Who is Michael Hallman?

I am an aspiring novelist, blogger, freelance journalist, amateur poet – I am a writer. The story of my own life has taught me that even in the darkest of times, the light of hope only dies if we choose to extinguish it.

I had a tumultuous experience of life in my 20’s, including a battle with cancer and with my own personal demons. I experienced a conversion of faith in 2005, in no small part due to the influence of Pope John Paul II, whose passing led me into a period of deep introspection. My life made a dramatic turn at that point, and the path from there to here has been truly grace-filled, even if rocky at times. I enrolled at Villanova University, where I studied Philosophy, Theology, and Classics. I met the Augustinian Friars there, and eventually joined that blessed Order, and spent three years living in the monastery, cultivating a life of meditation, prayer, and study. I have had wonderful teachers, mentors, and spiritual guides along the way. I have a particular interest in the Church Fathers, and Augustine and his spirituality loom large in my own path to God.

I left the monastery in May of 2012, thankful for the time I spent there, recognizing that God indeed called me to spend that time with the friars, but that he ultimately has other plans for me. I do not yet know what those plans are, but like Alyosha in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, I hope to carry on that monastic influence into my daily life as a lay person.

This blog then is simply an expression of my own spirit of contemplation. Life has certainly not grown less tumultuous, and now as a single, 35 year old man, my life takes on new challenges – finding a career, pursuing my dreams, falling in (and out) of love. Through it all I strive to conform my life to Beauty, hoping simply, as Mother Theresa once said, to do something beautiful for God. Please join me on the journey.

If you wish to contact me, whether for personal reasons, or if you are seeking a writer for freelance work, please feel free to e-mail me at michael.hallman@me.com