Soul Food Priest
This is the podcast where culinary and Christianity collide. Each week Fr. Ben Bradshaw will serve up homilies, whip up Teaching Tapas, answer your burning questions, and pass along recipes.
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Episodes
7 days ago
7 days ago
Taking things slower in food preparation can enhance the dish one is preparing. The same could be said about one's spiritual life. Take a listen as Fr. Ben briefly explains how.
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? Go to Ask Fr. Ben | St. Michael Church (stmichaelmemphis.org) to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube at Soul Food Priest. Thanks for listening!
Monday Dec 09, 2024
Monday Dec 09, 2024
Fr. Ben explains the history of his parish in Memphis, TN and what it means to be parish. It's very interesting to rethink what "parish" means and reflect on what it means in your life. Research the history of your own parish and the importance of faith to those who laid the original stones.
Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear from you! You can visit Ask Fr. Ben | St. Michael Church (stmichaelmemphis.org) to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. You can also follow us on Facebook at Soul Food Priest and on YouTube!
Thursday Dec 05, 2024
Thursday Dec 05, 2024
The holidays are coming and that often mean baking sweet cookies, but also dealing with bitterness and struggle. This can be difficult when Christmas peace is all we want. So how do we maintain peace in our hearts and homes? How do we maintain that peace when we know some stressful events may occur? Fr. Ben, Silvia, and Khira provide great tips based on years of trial and error.
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? Go to Ask Fr. Ben | St. Michael Church (stmichaelmemphis.org) to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube. Thanks for listening!
Monday Dec 02, 2024
Monday Dec 02, 2024
Advent is the beginning of the new liturgical year, so look at it as your new year in the spiritual life. Fr. Ben gives three tips in becoming a better person that you can start to put in practice during the holiday season.
St. Michaels has also partnered with the Hallow app. We cannot encourage you enough to join their prayer challenges and better develop your prayer habits in this new year as well.
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? Go to Ask Fr. Ben | St. Michael Church (stmichaelmemphis.org) to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube at Soul Food Priest. Thanks for listening!
Thursday Nov 28, 2024
Thursday Nov 28, 2024
Did you know the Vatican has a cookbook that was written by a Swiss Guard? Listen as Fr. Ben gives his opinion on this cookbook as well as talk about the importance of protection. He also covers the moral guidelines of protection according to the Church.
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? Go to Ask Fr. Ben | St. Michael Church (stmichaelmemphis.org) to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube at Soul Food Priest. Thanks for listening!
Monday Nov 25, 2024
Monday Nov 25, 2024
Fr. Ben provides great tips before the holidays about making wise choices. This can make or break some relationships, and his hope is for you to maintain healthy relationships. Take a listen to also hear a poem he created back in grade school about this very topic.
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? Go to Ask Fr. Ben | St. Michael Church (stmichaelmemphis.org) to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube at Soul Food Priest. Thanks for listening!
Thursday Nov 21, 2024
Thursday Nov 21, 2024
Constructing gingerbread houses can be stressful and sometimes never work the way we imagined, especially with kids involved. Fr. Ben has constructed some amazing gingerbread houses for his parishes that have weighed over 200 pounds. Khira on the other hand has not attempted to construct one with her family.
Building a vibrant parish life can be stressful and tricky as well. Many people have many opinions and can be quite negative. How do we deal with negative people in the Church? How do we charitably deal with strong opinions coming from frequent churchgoers? Take a listen to receive great advice.
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? Go to Ask Fr. Ben | St. Michael Church (stmichaelmemphis.org) to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube. Thanks for listening!
Monday Nov 18, 2024
Monday Nov 18, 2024
Some people aren't too sure what some of the differences are between Catholicism & other world religions and why those differences exist. Most know less about what there is in common between them. It's important to know and Fr. Ben explains why.
Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear from you! You can visit Ask Fr. Ben | St. Michael Church (stmichaelmemphis.org) to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. You can also follow us on Facebook at Soul Food Priest and on YouTube!
Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Fr. Ben serves up a small lesson on who César Ritz was, what his expectations were, and what parishes can learn from him. Take a listen to learn what it means to make a parish "ritzy".
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? Go to Ask Fr. Ben | St. Michael Church (stmichaelmemphis.org) to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. The questions can be on faith or food!
Follow us on Facebook and YouTube at Soul Food Priest. Thanks for listening!
Monday Nov 11, 2024
Monday Nov 11, 2024
Listening doesn't require much work; however, it can often times be the most difficult thing to do. It is especially difficult to listen to the people you're surrounded by every day because they might repeat what they say. In this homily, Fr. Ben discusses how this is an act of love. Curious about that? Take a listen.
Got a question you'd like to ask Fr. Ben? Go to Ask Fr. Ben | St. Michael Church (stmichaelmemphis.org) to submit questions and topic ideas for the podcast. The questions can be on faith or food! You can also follow us on Facebook and YouTube at Soul Food Priest. Thanks for listening!
Every other week Fr. Ben will be answering your burning questions regarding food and faith. He is joined by two of his friends and staff members, Silvia Vega and Khira Rotty, who will be the moderators for the upcoming Q & A episodes. If you have a question for Fr. Ben go to www.stmichaelmemphis.org/ask-fr--ben or the Soul Food Priest FB page at https://www.facebook.com/soulfoodpriest/.
Fr. Ben Bradshaw S.T.L.
Originally baptized Lutheran, Fr. Ben became Catholic at a young age and attended Catholic schools in Memphis growing up.
He always loved to cook and always considered being a professional chef or a Catholic priest, and so he became both.
At age 17, he began working for a French chef in Memphis and worked in kitchens until age 20. He then entered Johnson & Wales University culinary arts program in Charleston, SC. There he earned an Associate’s degree in Culinary Arts.
Fr. Ben then decided to travel to Russia where he lived and worked as a missionary with a religious community. It was there, in a small village, where he began to consider a calling to be a missionary priest. (Since then he has spent time visiting and working in Guatemala, Mexico, Africa, and Eastern and Western Europe.)
He returned home to Memphis and worked as a pastry chef for 5 years. This led him study in Paris, France at the L’Ecôle Lenôtre school of Pastry Arts, where he studied chocolate and pulled sugar artistry. He continued to consider more frequently the call to be a missionary priest.
After returning to the United States he attended The New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Food and Beverage Management. After graduating from NECI, Fr. Ben began considering an option he had not yet considered: Diocesan Priesthood. After much prayerful discernment, he entered the seminary at the age of 27 and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Memphis in June of 2006.
Fr. Ben earned a Masters of Arts and a Masters of Divinity in Sacred Theology. He wrote his Master's thesis on Pope Saint John Paul II's understanding of femininity and womanhood as it relates to writings of St. Edith Stein. He also holds a Licentiate degree in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. The focus on his dissertation was on the response of the Catholic Church to the issue of Same-Sex attraction. Since 2005, his continuing education studies have been at the Theology of the Body Institute in Philadelphia, P.A.
Fr. Ben is currently the pastor of St. Michael's parish in Memphis, TN.