On Eagle's Wings (Based On Psalm 91): A Song History
Jan Michael Joncas, later ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, wrote this setting of Psalm 91 to comfort the family of his seminary friend Douglas Hall after the death of Hall's father.[1][2] It was first sung in April 1976 at the father's wake in Omaha and again the next day as the responsorial song at his funeral Mass.[1] Sources differ on the year it was written: the National Catholic Reporter places it in 1975, while Discipleship Ministries gives 1978, as Joncas was finishing a master's degree in liturgy at Notre Dame.[1][2]
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, An Eagle with Wings Spread, charcoal heightened with white chalk. Shown for the image in the title; it has no connection to the song.
In 1979 the small publisher North American Liturgy Resources took the song for publication and recording, and it appeared that year in a collection titled On Eagles' Wings.[1][2] It was taken into Glory and Praise, a hymnal that circulated widely in American Catholic parishes after the Second Vatican Council, and Protestant hymnals followed, the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal being the first major one to adopt its refrain.[1][2] It has since been translated into Spanish, Italian, Polish and several other languages.[1]
The song is now a fixture of funerals and memorials, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing memorial service and, in Italian, Luciano Pavarotti's funeral, and Joe Biden drew on it in his 2020 victory speech.[1] Dana Gruber includes it in Grace, a book of hymns and reflective songs tabbed for mountain dulcimer with guitar chords, published by Fingers Of Steel.[3]
Sources
- National Catholic Reporter: "'On Eagle's Wings' turns 50: The journey behind the song that has consoled the world".
- Discipleship Ministries: "History of Hymns: 'On Eagle's Wings'".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Dana Gruber, Grace".
- Image: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, An Eagle with Wings Spread, charcoal heightened with white chalk. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.