As Bosnia slid toward war in the 1990s, a Protestant Texan headed for med school found himself in the middle of the conflict, running convoys and discovering peace at Medjugorje, the site of reported Marian apparitions. That road led Father John Anthony Boughton into the Catholic Church and the Friars of the Renewal.
Boughton told Drew Mariani that he and a friend were stunned by the conversion of their friend in Dallas. The change was so undeniable that they asked him what happened, and he handed them his book on Medjugorje. Boughton and his friend went on pilgrimage just two weeks before Bosnia erupted. When friars warned that war was coming, Boughton began helping, smuggling medical supplies into the region.
The contrast between the war-torn country and the site of Medjugorje was jarring. Medjugorje felt like “palpable” peace, then a short drive away he would be under shellfire. Day after day it was “fruits of heaven” and “fruits of hell,” and the Lord was working on his heart.
Boughton had been headed for med school, but in prayer he heard God speak clearly: “I want you to heal souls, not bodies.” Before the Blessed Sacrament in Medjugorje, he decided to become Catholic. A priest handed him the Baltimore Catechism, and later, back home in Midland, Texas, he was received into the Church at Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Drew and Fr. Boughton kept returning to Our Lady’s constant request: prayer, penance, and the Rosary. Boughton laughed that he can’t preach on it enough, and he challenged busy listeners with a line he never forgot: “I don’t have time not to pray three Rosaries a day.” One decade here, two minutes there, and God can do the rest.
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