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.
Listen on:
Episodes
Monday Jul 24, 2023
Monday Jul 24, 2023
Our cities are scary, our culture is scary, our world can be scary. How do we navigate life when fear surrounds us? Fr. Ben gives the recipe for having joy and peace rather than anxiety and fear.
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
Thursday Jul 20, 2023
Fr. Ben invites a dear friend, Maureen Yarborough, to the table to discuss the beauty and agony that can accompany family life. Her story includes tragedy, but she wants to tell it to provide hope to those who suffer greatly, especially with loss and grief.
Thank you Maureen for your witness, faith, and courage!
Monday Jul 17, 2023
Monday Jul 17, 2023
In this homily, Fr. Ben discusses these hard questions that Catholics must face in order to grow in their own faith. Why do people leave the Church? Why do people stay? Why am I making the decision I am? What can I do in the Church to help people stay? Will the Church last in these hard times?
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
Thursday Jul 13, 2023
In this episode, Fr. Ben serves up a small helping of Nutella along with discussing the influence people can have on each other.
Monday Jul 10, 2023
Monday Jul 10, 2023
Does what you do give you meaning? Do you live for yourself or a higher purpose? Fr. Ben addresses these questions and on the necessity of answering these questions for oneself.
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
Thursday Jul 06, 2023
This was recorded around Mother's Day, so Fr. Ben was thinking about the many cakes moms make and how much worrying can be involved in parenting. Do you struggle with worry? What are ways to combat worry and anxiety? Fr. Ben provides insight on this as well as other tips that have worked for Khira and Silvia.
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
Wednesday Jul 05, 2023
What is envy? What is the anti-venom to envy? How does envy harm us and others? Listen to this wonderful homily Fr. Ben served up this past weekend.
Thursday Jun 29, 2023
Thursday Jun 29, 2023
Here's the follow-up to the last teaching tapas on the bread (especially the baguette) and the Eucharist. Enjoy this small serving on the greatest food we can eat!
Monday Jun 26, 2023
Monday Jun 26, 2023
Fr. Ben explains how loving others and self is not just about what we say but also in our attitude. What is your attitude towards others? What is your attitude towards self? What is your attitude towards God? All of this can affect one's spiritual life in good or bad ways.
Thursday Jun 22, 2023
Thursday Jun 22, 2023
How can we grow in holiness? Is this possible in our daily lives? These are questions Fr. Ben frequently receives and his answer is the Little Way. Listen to find out what that means.
Here's the easiest pasta recipe Fr. Ben gives in this episode:
2 Eggs
1 1/2 Cup Flour
Splash of Olive Oil
Put the flour in a food processor. Turn it on.
Add the eggs and oil one at a time.
Stop when it forms a ball of dough. Wait for an hour and roll it out.
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.