Cowboy Catholics kicked off Proclaim Week Monday morning at 8 a.m. From Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, every verse was read aloud in the McNeese Quad.

Cowboy Catholics is the Catholic Student ministry at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church. Rev. Paul Jussen is pastor.

“During Proclaim Week, 300 20-minute time slots are filled by students and church volunteers who each take a small part in proclaiming The Word on campus,” said Randall Edwards, Cowboy Catholics campus minister. “The last volunteer finished Thursday at 6 p.m. and it took 100 hours. There is no additional teaching, just the opportunity to hear and accept.”

Cowboy Catholics familiar with the scriptures didn’t expect to be impacted by the words they shared, but some were and signed up for additional reading times.

Edwards, a native of Jennings, has been a Cowboy Catholics minister for the last eight years.

“When I was in college, this was something I had wanted to do,” he said. God opened this door for me after a stint as a missionary in Minnesota and two years of seminary.”

As a campus minister, Edwards is often asked by students how they can find their purpose. Rather than focusing on a specific formula, job, service or a particular purpose or training, he recommends making the purpose, “going after God.”