Mentoring is a mutuality that requires more than meeting the right teacher: the teacher must meet the right student.

Every good teacher and every good parent has somehow learned to negotiate the paradox of freedom and discipline. We want our children and our students to become people who think and live freely, yet at the same time we know that helping them become free requires us to restrict their freedom in certain situations.

Whoever our students may be, whatever the subject we teach, ultimately we teach who we are.

Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one's self. It is not about the absence of other people -- it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others. Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other. It is not about the presence of other people -- it is about being fully open to the reality of relationship, whether or not we are alone.

At its deepest level, I think teaching is about bringing people into communion with each other, with yourself as the teacher, and with the subject you are teaching.

You are much more likely to have a holy experience in a quiet, focused, and communal context than you are when you are being entertained.

I have to say that I have been blessed with significant teachers at every stage of my life.