The Healing Journey

July 2, 2025

Twenty years ago, composer Fr. Michael Joncas, best known for the hymn “On Eagle’s Wings,” was diagnosed with the debilitating neurological disorder Guillain-Barre Syndrome, after he realized he couldn’t elevate the chalice during the consecration.

“I was paralyzed for a while, and actually for the first two weeks of the experience, I have no memories at all, because they intubated me,” he recalled during a phone interview. “But I have recovered to a certain extent, although I do live with some residuals, so I’ve got tingling in my fingers and my feet all the time….The sad thing for me is I can’t play guitar anymore because my fingers don’t work. But some doors close and other doors open, so the fact that I can’t do it is a little annoying, but now, after 20 years, I’m used to it, and I’ve got other things that I can do.”

Father wrote a book titled “On Eagle’s Wings: A Journey Through Illness Toward Healing” several years ago, which offers comfort and hope for anyone with chronic illness and reminds us of the importance of compassionate listening to those suffering emotionally and psychologically, including with grief.

“It gave me a much deeper insight, both as a human being and as a priest, that many of us live with great suffering that is not immediately seen by others — sometimes it’s emotional or psychological or even physical suffering,” he said. “So it’s taught me to be attentive to folks and changed the way, for example, I do hospital visitations. I used to be a little more swift in going in, seeing if I’m getting any response from a particular patient, and if I don’t see a response, then move on. But now I spend more time with folks, just praying with them or actually being in silence with them because I don’t know what’s going on in their interior life.”
©Joseph Pisani

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