A journey through gratitude, forgiveness, silence, hope, presence, and surrender.
The songs remain in their original Portuguese. Carefully edited reading translations are available without replacing the sound and meaning of the original work.
The first work by Alguma Luz
Pequenas Orações
Ten songs shaped as prayers.
Reading translations
The songs, carried into another language
These translations are offered for reading and understanding. The songs, their titles, and their sung form remain in the original Portuguese.
All ten reading translations are now available.
Antes da PalavraBefore the WordBefore even knowing what to say.Read translation
Original title in Portuguese: Antes da Palavra
A prayer about awakening to the fact that we are here. Before the asking, before the gratitude, before the name we give to mystery, there is a moment when we simply notice: we are alive, present, before something greater than our words.
It is still early The house holds the silence of the night And the first light slowly crosses my window Before I find any word at all the day has already happened The wind has moved through the trees and I have only just awakened
It was not I who opened this morning It was not I who kindled the first light I arrive late and everything welcomes me as though it had been waiting for me
Receive before my promises before my requests before even my voice this wonder that I am still here
Teach me not to pass through this day as one passes through any ordinary street May I see the miracle hidden in the things that repeat themselves The bread The water The face of the one I love The air moving in and out without asking permission
Receive before my promises before my requests before even my voice this wonder that I am still here
If today I do not know what to say may my silence not be empty May it be my first prayer
And when night returns if I have forgotten to give thanks keep, even so, this small moment when I finally noticed that the whole world was already singing before me
O Que Sempre Esteve AquiWhat Was Always HereSometimes life does not need to change. Perhaps our eyes do.Read translation
Original title in Portuguese: O Que Sempre Esteve Aqui
A prayer of gratitude for the things we stopped noticing precisely because they remained with us. It is the song of someone who discovers that what seems ordinary today may once have been exactly what they asked for through tears.
I spent so long looking far away that I almost failed to see what was beside me I asked the sky for signs while life left small miracles on the table
The bread Two cups An occupied chair Someone asking whether I slept well And I, searching for something greater
Forgive me for the times I called it little when it was something I once asked for through tears For the hands that became familiar For the voices I stopped listening to because I knew they would be there tomorrow For the ordinary days I hurried through waiting for life to finally begin
Today I would like to ask for nothing Only to stay awhile before what You have given me and learn once more to recognize it
Thank You for what arrived Thank You for what remained For what made no noise for what asked for no applause For the love that repeated the same small gestures until I stopped calling them miracles
If one day I begin again to seek Your presence only in great things turn my eyes back to the table Perhaps there will be bread Perhaps there will be someone Perhaps there will be only an empty chair holding the memory of someone who once sat there And even for that thank You Because to miss someone also means that once I had them
Teach me not to need to lose in order to discover that it was precious And when tomorrow everything seems ordinary once again do not give me a different life Give me only different eyes for the life I already have
VerdadeiroTrueNot to be right. To be whole.Read translation
Original title in Portuguese: Verdadeiro
A prayer of self-examination without punishment. To look at ourselves clearly, to recognize our failures and contradictions, without forgetting that who we are now need not be the final word on who we may become.
I did not come to tell You the version of me I tell everyone else You already know the words I hid the silences I used to appear innocent
You also know the fear behind the courage and the pride I so often called reason
How many times I asked to be understood without trying to understand How many times I waited for forgiveness without acknowledging what I had wounded
I built excuses where there should have been truth and called it peace when it was merely the wish not to look within
Today I do not want to be right I want only to be true
Take from me what I use to hide what I need to see and let some light reach this place
Show me where I was harsh when I could have been gentle where I fell silent when I should have stayed where I spoke too much only so I would not have to listen
Show me also the good that still lives in me so I will not turn remorse into despair
Today I do not want to be right I want only to be true
Take from me what I use to hide what I need to see and let some light reach this place
If there is in me some stone I still call reason turn it into a path
If there is in me some door kept closed for fear of changing teach me to open it
Show me who I am without letting me forget who I may still become
And when at last I see myself whole may I have the courage to begin again
Daqui Pra FrenteFrom Here OnThere are things an apology cannot undo.Read translation
Original title in Portuguese: Daqui Pra Frente
But perhaps remorse can still change the way we live after them. A prayer about forgiveness, reparation, and the difficult freedom of not being able to love yesterday better — only to learn to love better from here on.
