Almighty God is accustomed to visit every sinful soul in many ways.

Almighty God is accustomed to visit every sinful soul in many ways. He visits her relentlessly by her commandments, sometimes by a trial, sometimes even by a miracle, so that she hears the truths she did not know, and – if still she remains full of pride and contempt – that she returns to God in the pain of compunction, or else, overcome by the benefits, that she blushes for the evil she has committed.

St. Gregory the Great, Homily 39, par. 5