The atmosphere in the auditorium on Monday morning would have gotten the student body excited for a rally, but it was Monday, what could this assembly be about? Seniors remember him from freshmen year during a class retreat as Justin Fatica, director of the Hard As Nails Ministry. Fatica is a Cathedral Prep alumnus most well known for his unconventional ways of getting God’s message across and helping people realize that everyone is a winner.

Fr. Jason began the assembly by introducing Fatica, who had some of the rally members do some of the chants to fire up the student body. One of my favorite moments from the assembly is when senior Connor Van Hove got up on stage and did Prep’s “soul power” cheer. He has put his own spin on the cheer and, as a result, it has become a favorite among students because he is one of the funniest kids at Prep.
Fatica’s in-your-face, “Hard as Nails” style of preaching is authentic, and he wants to be real with the people he presents to. Some say he goes too far, but other people think it is an effective way for him to get his point across. He gets the crowd into the presentation so it’s not the typical priest telling you to do this or not do that. It’s a successful tactic that gets people to think before they make the decision to make fun of somebody whose story they don’t know.

Not everyone knows what someone else is going through, whether it be a friend who lost their mom or if that person you just messed with is thinking about taking his or her own life. Fatica’s message is that we should think before we act because we’re all amazing people. As he emphasized, no one is a loser, and we should all win for someone else.
I’m sure during the assembly we all learned something new about our classmates that we didn’t know prior to Fatica talking to us. Justin Fatica’s in-your-face style is nice because it is like a rally; it gets you fired up and is something we all are kind of familiar with. If we can take anything from the assembly, it is to think before you act and make sure you start to win for yourself and other people in your life.