"You have been created man, and as such consist of a body, and of a living soul in which dwells the spirit of love." (Ha 250, 10)
"Man was created wholly in the harmonious form of God, and anyone who wishes to perfectly know himself must know, and recognize within himself, that being one and the same person he really also consists of three personalities. On the one hand you have a body, provided with all the necessary senses and other limbs and elements that are necessary for a free and independent life, from the largest down to the almost unimaginably small. For the needs of the spiritual soul to develop, this body has within it its very own natural life that in everything is strictly distinguished from the spiritual life of the soul. The body lives on physical food, and the blood and other nutrient juices for the different elements of the body are formed from this." (Gr VIII 24, 6)
"If we consider the soul on its own, we shall find that it, too, is a complete human being in itself that in terms of spiritual substance also has in itself and for itself the same elements as the body, and at a correspondingly higher spiritual level also makes use of them in the same way as the body does of its physical elements.
On the one hand, the body and the soul represent two quite different persons, each having its own very particular and characteristic activities. They each do not know the Why and How of their real purpose in life. On the other hand, the body and the soul are one and make one man. For the body must serve the soul, and this also the body, with its understanding and will, wherefore the soul also is responsible for the actions for which it made use of the body just as much as for its very own, particular actions which consist in all kinds of thoughts, wishes, desires and cravings.
"Yet when we look even more closely at the life and existence of the soul as such, we shall soon and easily find that, being also in itself a human entity of bodily substantiality, it would as such be no higher than the soul, at most, of an ape. It would of course have a somewhat higher degree of instinctual rationality, but there could be no question of intellect and a higher capacity for judging things and their relationships.
"This higher soul capacity, which is indeed the highest and wholly alike to god, is brought about by a third human entity that is pure spiritual essence and dwells indeed within the soul." (Gr VIII 24, 9-12)
"The soul is merely a vessel for life out of God, yet it is far from being life itself." (Gr III 42, 5) "There is but a tiny spark at the center of the soul which is what we call the spirit of God and real life. This spark has to be nourished with spiritual food, which is the pure Word of God. This food makes the spark grow and become more powerful within the soul, finally itself assuming the human form of the soul, finally entering into all parts of the soul, and in the end transforming the whole soul into its essential being. Then indeed the soul itself also becomes wholly life, a life recognizing itself as such at the very depth of depths." (Gr III 42, 6)
"I say to you: it is this spirit that makes and ordains everything within man; the soul, however, is merely a substantial body (of the spirit), as it were, just as a fleshly body is a vessel for the soul." (Gr V 211, 4)
"Every human being born on earth receives a spirit out of Me and according to the prescribed order can also be granted the state of being a perfect Child of God." (EM Ch. 53)
"The spiritual is present in man in a particularly godlike form, wherefore it can then also grow rational and sensible, has speech, and can know God as its Creator, intuitively at first, and later, more and more clearly, love God and wholly submit its own will to the divine will it has recognized." (Gr VI 32, 6)
"When the soul has achieved the right degree of maturity and development, then (in the next world) the spirit enters fully into the whole soul, and the whole human being is then perfected, a new creature, but at the very bottom always out of God, for the spirit within man is indeed nothing but a god on the smallest scale, because it is wholly from the heart of God." (Gr I 214, 10)
The spirit of God in man is indeed from the beginning in the likeness of God, but it can only attain to the full, living and active likeness of God by following the path I have shown you." (Gr III 48, 7)
"No one can know all that lies hidden within man, except for the spirit who is and dwells within the innermost part of man, and thus none of the wise in the world know what is God himself and what lies within him, only the Spirit of God knows this who enters into all the depths of the godhead." (Gr IX 58, 6)
The divine spark is given to the child when in its mother's womb, "and this happens earlier in some children and later in others." (EM Ch. 51)
In his First Letter to the Thessalonians 5, 23, Paul expressly refers to man's spirit and soul and body. Almost all medieval theologians made distinction between spirit and soul. Medieval mystics like Eckehart, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and others accepted the distinction between spirit (spiritus) and soul (anima) as a matter of course.
Eckehart in particular was tireless in speaking of the small spark in the soul of man. The Roman Catholic Church only began to speak in terms of body and soul after 1857, following Pope Pius IX letter to the Cardinal of Breslau in which he spoke against a distinction of soul and spirit. This statement is not, however, part of official doctrine. 11