Weekly podcast by priests: a shout out to potential seminarians

Want to listen to the podcast?

The weekly “about four o’clock” podcast is available from all podcast outlets. They are released on Mondays and are about 30 minutes long. Recent podcasts include interviews with Fr. Bernie Gorges, Fr. Devin Burns, and Fr. Jon Tolbert.
A link is available at CatholicDioceseOfWichita.org/about4-podcast.

About the name
The podcast’s name is a reference to John 1:39: “He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four o’clock.”

Producing a weekly podcast to help young men discern a possible vocation to the priesthood has resulted in unanticipated benefits.

“We found that we became better priests,” Fr. Drew Hoffman said. “Because it was three friends intentionally gathering in a room to not only tell dumb-funny stories but to share things about their priesthood and to have to think about what’s going on in my priesthood. What do I love? What are some struggles? Things like that.”

Fr. Hoffman, the pastor of the St. Paul University Parish at Wichita State University, said he, Fr. Chad Arnold, the director of Vocations, and Fr. Garett Burns, a parochial vicar at St. Margaret Mary Parish in Wichita, began the podcasts, named “about four o’clock,” at the beginning of 2022 because they found they were answering the same questions “over and over.”

A way to reach youth

“We decided we wanted to try a new way to reach young people,” Fr. Hoffman said. “After discerning, we found we were answering the same questions over, and we wanted something that could enliven and energize vocations and send to people who maybe had a specific question such as: When do I join? What is celibacy going to be like? How does the process work?”
He said the podcasts cover the practical aspects of the priesthood but also provide a vision of the priesthood that is joyful from men who love being priests.

The podcasts this year include a regular episode with some banter and a specific topic such as first ordinations, Fr. Hoffman said. The next week’s podcast is a priest interview, usually one from the Diocese of Wichita, to hear his vocation story.

“We’ve loved doing that,” he said. “We’re going to interview some religious sisters upcoming. We have some other ideas percolating.”

Fr. Hoffman said the podcasts have a side benefit. The podcasts allow interviewed pastors an outlet to share their vocations stories with their parish.

Fr. Arnold edits

Fr. Chad Arnold edits the episodes, several of which are recorded in one sitting.

He said “about four o’clock” has become a great resource for those who live on the outskirts of the diocese to discern a vocation because they have fewer opportunities to attend discernment events.

“A surprising demographic has been parents who know their child is discerning the priesthood or religious vocation,” he said. “It helps them to understand what their son is going through and hoping for. I know a few families who listen to it with their children as part of their drive to school and discuss it.”

Technology at the seminary

Fr. Arnold said one of the humorous outcomes of group tours to the St. Joseph House of Formation in Wichita is that there are always a few interested young men who get excited to see the Podcasting Room. “As if it were more than some Ikea couches and microphones!”

Fr. Burns said he hopes the podcast comes across as real, rather than forced discussions.

“It’s been as beneficial for us as for any listeners,” he said. “We’ve often said we’d continue getting together – even if no one listened to the episodes, because it provides us a space to have these honest and authentic conversations.”
Interestingly enough, Fr. Burns added, the best podcasts have been those where participants share experiences as if no one else was listening.