Did Prophet Jeremiah's soul pre-exist his conception in human form? At Jeremiah 1: 4-5 we see the prophet speaking of his call:


  Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
   “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
  and before you were born I consecrated you;
  I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”


Do the words of the Lord indicate that the soul of Jeremiah had existed even before he was conceived by his mother? Or, are they only meant to be  a figurative expression? How do the teachings of Catholic Church explain the words of God to Jeremiah?
No, Jeremiah (and you and me) didn't have a soul until it was &quot;formed in the womb&quot;

The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God
CCC 366

It's pretty clear and unambiguous, even Jesus' human soul was created at the Incarnation. (please correct me if the tense or the verbs &quot;was created&quot; are wrong).  The function of the soul is to animate the body.

it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul,
CCC 364

If there's no body, there's no need for a soul and what there is no need for, there isn't.  After death, our souls await being reunited with our bodies because the body+soul mix is what being human is all about.

As for Jeremiah, according to the commentary in the NAB, this is because his birth was foretold.  Obviously, if there's a foretelling, there's a foreknowledge and certainly if God is omniscient, He knows us before we're born, it doesn't mean He makes us before we're born.
If I grew a head of lettuce and some tomatoes and was intent on making a salad, I could say.  Before I ate you, I knew you in the garden. If I had wanted to make an omelet, I could say to the omelet, before I ate you, I knew you in the egg, etc...
I had this question myself many times, belief in the soul preexisting conception is a heresy that was denounced like 1700 years ago that I can't remember the name of but someone called me out on it on this very site, so I figured I'd pass this along to you.