Saint John Paul II on his father’s example:

“Day after day, I was able to observe the austere way in which he lived. By profession, he was a soldier, and, after my mother’s death, his life became one of constant prayer. Sometimes I would wake up during the night and find my father on his knees, just as I would always see him kneeling in the parish church. We never spoke about a vocation to the priesthood, but his example was, in a way, my first seminary, a kind of domestic seminary.”