Donald Nicholl, in a marvelous essay in Grail Journal, "Holiness: A Call To Radical Living", writes:
In fact, every call of the Holy Spirit begins with a revelation of the bankruptcy of one's present, habitual mode of life, its tendency towards the death of one's spirit. That moment of awakening inevitably has to be a moment of anguish, of agony, and of repentance, because it is only from the pain of awakening to the contradiction in one's life that the energy to change arises.
The fine-art photograph composition is from my friend Amaris. It is titled "Gina Redux".