Win It All: The Way to Heaven for Catholic Teens
Justin Fatica
Ave Maria Press, 2010, 150 pp., $11.95
Justin Fatica literally set himself on fire a couple times as a teenager before he learned a few game-changing lessons about God’s love and human value. Now he does it on a regular basis—figuratively these days—as an exuberant conference speaker passing on those lessons to counter destructive societal messages inundating teens. In Win It All, Fatica specifically addresses Catholic youth, interspersing clips from catechisms with lives of saints and rappers, looping in personal crises and sports stories, and mingling evangelistic fervor with a martyr’s zeal. Short chapters with study questions and application steps urge teens to recognize their importance, discover their missions in life, make their messes their messages, keep their passions, remain fearless, commit to loving, never give up and live every day as if it were their last. Appendices include creeds, memory verses and prayers, as well as the basics of how to go to confession, how to pray the Rosary and when to go to Mass. Protestants ministering in ecumenical settings may also find this an accessible resource for supporting Catholic teens in discerning vocation and growing within their own rich tradition.
