The Marianist Big Island Liturgical Arts Conference — or Marianist BILAC — will offer dozens of workshops on music, Scripture, prayer and liturgy Sept. 26-28 at Chaminade University in Honolulu.
As it has for more than 30 years, BILAC brings to the Islands the writers and composers of some of today’s most loved liturgical hymns. The Hawaii Catholic Herald caught up with two of this month’s presenters — Father Jan Michael Joncas and Marty Haugen — and asked them how they penned songs that have become church standards.
‘On Eagle’s Wings’
Father Michael Joncas
Father Joncas, 61, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis in Minnesota, is the composer of the song named by hundreds of voters in a 2006 poll sponsored by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians as their No. 1 liturgical hymn.
The diocesan priest wrote “On Eagle’s Wings” in 1979. Since then, it has become a staple at Sunday Masses, funerals and memorial events as a reminder of God’s uplifting presence in times of sorrow.
“I’ve actually composed over 300 pieces of liturgical music, but most people associate me with this single piece,” Father Joncas told the Herald via email.
According to Father Joncas, the song was created more than three decades ago when he was visiting a friend at the major seminary in Washington, D.C. One evening, after the two returned to the seminary dorms from dinner, Father Joncas’ friend got word that his father had suffered a heart attack. Father Joncas wrote “On Eagle’s Wings” in the days that followed.
It “was sung for the first time in public at my friend’s father’s wake service,” he said.
The song is based on Psalm 91, its lyrics drawing directly from the Scripture’s vivid descriptions of God’s protection and providence. Verses include the lines “You need not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,” and “For to his angels he has given a command to guard you in all of your ways.”
Although there are no mentions of eagles in Psalm 91, the chorus written by Father Joncas uses the metaphor to depict God’s high, secure places described therein. Catholics are familiar with Father Joncas’ refrain, “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.”
“I have been humbled by the number of times people have spoken or written to me about how God has used the song to bring them comfort and peace,” Father Joncas said.
There has been debate about the song’s title: where to place the apostrophe after “eagle.” Father Joncas initially wrote the title “On Eagle’s Wings,” which he said “would apply the single eagle image to a monotheistic understanding of God.” However, “On Eagles’ Wings,” with the apostrophe after the “s,” could be appropriate as well.
“Either can work grammatically,” the priest said. “‘On Eagles’ Wings’ would instead speak of the manifold ways that the one God has drawn people to himself.”
The song’s colorful imagery is woven together by a melody with airy highs and a crescendo refrain. According to Father Joncas, the verses were meant to be sung by a cantor able to handle the wide range of notes and “more sophisticated rhythms and harmonic movement.” Congregants would join in singing the simpler chorus.
“I have been amazed to find congregations singing the entire thing, because I think the verses are somewhat difficult,” Father Joncas said.
Father Joncas will be performing a special concert at Marianist BILAC. He has been composing new material over the past several years since his recovery from Guillain-Barre syndrome. The illness paralyzed him in 2003, but he has recuperated well. Despite some nerve pain, Father Joncas said he still plays piano and sings. Through “On Eagle’s Wings” and other pieces, he continues to bring alive an experience of God, combining his favorite music genres of classical, folk and ecclesiastical into his own signature liturgical sound.
“In some ways these influences continue in my work today,” Father Joncas said.
‘Shepherd Me, O God’
Marty Haugen
Psalm 23, which begins with “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” is a popular passage covered by musicians. A composition created by BILAC presenter Haugen has put a unique take on the psalm simply by repurposing one of its key words.
“Shepherd Me, O God” is a moody, meditative piece Haugen wrote in the mid-1980s. Speaking by phone Sept. 6 from his home in Minnesota, he explained that a small shift in depicting “shepherd” as an action instead of a noun brought forth the now famous song.
“I have never met a shepherd,” Haugen said. “My wife was finally the one who suggested … make it a verb. That sort of was a breakthrough.”
Haugen, who is not Catholic but has worked in Catholic parishes, said he was living at an ecumenical retreat center in Washington State with his family when “Shepherd Me, O God” was written. During a snowy winter, he was commissioned to do a version of the 23rd psalm. Haugen said he knew it would be a challenge.
“It’s hard to write something that everybody knows the text to,” he said. “I was trying and trying — you get stuck sometimes.”
The retreat center community held vespers every night. Haugen said they would regularly integrate his new music into prayer time. With little else to do on snowed-in evenings, the community also spent time critiquing his work. “Shepherd Me, O God,” Haugen joked, is one of three or four settings he wrote for Psalm 23 that received the least amount of criticism.
“That piece, like everything I wrote up there, went through the grill of the community,” he said. “I think that’s really valuable.”
“You don’t really know if a piece is going to be helpful or not until a congregation has sung it a number of times and they’ll tell you,” he added.
“Shepherd Me, O God” stays close to the words of the psalm, with verses such as “Surely your kindness and mercy follow me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of my God forevermore.” Haugen’s tight lyrical adherence to Scripture comes from a pastoral studies degree he earned at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
“If you’re writing liturgical music, your two main sources are the rite and the Scripture,” he said. “The more you can know about both, the more you feel you have something to offer when you start to write.”
In a song like “Shepherd Me, O God,” where the words are already familiar to many, Haugen said “the melody is at the service of the text.” He is careful in these cases to create easy-to-follow chord progressions “to make the person hearing it or singing it hear the text as closely as possible.”
“You want people to remember the music because if they remember it, then they’re remembering the words,” he said. “Then when they need to pray that, they’ll have something to use.”
Haugen has a diverse range of musical influences, which he said includes everything from classical to pop to reggae and “a lot of folk music.” He will be presenting a workshop at BILAC titled “Praying the Psalms in Liturgy.”
For more information on Marianist BILAC, or to register for the event, visit http://marianistbilac.wordpress.com.
