Catholic Father and Speaker Paul J. Kim Talks Micah and the ‘Miracles’| National Catholic Register
When tragedy strikes a family, a funeral is so often the final, somber memory left behind. The veil between this life and the next can feel heavy, dark, and impenetrable.
But for Catholic speaker and father Paul J. Kim, the devastating loss of his 5-year-old son, Micah, did not mark the end of a story. Instead, it tore the veil wide open.
It has been six months since the little boy lay in a hospital, suffering from fatal complications of the flu. Despite countless Catholics around the world keeping vigil for him, Micah died on Dec. 31, 2025.
Now, the family’s private nightmare in a Texas pediatric ICU has inspired prayer among Catholics devoted to Micah’s memory.
At the urging of friends, Paul wrote a prayer for private devotion, convinced his son was before the throne of Jesus.
Since then, Paul says he has received hundreds of messages describing what their authors believe were favors granted through Micah’s intercession.
The family’s devastating loss has prompted a global prayer phenomenon, accompanied by hundreds of reported favors, rapid medical healings and sudden conversions attributed to the intercession of a little boy who loved St. Michael the Archangel.
Micah and the ‘Miracles’
Driven by grief and total conviction in the communion of saints, Paul’s prayer quickly spread. While it drew minor criticism from a small group wondering why he was “treating his son like a saint,” Paul’s response was simple, as he told the Register:
“Micah was younger than the age of reason (aged 5 — so technically he never sinned), he loved Jesus, Mother Mary, and the Saints; he loved everyone he met and prayed for others intently each night; He died receiving the sacraments of the Church… If he’s not in Heaven, NONE of us are going.”
In the six months since Paul penned that private devotional prayer asking for the 5-year-old’s prayers, his inbox has been flooded with several hundred testimonies of unexplainable favors granted from heaven. The accounts, which have not been independently verified, include:
The ‘Micah Babies’: To date, 112 couples who had been unable to conceive for one, five or even 10 years have reported that they are now expecting children after asking for Micah’s intercession.
Instantaneous Healings: Eight individuals actively dying in the ICU have inexplicably recovered, and three people with diagnosed brain tumors saw them completely resolve on their subsequent MRIs.
Deathbed Conversions: A lifelong Muslim man and a lifelong Mormon woman both independently converted to Catholicism on their deathbeds after their respective children prayed to Micah.
“I used to teach Micah,” Paul reflected, “but now he’s teaching me.”
An ICU Dream
Perhaps the most awe-inspiring story of this global wave belongs to Gabe, another 5-year-old boy who was severely burned in a house fire. Gabe’s skin was so badly damaged that doctors were entirely unable to attempt skin grafts or medical procedures.
A family friend, deeply moved by Micah’s story, began asking for the late boy’s intercession. The very next morning, Gabe’s father contacted the friend with stirring news: Gabe had woken up in the night and told him, “Dad, a little boy came and prayed for me.” Almost immediately, Gabe’s skin began to regenerate at an unprecedented rate, allowing the hospital to successfully perform vital operations.
Hoping to verify the encounter, Paul asked the friend to have the father show Gabe a photograph of Micah without any context.
Upon looking at the picture, the young burn victim stated: “That’s the boy who prayed for me in my dream.”
‘Miracle or Bust’: The Battle in the ICU
The nightmare began at the end of last year when Micah fell suddenly ill. As his condition worsened, he slipped into a coma, where he would remain for ten agonizing days. Desperate, Paul turned to social media, launching a plea for prayers that rapidly went viral, mobilizing over a million people worldwide.
“We were all quite literally pounding on heaven’s gates, asking God to work a miracle,” Paul recalled to the Register. Specifically, the family invoked the intercession of Venerable Fulton Sheen — whose beatification is scheduled for this fall. “It was miracle or bust, really.”
But the mystery of faith is that God’s answers do not always align with our own cries of the heart. On the final day of Micah’s hospital stay, Texas doctors informed the family that they were required by law to initiate a brain-death examination. If Micah failed three consecutive tests, he would be declared “dead” and removed from life support.
