Proverbs 24:16 For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity.
A disciple came to a certain Elder, one day, and said, “Father, I have fallen!”
The Elder answered, “Get up!”
Again and again he came to the Elder and said, “I have fallen!”
And the Elder invariably answered, “Get up!”
“Until when must I continue getting up?” the disciple asked.
And the Elder answered, “Until the day when you give up your soul to God!”
Thus, every time when we feel that we have fallen, the Sacrament of Repentance tells us to get up.
Here is the prayer of absolution that Melkite Catholic priests use for Confession:
God, through Nathan the Prophet, forgave David his sins; and Peter, shedding bitter tears over his denial; and the Adulteress, weeping at His feet; and the Publican and the Prodigal Son. May this same God, through me a sinner, forgive + you, [Name], everything in this life and in the life to come. And may He make you stand uncondemned before His awesome Judgement Seat for He is blessed forever and ever. Amen.
St David committed adultery and then had the woman’s husband killed. God forgave St David through St Nathan the prophet. It is the same way that God forgives us our embarrassing mortal sins through the priest when we confess them. He desires that everyone repents.
Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.
You do not lose the battle against sin until you quit getting up (i.e. give up struggling against it).
Abba [St] Anthony [the Great] said to Abba Poemen, ‘This is the great work of a man: always to take blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.’
We will be tempted. We will likely have shortcomings in the future. Thankfully we have the Sacrament of Confession.
“Did you commit sin? Enter the Church, repent for your sin, for here is the physician, not the judge. Here one is not investigated; one receives remission of sins.” - St John Chrysostom
And remember that Christ gave the authority to absolve sins to the Apostles and their successors. Christ is not a liar; if you make a good Confession and the priest absolves you, you are forgiven.
For it has not been said to them, “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.” They who rule on earth have indeed authority to bind, but only the body: whereas this binding lays hold of the soul and penetrates the heavens; and what priests do here below God ratifies above, and the Master confirms the sentence of his servants. For indeed what is it but all manner of heavenly authority which He has given them when He says, “Whose sins ye remit they are remitted, and whose sins ye retain they are retained?” What authority could be greater than this? “The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son?” But I see it all put into the hands of these men by the Son. - St John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood, Book 3:5
