes it anyway, without being sold.
So if I commit a serious crime, I should be able to convince a judge that my sentence cannot be longer than 7 years because the criminal that was me is no longer me? Otherwise the plaintiff would have to prove I had a soul-----and I’m not sure our courts can do that… :shrug: 
Why of course!, that just logically follows.
Did you tell her the soul goes to heaven SEPARATELY from the body? Or that they go together on the day of our resurrection on the latter day? Or maybe something else in between?
It seems that the question here is more about how to explain to our children what happens after death…
Alive human - dead human = human soul
The human soul is the difference between a dead human and an alive human. Note that dead here means one that has just died so that there is a little difference as to the state of the physical body.
You can also tell her that at the moment of conception, this soul enters the little “baby” that makes the baby alive in the end. At death, this soul goes out of the body and we say that the body dies.
For my children growing up, I told them the soul is a word we describe that describes each one of them.
Soul means you, and God loves you…and when you are in Jesus’ arms, death is just a passing door…
You are with Jesus…in the place He has for you…and a graveyard is the place of memory, where your body is placed, but you are with the Lord.
When we come to the end of time, the Lord Jesus will take our old bodies and make them new and give them back to you.
When that day comes, as the world will also be very old, Jesus will take the old world with our old bodies left behind, and make everything brand new. Our old bodies will come back to us, the world will come back to us, but it will be all new…
And there will be no more crime, or tears, or sufferings. We will all be in love with God and with each other and be very happy forever. The animals and trees and flowers and plants will also be there and all our old pets will be back, we will be very happy.
All,
Please know that in 1934 Jesus appeared to Sister Mary Faustina via the Merciful Christ. Jesus appeared with a vision of our soul to show us the importance of Love and Faith.
The best images of the Merciful Christ can be found at:
faustina-message.com/first-image-merciful-jesus.htm
C:\Bob\Merciful Christ.jpg
Jesus explained that the red beams emanating from His Sacred Heart represent the Blood of the Soul; the white beams represent the water of the Soul. When we are presented to the Father, this is how we will appear, our soul. The red beam represents the LOVE we have built up in our lives for God and for others. The white beam represents the FAITH we have built up for God. These are the only two things we take with us when we pass into eternity–our love and faith!
God Bless You All!
Bob 
Bob,
That is a good link, and my children really liked praying the chaplet of mercy growing up, along with listening to the psalms.
wow, this is excellent to present to my confirmation class. may i use it? God Bless. jorge V
Which reminds me of what we are taught about Mass, that we actually are in Heaven every time we attend it in a proper state of grace and we partake in the Eucharist…
this sidenote isn’t meant to make you derail from the topic here. I actually think it is closely related.
=Odell;6570174]We past a grave yard yesterday and my five year old asked what it was so I explained it to her. She knows Jesus rose from the dead. And so I explained our spirit goes to heaven when we are berried. I had no idea how to explain to her what our spirit is any help please?
Perhaps something like this?
God loves us which is why He died on the Cross for us. Because God loves us so much everybody is given by God a soul, so that if we are good, we can live with Him forever.
Love and prayers,
grandpa Pat
Not to derail, but your additional remark, Lapell, covers a topic we discussed a little with our pastor at Mass, that the Mass is the first step into heaven…and heaven is here on earth…
So we should always focus on helping the kingdom of God be present as best we can in this culture, and shower them with much love and peace.
Hi. I have children and I explain it like this. “Close your eyes. Now take your finger and point to you. The real you. Where you are.” (invariably they point to their chest or their head). “So Tommy, you are your chest? you are your nose? you are your toe?” They laugh and try to show me where they are inside. So I tell them to close their eyes again and point. “That, I say, is your soul. You are trying to point to the you in you that comes from God, that is not your toe or your eye or your finger, but is really you. That is the part that will separate from your body when you die and see God in heaven. It is the living you that will never die”. You can extrapolate from there. The children seem to understand.
Kim
Very well done! Thank you!