The Healing Journey

January 13, 2025

Fr. Michael Joncas has composed more than 20 collections of liturgical music, along with a two-volume hymnary. He started writing classical music in grade school and won the Minnesota Young Composers contest when he was in high school with a composition designed for string quartets, before gradually moving into church music.

Of course, his signature composition is “On Eagle’s Wings,” which he created when he was 26. In the 50 years since it was written, the hymn has offered hope and solace to countless people, including President Biden, who quoted it after his son Beau’s death. Based on Psalm 91, the hymn was sung at tenor Luciano Pavarotti’s funeral in 2007 and performed after the Oklahoma City bombings in 1996 and at many funerals of those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“On Eagle’s Wings” was composed for Father Joncas’ friend Douglas Hall, a seminarian at Catholic University.

“I went to visit him and we went out to dinner,” he recalled during an interview. “When we came back, there was a message waiting for him that his dad had died of a heart attack. And so we prayed together. The next day he flew back to Omaha, and ‘On Eagle’s Wings’ was created between that evening and the wake service for his dad.”

Fr. Joncas sang the song at the wake and the funeral Mass the next day. His friend Doug was ordained a priest and served with the military and in the Archdiocese of Omaha until his death a few years ago when Fr. Joncas returned to Omaha to sing “On Eagle’s Wings” at the funeral.

“So I was able not only to sing for his dad, years earlier, but I was able to sing at the wake and funeral for Doug, too,” he recalled. “And that really touched me.”

The power of one song, inspired by a loss, has helped untold millions deal with their loss.

Hear Father Joncas sing “On Eagle’s Wings.” (https://youtu.be/d6E-Mw1fnzE?si=74xXqjjonlLDFeSy)
©Joseph Pisani

On Eagle’s Wings
You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord
Who abide in His shadow for life
Say to the Lord, “My refuge, my rock in whom I trust!”
And He will raise you up on eagle’s wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand
The snare of the fowler will never capture you
And famine will bring you no fear
Under His wings your refuge, His faithfulness your shield
And He will raise you up on eagle’s wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand
You need not fear the terror of the night
Nor the arrow that flies by day
Though thousands fall about you, near you it shall not come
And He will raise you up on eagles’ wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand
For to His angels He’s given a command
To guard you in all of your ways
Upon their hands they will bear you up
Lest you dash your foot against a stone
And He will raise you up on eagles’ wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand
And hold you, hold you in the palm of His hand

(Songwriters: Michael Joncas
On Eagle’s Wings lyrics © Epoch Universal Publications Inc.)

***