06/17/2026
Definitely a favorite.
By the mid-1970s, Fr. Michael Joncas was a 24-year-old from Minneapolis who had temporarily left the path to priesthood, uncertain about his vocation, immersed in church music, liturgy and the turbulence of America after Vietnam.
Five decades later, the hymn he wrote during a moment of private grief, "On Eagle's Wings," has become one of the most recognizable religious songs in the English-speaking world, crossing denominational boundaries and accompanying funerals, memorial services and moments of national mourning, from parish churches to presidential speeches.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the hymn's creation, a song born quietly in 1975 and first sung publicly at a funeral in Omaha, Nebraska, in April 1976. https://bit.ly/49MrC5C