Eugene’s meditation continues to focus on God as a loving Father – no other Father like Him exists. As an older man, Eugene spoke of his own fatherly love for his Oblate sons as a reflection of God’s fatherly love.
Yet nothing could be more reasonable than to abandon myself entirely to God in my needs as in my enterprises. He knows my needs, he is my Father, and an all-powerful Father, indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things [Matt. 6:32]. He directs everything in the universe; the smallest insect does not die except by his will; he himself said that my hairs are counted, what a motive for confidence in all that concerns my salvation, in things even that have only an indirect bearing on it, but which accord with his will. Yes, even for life’s needs, for the successful outcome of undertakings, for everything in a word; his tenderness will provide for it if my trust is without limits, Nemo tam Pater [never has there been such a Father]
Retreat Journal, December 1814, O.W. XV n.130
As we gather about the world in prayer during the General Chapter that word “Trust” comes forth. It is trust in the “Father” as Eugene would say, other in the contemporary world may use the term, “to trust in the on going evolution of creation” which speaks of the infinite love and creativity of God. So we don’t need to know what the outcome will be, we only need to walk in faith/in the dark, knowing that in “tenderness” providence will guide us where we need to be.