A Prayer for Safe Travel

Every journey carries us out of the familiar and into the hands of God. The Church has always blessed her people as they set out — pilgrims, sailors, soldiers, families on the road — entrusting them to the guardian angels and to Raphael, the archangel who walked the long road with young Tobias and brought him safely home. To pray before you travel is not superstition; it is to remember Who holds the road, the sky, and the hour of your arrival.

Below are prayers to pray before you leave and as you go — for yourself, for those traveling with you, and for those you love who are far from home. Pray them at the door, in the car, before the plane lifts, and ask the holy angels to be your unseen companions until you are safely home.

The Book of Tobit is, among other things, the great travel story of Scripture: a father sends his son on a long and dangerous road, and God sends the archangel Raphael — in the guise of a fellow traveler — to guard him every step and bring him home with healing and joy. “A good angel will go with him. His journey will be prospered, and he will return safe and sound” (Tobit 5:21). The Church reads this as a picture of every Christian journey: we never travel alone, however empty the road may look.

This is why Catholics have always invoked the guardian angels and St. Raphael for safe travel, and why the Church’s traditional prayer for travelers asks that the Lord lead them in the way of peace and that the angel Raphael go with them. The prayer is addressed to God and to the angels He has appointed as our companions — never to any other power. It asks Him to guard the body and the soul alike: to keep the traveler from accident and harm, and to bring them home not only safely but more deeply trusting in His care.

Pray these before any departure — a daily commute, a long drive, a flight, a pilgrimage — and pray them too for the ones you love who are on the road and out of your reach. The same God who is with you at home is with them in the far country.

• Before setting out — at the door, in the car, or before the plane departs.
• For loved ones who are traveling and far from home.
• At the start of a pilgrimage or a long or difficult journey.
• In thanksgiving on safe arrival — never forget to give thanks.

Prayers short enough to say with the engine running, at the gate, or as someone waves from the car. The first is the psalm verse the Church has always given travelers: “The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more” (Psalm 121:8).

Most travel is by road, and most danger on the road is ordinary: tiredness, distraction, speed, other drivers. So a driver’s prayer asks for protection and for the attention to drive well. Pray it, then drive as if everything depended on you.

For anyone about to board a plane, and especially for anxious flyers. Psalm 139 has the line for it: “If I take the wings of the dawn, and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me” (Psalm 139:9–10).

For a husband or wife on a work trip, a child driving back to college, a friend flying across the world. When Tobit sent his son away he did two things: he blessed him, “Go with this man; but God, who dwells in heaven, will prosper your journey. May his angel go with you” (Tobit 5:16), and he reassured the boy’s mother: “A good angel will go with him” (Tobit 5:21). A Christian way to wish someone a safe trip is simply to bless them: “Go with God,” or the old blessing of Numbers, “The LORD bless you, and keep you” (Numbers 6:24).

The Roman Breviary, the Church’s book of daily prayer before the reforms of the 1960s, contains a short office for anyone setting out on a journey, called the Itinerarium. It is still prayed by priests and religious who keep the older books, and by any lay person who wants it. It begins with an antiphon, continues with the Canticle of Zechariah (the Benedictus, Luke 1:68–79), and ends with versicles and a series of collects. The first collect recalls how God led the children of Israel through the sea on dry ground and the three Magi by a star, and asks that his holy angel go with us to where we are going, and at the last to “the haven of eternal salvation” (ad aeternae salutis portum).

St. Raphael the Archangel. The only angel in Scripture who walks the whole length of a journey with someone. In the Book of Tobit he travels with young Tobias, guards him, heals his father, and reveals himself only at the end: “I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints” (Tobit 12:15). He is the angel named in the Church’s old travel prayer.

Your guardian angel. God promised Israel, “Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way” (Exodus 23:20), and the Catechism says every life is surrounded by the angels’ “watchful care and intercession” (CCC 336). There is a guardian angel prayer for travel and driving.

St. Christopher. The most popular patron of travelers, and the one with the thinnest history: a martyr of that name is attested, and the famous story of carrying the Christ child across the river is legend. He remains a saint, and many Catholics ask his prayers before every trip. More travel patrons are on the patron saint of travelers.

Verses to pray before a journey or to send to someone who is traveling, in the World English Bible, Catholic Edition.

The last part of a travel prayer is the one most often forgotten. In the Book of Tobit, when the journey is over and everyone is safely home, Raphael’s first word to the family is: “Bless God, and give him thanks” (Tobit 12:6).