Religious community, faithful witness ‘great mystery’ of formation

RARITAN BOROUGH — Standing before an overflow crowd at St. Joseph Church Jan. 28, a beaming Steven J. Bolton took an important step on his faith journey when he was ordained a deacon in the Raritan Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri.

“What a great mystery taking place before our eyes,” said Bishop Mario Alberto Aviles, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, who presided at the liturgy. “The Church is asking you to fall in love with the Lord so you may guard the Word and share it with others. This is the work of the worthy, to ponder this is a great joy of Christian life.”

Standing in the sanctuary, still Oratorian Brother Steven answered with a quiet yet confident “yes” the questions whether he had come willingly and faithfully to the priesthood and would promise obedience to the authority of the priesthood. Bishop Aviles answered this assent, “May God, who has begun great work in you, bring it to fulfillment,” as the congregation responded with resounding applause.

Then, acknowledging this was a goal he would not achieve alone, Brother Steven lay prostrate as the choir and congregation sang the “Litany of the Saints,” beseeching the heavenly hosts for assistance. As the last notes faded, Brother Steven approached Bishop Aviles, who laid hands on his head in silent prayer. After the rite, Oratorian clergy in the sanctuary blessed the new deacon and embraced him.

Deacon Bolton is scheduled to serve with the Oratory and continue his studies as a seminarian before being ordained to the priesthood at a date and time to be determined next June.

Deacon Bolton, a 29-year-old native of Hillsborough, is a 2015 graduate of the Rutgers Business School-New Brunswick where he studied supply chain management and marketing. As an undergraduate, he found a spiritual home at Rutgers’ Catholic Student Association; after graduation, he worked at a Princeton firm while becoming an aspirant of the Oratory, then located in New Brunswick.

“The Lord gave me the grace to go back,” Bolton said of his departure from the world of business and start of studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University, South Orange.

“The support structure of the oratory is helpful and life-giving. God confirmed this is it,” he said in a pre-ordination interview. “The love of Christ is embodied in the priesthood. I am an instrument of his grace in others.”

The new deacon donned the stole and dalmatic of his new role in the Church, then knelt before the bishop as his hands were anointed with Holy Chrism; Bishop Aviles then presented him with the Book of the Gospels with the words, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”

The Oratory of St. Philip Neri was canonically erected in the Diocese of Metuchen by then-Pope, now St. John Paul II on Sept. 8, 1998. Oratorian priests live in an Oratorian community of their choosing and are permanently stable, that is, not subject to transfer to other communities as are diocesan priests. The Congregation lives in St. Ann Rectory, Raritan, and serves Catholic apostolates in Bridgewater (Holy Trinity Parish) and Raritan (St. Ann Parish and St. Ann Classical Academy, the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Joseph Parish.)