To be precise about it, the name of the Sacrament is PENANCE. Flip over your Baptismal Certificate.
It's about being penitent for ones' sins. Contrition is not just an act. The more you do it, the more it becomes meaningful.
If contrition isn't a reality, if you are just going through the motions, you certainly aren't getting the benefit.
There's an act of contrition that I occasioanlly meditate with:
O Lord Jesus, lover of our souls, who, for the great love with which You loved us, willed not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live, I grieve from the bottom of my heart that I offended You, my most loving Master and Redeemer, to whom all sin is infinitely displeasing, who so loved that You shed Your blood for me, and endured the bitter torments of a most cruel death. O my God, my infinite Goodness, would that I never offended You. Pardon me, O Lord Jesus, as I most humbly implore Your mercy. Have pity on a sinner for whom Your blood pleads before the face of the Father.
O merciful and forgiving Lord, for the love of Your, I forgive all who have ever offended me. I firmly resolve to forsake and flee from all sins, and to avoid the occasions of them, to confess, in bitterness of spirit, all those sins which I committed against Your divine goodness, and to Love You, O my God, for Your own sake, above all things and for ever. Grant me grace so to do, most gracious Lord Jesus.
__
For me, this helps bring to me back to the Passion, that my sins have consequences, that they too, were part of the weight Jesus bore at Calvary, that God loves us so much he was willing do to something about it instead of just throw me, deservingly, into the outer darkness.
In sorrow at my failure, I come to him, and say, Lord, have mercy. In thanksgiving for his mercy, I celebrate. Because of his love, I choose to make his love the model for mine, although I can only try to reach such a lofty goal, and because of what my sin does, and because of the great price he paid to save me from it, I strive hard with his help to avoid the near occasion of sin, and pray that with his help I may go and if not sin no more, try to.