Jan Michael Joncas

Jan Michael Joncas, commonly known as Michael Joncas, is an American Roman Catholic priest, liturgical theologian, composer, author, and educator. Raised in a musical Minnesota family, he entered seminary formation as a teenager during the years of the Second Vatican Council, when Roman Catholic worship was rapidly expanding its use of vernacular language and newly composed congregational music. He graduated from the University of St. Thomas in 1975, earned a master’s degree in theology and liturgical studies from the University of Notre Dame, and later completed advanced liturgical studies at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant’Anselmo in Rome. He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis in 1980.

Joncas taught theology and Catholic studies at the University of St. Thomas for decades and has published hundreds of pieces of liturgical music as well as books and articles on worship. His other compositions include I Have Loved You, There Is No Greater Love, and Shelter Me. In 2003 he developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, an illness that left him temporarily almost completely paralyzed and permanently affected his singing and guitar playing; he later wrote about that experience in a book on illness and healing.

Joncas wrote both the words and music of On Eagle's Wings. The song grew from Psalm 91 and was first used publicly in Omaha in 1976 as a pastoral response to the death of his friend Doug Hall’s father.