A prayer before a journey: the full text and the angel it asks for company
The prayer
The author’s words, in her Portuguese:
Senhor onipotente e misericordioso, dirigi-nos com segurança pelo caminho da paz e da prosperidade, livres de desastres e de qualquer perigo. Acompanhai-nos sempre nesta viagem pelo nosso santo anjo da guarda, a fim de que voltemos à nossa habitação sãos e salvos, sem acidente, sem perseguição, sem nenhum contratempo na nossa vida. Amém!
In English: Almighty and merciful Lord, lead us safely along the road of peace and prosperity, free from disaster and from every danger. Go with us always on this journey through our holy guardian angel, so that we may come back to our home safe and sound, without accident, without persecution, without any misfortune in our life. Amen!
In short
This is a family prayer, composed by Adelan Maria Brandão to be said before a journey. It asks for direction on the road, the guardian angel for company, and a safe return home — the same shape as the Catholic tradition’s blessings for travellers.
- Written by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 6 min read
When to pray it
With the bags in the car and before turning the key, or at the boarding gate. It covers the whole journey and not only the setting out: the going and the returning are in the same sentence, which is why it is also said on the road home.
The prayer asks to travel “free from disaster and from every danger”, and it is worth saying plainly what this site can and cannot claim about that. Asking for something is not the same as being guaranteed it, and no page here promises a journey without accident — promising it would be writing against the person who prayed this prayer and crashed anyway, and that person exists. The Bible keeps the clearest case of it: in Acts 27 Paul is told that no one will die, and the ship goes down all the same.
The opening address does more work than it seems to. “Almighty and merciful” are the two attributes that have to appear together for the rest of the prayer to make sense: power on its own is no reason to ask for anything with confidence, and mercy on its own has no way to grant it. It is the classic opening of the Latin liturgy’s collects, and the author starts there before saying what she wants.
The angel comes in as company, not as armour. The prayer does not ask the angel to remove the danger from the road: it asks him to go along — “on this journey” — which is a more modest thing and much closer to what Scripture describes. In Tobit the angel walks beside the young man the whole way without being recognised, and what the text records at the end is that he was led out and brought back.
And the practical caveat the prayer does not do away with: seatbelt, tyre pressure, rest before setting out, and no long drive after a full day of work. Praying and servicing the car are not in competition. If you want a second prayer for the same moment, written for this site and in a different register, it is in the list at the foot of this page.
Where this prayer comes from
When it appeared A family composition, no date on record
The prayer was composed in Portuguese by Adelan Maria Brandão and reached this page through the family that prays it. It has no published edition and came from no devotional book. The date it was written is not on record, and this page does not invent one. The wording stands as she wrote it, with her punctuation and with the exclamation mark on the Amen.
The shape of the prayer belongs to an old family of travelling prayers. The Catholic tradition has a set of texts for those about to depart, said before leaving, and they tend to ask for the same four things in much the same order: that the road be directed, that dangers be kept away, that an angel go along, and that the traveller come home. This prayer asks for exactly those four, in that order. There is no telling whether the author knew any of those formulas or arrived at the same place for the same reasons — which is why this page publishes it as her composition, which is what is known, and not as a version of anything, which is not.
The “holy guardian angel” she names is the one from the children’s prayer that many Brazilians learn by heart before any other. The link between angels and the road is old and has an address in the Catholic canon: the book of Tobit tells of an entire journey in which the companion hired for the way is, unknown to the young man, an angel — and what he reports to his father on his return is precisely that he was led out and brought back safely.
Little-known details
It asks for the return, and not only for the outward journey
One word in the list of dangers is not from our century
What the passages say
20Behold, I will send my Angel, who will go before you, and preserve you on your journey, and lead you into the place that I have prepared.
The verse behind any prayer that asks for an angel on the road: someone is sent ahead to keep watch on the way and to bring the traveller into the place prepared. Notice the two verbs — keep and bring in — which are exactly the two this prayer asks for.
3He led me and he brought me back safely. He received the money from Gabael. He caused me to have my wife. And he confined the demon away from her. He caused joy to her parents. Myself, he rescued from being devoured by the fish. As for you, he also caused you to see the light of heaven. And so, we have been filled with all good things through him. What could we possibly give to him that would be worthy of these things?
The young man’s account of the journey after he is home: he was led out and brought back safely. It is the sentence this prayer asks for in advance. This book is not in the 66-book Bibles — see the article on the deuterocanonical books.
11For he has given his Angels charge over you, so as to preserve you in all your ways.
The promise of angelic guarding “in all your ways”, which is where devotion to the guardian angel takes its language from. Read the next verse knowing that it is the one quoted at the temptation of Jesus: the promise was not written to be tested.
22And now, let me persuade you to be courageous in soul. For there shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.
23For an Angel of God, who is assigned to me and whom I serve, stood beside me this night,
24saying: ‘Do not be afraid, Paul! It is necessary for you to stand before Caesar. And behold, God has given to you all those who are sailing with you.’
25Because of this, men, be courageous in soul. For I trust God that this will happen in the same way that it has been told to me.
The most honest passage in the Bible about protection while travelling, and the counterweight of this page. There is an angel, there is a clear word, and there is the warning that the ship will be lost: the guarantee covers the people and not the vessel — and the wreck happens anyway.