Michael Hess
Michael was born and raised in the Waterpark Capital of the World - Wisconsin, Dells, WI. Must be why he is fun-loving and adventurous! He is the youngest of three and grew up in a Catholic family, always going to Mass on Sundays, Catechism on Wednesdays, Christian camps during the summer and keeping involved with Catholic retreats throughout the year. While he embraced this as part of his upbringing, he didn’t fully come to a deeper appreciation for the fullness of faith until his older brother’s falling away from the Church sparked and reignited a deeper desire in his mom to learn the apologetics of the faith and help bring the family closer to Christ in His Church.
The summer after Michael graduated from high school (2011), he attended World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, which really invoked his love for the Catholic Faith in a very real way. He developed a devotion to Jesus through the Eucharist and the Blessed Mother in the Rosary. Shortly after his return, he stepped onto the University of Wisconsin - Madison campus as an incoming freshman. On a spiritual high, he was determined to share his faith with all the new friends he would meet. At the end of that first year, he was surprised and humbled to hear how much people were impacted by the way in which he led his life.
The following year an opportunity to start a Catholic fraternity arose and during a six-month discernment period, Michael eventually heard the voice of God speak directly to him saying, “Michael, you need to start this fraternity. It needs to happen.” From that moment on, he and his friend Stephen worked together to bring about the rechartering of Phi Kappa Theta - WI Lambda on UW’s campus. They faced many obstacles and challenges, but all paled in comparison to God’s Providence, which aided them in going from a colony of 18 members to a full-fledged fraternity, 8 months later (May 2, 2015), with 36 members. Michael served as president of the group of men from its early beginnings in 2013 until January of 2016. The fraternity is alive and well today, growing in number, and guided by the Holy Spirit.
After college, Michael moved to California, where he spent 3 years in San Diego working as a field engineer building a hospital, followed by 2 years in Los Angeles working as an office/project engineer redeveloping terminals 4 & 5 of LAX for American Airlines. He embodied the missionary-in-the-workforce persona, where he took great joy in working hard in his role and sharing the Catholic faith with his coworkers. He formed prayer groups at work, openly taught coworkers about the rosary and shared the teachings of Catholicism. His motto has always been to “live in the world, not of it” and show others that you can be “cool & Catholic”.
Michael seemed to have it all going for him: a great job, an apartment just off the beach, an active lifestyle, a great Catholic community, numerous friends and possibly the beginning of a relationship with a very special girl. His earnest prayer for the past 10 years was “Lord allow my will to align with Thy Will”. And then on December 16th, 2020, everything changed. Tune in on February 27 to find out what God would ask of him next.