Sweet music to my ears over at Father Jim's. Nothing I didn't already know, but nevertheless it is good to hear it confirmed. It is very disheartening to be repeating nearly the same thing week after week after week with no discernable progress. But, as Father Jim points out, there is good cause for hope.
Last year I heard a priest offer his own remarks on the subject of confessing repeated sin. He simply observed that weeding a garden has to be done more than once, and that having to do so should not discourage us.
In addition, I would observe that it is often necessary to dig underneath to find the common roots, which (in my experience at least) appear to be relatively few in number, in contrast to the multitudinous outward manifestations. Of course, this doesn't make my task easier, as they are also much harder to get at (it's always easier to lop off branches than to dig out roots).
By the way, have you ever asked a priest about what he doesn't hear in a confessional? I once heard a priest remark that he never heard anyone confess ingratitude or inquisitiveness, which was quite a revelation for me, as I had not until then seriously pondered my failings in either of these areas. If more priests would discuss the sins that aren't confessed, it might help people to remove blind spots that are hiding other faults in their lives.
I would that Fr. Jim post on predominant virtues, for that would be numerically easier to deal with than predominant faults.