Stage One: Catholic Perspective

God has made humans unique compared to the rest of creation. ‘Only humans can know and love God’ (CCC 355). God made humans with a body and spiritual soul. Both body and spirit are important. It is through the body that people can show kindness and love. If people didn’t have bodies then how could love be seen?

Our bodies are a magnificent creation, designed to be a ‘temple of the holy spirit’ (1 Cor 6:19), that means that God lives inside us, in our souls. God has given everyone a body. When we were born, we had small fingers, small toes, small hands and small legs. Everything was smaller. Now we are bigger and our bodies have grown too. Our bodies have been created by God in a magnificent way. Our bodies have a nervous system, skeletal system, five senses and many other amazing things. Our wonderful bodies have been given to us, so that we be a gift to God and through our actions be a gift to others.

Since we are made in God's image, our bodies are sacred and have to be cared and respected. God wants us to always stay safe and never be touched in an inappropriate way. See private and public body parts

God has made all people similar but also very different. All people are created with a body and a spiritual soul, which allows us to think, choose, pray, love.

God has also made people different, in a special way. God made males and females (Gen 5:2). God has made bodies of boys and girls different. There are some parts of the body that boys uniquely have and there are parts of the body that only girls have. These special body parts should be kept private.

There are many things that both boys and girls can do. Boys and girls can play sport, dance, sing, learn maths and english. When they grown up boys and girls can both work as doctors, nurses, teachers, scientists, accountants, chefs and work at home. There are many things both boys and girls can do. Boys and girls have a body and spiritual soul and God loves both equally.

There are some ways boys and girls are different too. When a boy grows up he will be a man. His body will get bigger, his voice might get deeper and he might grow a moustache.

When a girl grows up she will be a woman. Her body will also get bigger and she could have a special space in her body for a baby.

God loves both men and women equally. God makes men and women special. Men can be fathers, husbands, single or priests and women can be mothers, wives, single or religious sisters. God loves everyone equally.

See Feelings and Emotions

Our bodies tell us very many things. Besides being aware of what our own bodies are telling us, we can observe what our people's bodies are telling us about their inner feelings. If someone is crying, we know they are sad. If someone has a cross face, we know they are angry inside. If someone is laughing, we know they are happy inside. We can know people's inside feelings, by observing what their bodies do.

We know Jesus love for us by looking at the cross. He loves us so much and shows us his love, by his words and actions.

Our actions with our body also have an effect on other people. If you offer someone a chocolate as a gift and they turn their head and ignore you, your nice feelings would turn to anger. But if they instead said thank you instead of ignoring you, your gift would make them happy and their thank you would make you happy too. Being a gift to each other strengthens friendships and makes everyone involved more happy, as being inclusive to all people is very important. But being non inclusive, selfish, angry and rude will make other people unhappy and this is not how God created us to act and live.