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
Friday Dec 30, 2022
Friday Dec 30, 2022
Merry Christmas! Do you feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders? We hope that as you enjoy this season, and approach the new year, these words of hope and peace bless you.
Friday Dec 30, 2022
Thursday Dec 22, 2022
Thursday Dec 22, 2022
Salt is one of the most important ingredients to any dish and Jesus tells us we are the salt of the earth. Fr. Ben elaborates on this and what this means for your life.
Monday Dec 19, 2022
Monday Dec 19, 2022
Fr. Ben encourages us to take courage and speak the truth at all times. The reality of Christ coming at Christmas is that God came to us as Truth, to teach Truth, and have us live in this Truth. We must be courageous.
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
What are your must have holiday foods? What are the must haves in your daily walk with the Lord? Fr. Ben, Silvia, and Khira have this discussion as we all are steeped in the hustle & bustle of the holidays and still trying to grow closer to Christ.
Monday Dec 12, 2022
Monday Dec 12, 2022
There are many situations that try our patience every day and how we respond can make all the difference. In this homily, Fr. Ben provides great insight on how to best respond in a way that leads to holiness.
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
All of life can be a lesson, even getting struck with food poisoning. Fr. Ben expands on this type of suffering and how we can apply it to the spiritual life.
Monday Dec 05, 2022
Monday Dec 05, 2022
What does beauty in art teach us? Beauty is all around us, but none of it compares to you.
Thursday Dec 01, 2022
Thursday Dec 01, 2022
Ever wondered what the Church teaches on Angels & Demons? Check out this episode! Oh & we talk about Mexican food.
Monday Nov 28, 2022
Monday Nov 28, 2022
Are you overwhelmed at this time of year? The culture tells us it's "the most wonderful time of the year" but inundates us with all the "must haves". Stress and anxiety creep in and tensions rise. Fr. Ben provides tools for navigating this season.
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.