In that moment of profound grief and ultimate vulnerability, Paul made a raw demand of God: “You have to clarify for me as a father. … I can’t leave this hospital with any semblance of regret, or [thinking] that I could have done more.”
What followed was a sequence of events so perfectly orchestrated they could only be described as providential.
Final Mass and an Emergency Baptism
On that final morning, the family’s pastor arrived to celebrate Mass directly at Micah’s bedside. As medical staff pushed Micah out of the room for his third and final test, Paul encountered a woman down the hall. Her 2-week-old baby was also in the pediatric ICU in critical condition. A week prior, Paul had gently asked her if the baby was baptized, urging her to consider the gift.
“Before she even asked me a question, I already knew what she was going to ask me,” Paul recounted. “I knew in a mysterious way that it was Micah. I said, ‘Micah, it’s you, isn’t it? You’ve been praying for this mom.’”
The woman walked up, tears in her eyes, and said: “Paul, I talked to my husband: Will you baptize my baby?”
As a layman, Paul knows that Catholic tradition permits emergency baptism only in dire situations. After a quick verification call to his spiritual director, Paul stepped into the baby’s room with holy water. “Baby Kingsley, I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” he pronounced.
“What should have been, essentially, the most anxious, miserable moment of my life … actually became a moment of great peace and, mysteriously, even joy,” Paul recollected. An hour later, the doctor delivered the solemn news: Micah was gone; there was no brain activity left.
But the family felt no doubt: Micah had lived a beautiful, joyful life of pure faith, free from any sin. Before passing, he had received the sacraments of first Communion, confirmation and last rites. Standing over his son’s hospital bed, Paul made a pact with his boy:
“Micah, we are broken because we’re sad, but we know that you are in heaven. So, here’s the deal, buddy. You need to pray for us so that we can join you when it’s our time to go, and you need to come and visit us every day.”
‘Exodus 3’ and the First Hello
The answers to that pact came almost immediately. Upon returning home, devastated and grieving, the Kims’ oldest daughter began sorting through Micah’s preschool arts and crafts. One of the first items she pulled out was a project depicting the burning bush from the Old Testament.
In the corner, it bore his hand-scrawled name: Micah. At the top, the preschool text displayed the words of Exodus 3: “I will be with you.”
It was Micah’s first “heavenly hello.”
‘The Cross Is Our Way to Salvation’
Despite the heavenly signs, Paul is candid about the crushing weight of his reality. “My 5-year-old’s body is in a grave about 10 minutes from where I live,” he said softly. “And that’s the trouble with all this. … In this life, it just feels really lousy. It feels almost pointless.”
Yet, through deep prayer, Paul says he has learned that suffering is not a punishment from a withholding God, but an invitation.
“You literally can’t find one follower of Christ who did not suffer. … Look at his mother, Mary … she too suffered profoundly. The cross is our way to salvation.”
He notes that if an earthly father would do everything humanly and spiritually possible to ensure his child was covered in grace and cared for, we must have childlike confidence that God the Father will do infinitely more for us.
St. Michael the Archangel
Before his passing, Micah’s favorite prayer was the St. Michael Prayer. Like many young boys, he loved the imagery of a sword and would enthusiastically swing his rosary like a weapon, “stomping his foot to help St. Michael crush the devil,” as his father related.
It is fitting, then, that Micah’s very name is derived from Michael, meaning: “Who is like God?”
“Micah, my 5-year-old, in his own way, has become a little prophet in modern times,” Paul told the Register.
“And his daddy gets to be his secretary. I get to join him in saying to the world, ‘Who is like God?’ Look how God is using a 5-year-old to change so many people’s lives. It’s all real, guys. Heaven is real.”
Learn more about Paul J. Kim’s ministry at PJKmusic.com
Follow him on social media to hear more testimonies about Micah
Instagram.com/HeyPjk
Facebook.com/PaulJisungKim
YouTube.com/PaulJKim
