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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Fr. Ben and Khira sit down with a special guest, Gwen Coffey. She’s the Director of Social Ministries for St. Michael’s parish and her deep love is to serve persons with special needs. In this episode, she talks about the ministries that have been developed for persons with special needs and the importance of ministering to them and their families. This is such a beautiful episode filled with great information for all.

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!

This episode is a bit different in that Fr. Ben gives a review of the new movie Conclave out in theaters. He also addresses the idea of women's ordination, which is a topic this movie is pushing. Take a listen to have a clearer idea and understanding of Church teaching on this major topic.

(We apologize. This episode was to be released last Thursday. It's being uploaded today because we want you to have this information while this movie is still out in theaters and fresh on people's minds.)

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!