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The two hardest things to do as a Catholic are 1) Give up your sins, 2) Confess your sins when you fail to give them up.
If it wasn't for these two basic things, then being a Catholic would be very easy. But it is what we are called to do.
I've heard, more than once, the absurd idea that "Being a Catholic is easy because you can sin all you want, because you can then just go to Confession."
Which indicates that the person making that silly claim doesn't know Catholic theology. In order to be forgiven in Confession, you need to make a "firm purpose of amendment." In other words, if you just intend to commit the sin again, then your sins are not forgiven in the confessional. While yes, we fall, you must go to Confession with the intention that you will *never commit that sin again.*
Catholics also do not believe that you can just confess your sins to God. The Church states that you must confess your sins to a priest. Jesus clearly gave His Church the power to forgive sins in the Sacred Scripture.
John 20:22-23 (Douay-Rheims):
In order for your Confession to be valid, you have to speak truth. And you have to speak the truth about *yourself*, and your own *downfalls*. You are really, more powerfully than at any other time, confronting Satan. Satan is the "Father of Lies", and we are tempted to lie more about our own sins than anything else. By speaking truth about yourself, you are thwarting the Father of Lies.
I've seen Catholics abandon Confession. When they do, I've noticed one of two things happen.
Many Catholics stay "Catholic" while denying Catholic teaching. Either they state that they don't believe their sins are really sins, or that Jesus never meant for people to confess their sins to a priest, only straight to God. I find this dishonest, because once a Catholic does this, he no longer is Catholic. He is embracing Protestantism.
The other thing that happens to many Catholics that abandon Confession is that they abandon belief in God. And it really happens in that order. Once they can no longer fight Satan in Confession, by speaking truth, in defiance of the Father of Lies, they state that, "Well, there isn't a God anyways. There is no sin." But the cause of the abandonment of belief in God is the fear of Confession.
I've seen both many times over my half-century of life.
I can understand the fear of Confession. Really, most priests try to make it as painless as possible. Now, if you've stolen money or killed someone, you may need to return the money or turn yourself in before the priest will give you absolution. For serious sins like these, a priest can insist on this before giving absolution.
For the more common sins, those that most people struggle with - greed, anger, lust, etc - the priest has heard all these things a million times. Most priests are very gentle, and good confessors will tell you ways of fighting your sins, ways to be more patient, or to turn your mind to more pure things, etc.
But when we confront our own sins, we are confronting our own evil. We are telling God yes. We are telling Satan no. This is hard, very hard. It is also disheartening when we end up having to confess the same sin over and over and overagain, because we keep falling, keep confronting the same weaknesses."
I once heard a priest say, "Would you rather that you had a whole new set of sins you had to confess? Keep fighting the sins you have. You will conquer them."
In my mind, the hardest part of "staying the course" is to be faithful to the Confessional. Going to Confession confronts my weaknesses as a father, as a husband, as an employeee, etc. It helps me to be a better person. Without Confession, it would be too easy to say, "Well, committing these sins are natural. No need to fight them."
If you keep confronting your own sins, if you keep telling Satan no, that you are going to follow Jesus, God will bring you to Himself.