Fr Lenti was born on 31 January (by the way, Don Bosco's feast day), in 1923 in Bassignana, in the Province of Alessandria, Piedmont; he entered the novitiate of Colle Don Bosco in 1939, he made his first profession already in the United States, in Newton, on 14 September 1940, his perpetual one on 10 August 1946 and was ordained a priest in Turin in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians on 2 July 1950.
He lived practically all his Salesian life in what became his adopted homeland, the United States of America, and he spent his talents by engaging above all in the apostolate of teaching and research, as a teacher of Sacred Scripture and as founder and teacher of "Don Bosco Hall" (1974) and of the Institute of Salesian Spirituality in Berkeley (1984).
Numerous are his writings on the Founder of the Congregation. “Don Bosco. His pope and his bishop”, for example, focused on the relationship of the Saint of Youth with Pius IX and with the archbishop of Turin Lorenzo Gastaldi. But the work for which Fr Lenti will be remembered most is certainly his “Don Bosco, History and Spirit”, of which the same author said:
“I call this survey ‘Don Bosco, History and Spirit’ because Don Bosc`s life and work were played out in the context of the fateful events that created a new religious and political world, and thereby also shaped his thinking and action; ‘Spirit’ because through discernment, interpretation and acceptance he discovered the meaning of this new world and courageously responded to its challenges: his vocation.”
The volumes, born in the classroom as material for handouts, were then expanded with appendices of great utility and value.
On the same work, at the time of its publication in English, the then Councilor for Formation and future Vicar of the Rector Major, Fr Francesco Cereda, wrote: “Now the English-speaking world has an authoritative source for the knowledge of Salesian history and spirit and therefore for the strengthening of its charismatic identity. Now is the time for a similar effort in the wide distribution and use of this work, especially at all the stages of initial formation.”
And when the text was published in Spanish, edited by Fr Juan José Bartolomé and Fr Jesús Graciliano González, the reviewers underlined the value of the author, “defining him as a historian who knows how to identify the common thread and unite human affairs, fixing their memory in an objective manner” and added: “By resorting to hermeneutics, Fr Lenti identifies, values, contrasts and, often, corrects, documents and interpretations on Don Bosco considered indubitable to this day. He strongly and definitively demolishes myths and superficial visions… Extraordinary work. Full of themes and paths. Excellent effort and achievement, where a realistic vision of Don Bosco's life and work and his authentic religious motivation are harmoniously combined.”
In this year 2022, in which the Congregation is preparing to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of St. Francis de Sales and to deepen his figure through the Strenna of the Rector Major on the theme “Do all through love, nothing through constraint”, it may also be useful to read some lines that Fr Lenti spent on Don Bosco's “Salesian” spirituality.
“As Salesians, we may understand ‘spirituality’ as the vehicle in which we move and enter into relationship with our brothers in community, with our young people, with the persons that share with us the mission of education-evangelization of the young, and with people in general.
In essence, spirituality is love, it is charity. We should not be 'sophisticated' in this. In practical terms, if we replace the term spirituality with another that can help us express our idea in a better way, we could use terms like love, charity, friendship, desire to help, availability to others... Taken together, these terms can well define everyday spirituality as Don Bosco understood it.
It is this very aspect that best reveals the influence of St. Francis de Sales on Don Bosco. It is practically certain that Don Bosco was well acquainted with the Introduction to the Devout Life (Philothea), the masterly work of the holy Bishop of Geneva. We are thereby reminded that Don Bosco lived as a mystic, that is to say, in overarching union with God, with the saint, especially with the Virgin Mary, with whom he conversed with authentic familiarity. Moreover, he understood the mystic life as a life that issued in practical Christian love fully engaged in Christian ministry and lived not merely as humanitarian philanthropy but out of a deeply rooted union with God.
In this sense, our spirituality does not keep timetables, but is lived daily especially in the way we treat other people.”
