On Eagle's Wings at 50

 

Author, composer and professor Fr. Michael Joncas holding a June 2024 letter from former U.S. president Joe Biden by the bookcase where he framed and displayed the original 1976 score of "On Eagle's Wings," in his apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota, May 2026. (NCR photo/Camillo Barone)

In 1976  Jan Michael Joncas, a 24-year-old who had temporarily stepped away from a vocation to the priesthood wrote a hymn for a friend whose father had just died. It was sung at the funeral mass and quickly gained popularity that spread broadly over the past half century. The hymn, On Eagle's Wings, has been sung as an anthem and hymn in many churches, Protestant and Roman Catholic, in times of sorrow and joy. 

In Voices United, a United Church hymn resource, On Eagle's Wings is number 808, in the psalm section because it is based on Psalm 91, a source of comfort for Joncas when saying the daily office. He is still alive although serious health issues have left him unable to sing the way he once did or to play the guitar. 

The original 1976 score of "On Eagle's Wings" by Fr. Michael Joncas, framed and displayed on his bookcase in his apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota, May 2026. (NCR photo/Camillo Barone)

I read about Joncas in the National Catholic Register and here are a few paragraphs from the article" 

"I pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven," Joncas said with a faint smile and watery eyes. "I just keep hoping that more and more we will respond to the spirit of God and have a transformation of our world."

Looking back, he says the most surreal moment for "On Eagle's Wings" may have been Nov. 7, 2020. While he was watching television, Joncas heard Biden quote the hymn during his victory speech. Later, Joncas wrote the president elect a letter explaining the song's origins.

"I have carried your words in my heart for decades and sung them at more Masses than I can remember," Biden wrote back. "When I meet families and communities who have experienced deep loss — from natural disasters, violence, and other circumstances out of their control — I often share your words with them as a blessing, with the hope that they will be comforted by them, as I have always been."

Imagine, a considerate and compassionate president!