A very simple and very effective prayer practices that can lead you to a state of grace where you can go to confession and really change and turn away from errors (provided the intention is there within you) is the devotion of the Three Hail Marys. I now see there are multiple versions of this devotion. I will provide a couple of links after talking about the way I learned it and why I recommend it.
I learned it from a small book of prayers. Essentially the same version I learned is included near the top of this web page: https://visitationproject.org/pages/the-three-hail-marys where they provide this:
Recite, morning and evening, three Hail Marys in honor of the three great privileges, with this invocation at the end: for the morning: "O my Mother, preserve me from mortal sin during this day," for the evening: "O my Mother, preserve me from mortal sin during this night."
I included three consecutive Hail Marys with the "O Mother" request after them as part of my daily prayers (which includes the Rosary, so I end up saying a lot of Hail Marys). Mine went "O Mother Mine ...". I simply said the 3 Hail Marys with no stated intentions or anything until the request at the end. The link above gives a more full version than what I did. I probably would have had to print this one out to say it correctly, but my simpler version works fine.
Errors and sins are habits, not just individual acts. So, breaking from them and getting one's self into a state of grace and remaining there is more than just a decision, but a breaking of patterns and the creation of new patterns. This pray is a request to break those patterns one day at a time. Once enough days are established, and the pattern can seem to be broken (though let's not pretend we're out of the woods yet as many saints point to the idea that the memory of sin remains and can have a powerful pull when we least expect it), we might find ourselves in a state of grace where we can be reasonably confident when we go to confession and declare our intention to not sin anymore that the intention is more than just off the top of our heads. It should be an intention that is more fully ingrained in our body and our emotions and our mind.
It is often said that prayers made while not in a state of grace are not effective or are less effective. I can say that this devotion, as part of a more full prayer life and beginning of an examination of one's conscience, can be effective while not technically in a state of grace yet. It is an aid to attaining that state. It probably should include Our Fathers and other prayers and meditations on the Holy Trinity as devotion to Mary is done with the the dual purpose getting to know her Son through her and with the idea stated in the phrase to Jesus through Mary.
To know Mary is to know Jesus as, once she accepted the responsibility given to her by God through the Archangel Gabriel, her life was about his life. This is why devotion to Mary focuses on seeing two aspects of her life: the life of Jesus through her eyes from before his biological conception though to the very end and the day of judgement, and her unique relationship with all three aspects of the Holy Trinity. It may well be that all the mysteries of the faith are encapsulated within those parts of Marian devotion. (It is my hope that more protestants and really everyone see it that way)
A saint who I can't recall (I think either a Saint Maximus or a Saint Gregory) taught that where virtue is block the path to vice is opened. It is important to not block our own or each other's pursuit of virtue or the exercise of our spiritual gifts. It is seen most simply when we realize the blockage of virtue is frustration of a worthy pursuit, and frustration is not fun. So, when we pray on and work on eliminating the habits of sin in our lives we need to be sure to open up a previous road-closure towards a virtue or spiritual gift or grace.
It is often the case that the passions that attack us (thoughts and impulses that come over us seemingly out of nowhere, ie passively) and lead us into sin are indications themselves of what the virtue we should be pursuing is. This is tied to the idea that the passions in and of themselves are not evil but that after the fall our relationship to them has changed and thus their nature within us has changed (I hope I'm not misstating this). St Maximus the Confessor wrote of this, and the phrase for how the passions can point us to what we should be doing is "the utility of the passions".
Using these ideas and this devotion, even in a simpler form, one can more easily (most easily, dare I say) attain a state of grace and begin the journey one was meant to be on. That journey is to rise above the selfish and short-sighted approach to life, the animalistic aspects of our nature and the assumption of that which seems natural must be good or worthy of pursuit, and cultivate the aspect of ourselves that replaces the insatiable with being satiated in God's grace.
Here is another, more intricate, version of the devotion:
https://catholic-link.org/the-three-hail-marys-devotion-a-simple-lifeline-to-love-and-holiness/
I would not say that one is better than the other. But, once started down the path we should be on, we might find the easy version is no longer reverent enough or serious enough or thorough enough to communicate to ourselves our intentions or to express our intentions.
Here is a novena based on this devotion: https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/three-hail-marys-novena-323
I have greatly benefited from the simple version of this devotion described above. I can recommend it most highly to all those who want to fulfill Our Lady's requests that she gave at Fatima or who want to begin devotion to Jesus through Mary. Just let's state this plainly: Fatima was real, she asked us to do certain things, we should do them. Do them, mean it when doing them, understand doing them is fulfilling a request to us from the Mother of God, and the rest should fall into place. Getting in a state of grace is part of that.
Any good version of the devotion of the Three Hail Marys could be a part of anyone's prayer life anywhere along their path and even as part of getting on the path and off the old path that leads at best to nowhere and at worst to misery punctuated by distractions.
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