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 Sep 26, 2022
Monday Sep 26, 2022
The Special Needs Ministry at St. Michael's parish in Memphis helped to celebrate mass on Sunday. They were lectors, altar servers, and signed the beautiful prayers and songs for the congregation. This was a joyful mass, and, in this homily, Fr. Ben speaks about the joy they bring to our community.
Bonus: At the end of the homily we added our wonderful Silvia Vega singing Oceans by Hillsong UNITED. This was a beautiful moment in the church to have her sing as a girl with Downs Syndrome signed it.
Thursday Sep 22, 2022
Thursday Sep 22, 2022
Fr. Ben and Khira had the amazing opportunity to chat with Dr. Christopher West, the President of the Theology of the Body Institute and top scholar on Pope St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body. In this discussion, they talk about food, the universal longing we all have to be fulfilled, and how food points us to that ultimate fulfillment- God! Be prepared to be amazed by the beautiful insight shared during this conversation.
Dr. Christopher West will be in the Memphis at St. Michael's Church for the Made for More event Nov. 15, 2022. To experience more of a talk like this, music by Mike Magione, and an evening of beauty go to memphism4m.eventbrite.com to purchase your tickets! Space is limited, so get your ticket today! All are welcome.
To find out more about Dr. Christopher West and the Theology of the Body Institute, where Fr. Ben and Khira have both studied, go to tobinstitute.org or go to the Institute's YouTube channel.
Monday Sep 19, 2022
Monday Sep 19, 2022
The way you think affect your actions, and your actions have consequences. How are your thoughts affecting your life? How can you find happiness in life? Fr. Ben discusses these major topics.
Thursday Sep 15, 2022
Thursday Sep 15, 2022
In this 6 minute teaching, Fr. Ben discusses the types of tastes that exist and how they may or may not relate to objective and subjective truth.
Monday Sep 12, 2022
Monday Sep 12, 2022
Horrific injustices happen in the world and leave us wondering where God is. We also wonder how we get through tragedies with faith and hope. Fr. Ben beautifully addresses these deep struggles in this homily and how we can entrust ourselves to God.
Thursday Sep 08, 2022
Thursday Sep 08, 2022
In this episode, Fr. Ben addresses the questions regarding the priesthood, celibacy, and why women can't become priests. We also discuss the goodness found in street food, but the difficulty in cooking in those conditions.
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
What is the difference between Jesus and other prophets of the world? Who is God? Is Catholicism just like other religions? Fr. Ben addresses all of these questions in this one homily!
(We apologize for the delayed release of this homily. There were audio issues in the original.)
Thursday Sep 01, 2022
Thursday Sep 01, 2022
In this short session, Fr. Ben reveals the original sauces in the culinary world as well as the cardinal virtues that every person can practice. Both the sauces and the virtues can elevate daily life.
Monday Aug 29, 2022
Monday Aug 29, 2022
What is hope? How can we have hope? Hope can be found in this world, and Fr. Ben informs us how.
Thursday Aug 25, 2022
Thursday Aug 25, 2022
In this episode Fr. Ben addresses the opposition in the world, whether it be politics, religion, or even food, and ways these opposites can come together to create unity...or an emulsion.
(We apologize for releasing this episode a few hours late. Roofers were working while we recorded, so we tried to remove the background noise as much as possible.)
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 regarding food or faith email us at soulfoodpriestmemphis@gmail.org 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.