There are words I wish I could gather back after they were spoken There are silences I wish I could fill after someone left There are moments when I could have stayed and chose to leave And others when I stayed but my heart was no longer there
Today I know that asking forgiveness does not change what happened It does not return the time erase a word or heal, by itself, what I wounded
But perhaps it can open a door where before I left only a wall
Forgive me for what I did not know how to love for what I failed to notice while it was still close I cannot go back to love yesterday better but I can learn to love better from here on
Forgive me for the times my pride spoke first for the times when winning seemed more important than not causing pain
For the doors I closed too quickly for the embraces I left until later and for every later that never came
Forgive me for what I did not know how to love for what I failed to notice while it was still close I cannot go back to love yesterday better but I can learn to love better from here on
And if there is someone to whom I can still say I was wrong give me courage before it is too late
And if it is already too late for certain words teach me to turn remorse into another way of living
I do not ask You to erase my footsteps Only teach me to choose the next one better
And when I fail again may I take less time to acknowledge it less time to ask forgiveness and less time still to return to love
Onde Eu Não Posso IrWhere I Cannot GoFor those we love when our hands cannot reach.Read translation
Original title in Portuguese: Onde Eu Não Posso Ir
A prayer for someone who is far away, suffering, or going through something we cannot resolve. Little by little, the question changes: perhaps we cannot be the whole answer, but we can still be a place where someone may rest.
There are people I wish I could shelter from everything From the difficult day from the news that arrives without asking permission From the fear that comes at night from the words someone should never have said
If I could I would go first open every door try every path just to know where they might be hurt
But there are places my hands cannot reach There are pains no embrace can prevent There are choices I cannot make for those I love and nights when all I can do is wait
Then go where I cannot go Stay where I cannot stay When my hands cannot reach may there be other hands caring for those I love And when I do not know how to help teach me also not to get in the way
Care for the one who is trying to appear strong who says everything is fine only so no one will ask who has lost their way and still does not know how to return
Care also for those I do not understand for those who moved away and even for those my heart has not yet learned to forgive
Then go where I cannot go Stay where I cannot stay When my hands cannot reach may there be other hands caring for those I love And when I do not know how to help teach me also not to get in the way
And if the answer is not to spare them from every pain give them strength to make their way through it If I cannot carry their burdens make me at least a place where they may rest
Today I entrust to You the names I carry with me those who are near those who are far those I can still embrace and those I can reach only through longing
Where I cannot go go with me to them
Mesmo Sem SentirEven Without Feeling ItAnd what if nothing happens?Read translation
Original title in Portuguese: Mesmo Sem Sentir
A prayer for when there is no answer, no felt presence, and no certainty. The song does not try to resolve the doubt. It leaves open the possibility that continuing to seek — and even continuing to ask — may also be a form of prayer.
Today I have brought no beautiful words I do not even know whether I have anything to say There are days when everything feels near and others when even hope seems to speak from somewhere else Today is one of those days
I looked for some sign in the small things I waited for the morning I waited for the silence I waited to feel anything at all But the morning was only morning and the silence remained silent
If today I cannot find You receive at least the fact that I am still looking If my faith does not know how to speak listen to this doubt Perhaps it too is a form of prayer
I have looked for You in what I understand Today I look for You in what I cannot explain In the question left unanswered in the door that did not open in what I asked for and did not happen
I do not want to invent an answer only to have something to lean on
If today I cannot find You receive at least the fact that I am still looking If my faith does not know how to speak listen to this doubt Perhaps it too is a form of prayer
Stay with me even if I do not notice Stay even if I do not know how to call Your name
And if I am speaking alone in this room may these words still teach me not to give up on love
Perhaps tomorrow I will feel again Perhaps not Today all I can do is stay Then stay too
I do not need You to set the sky alight If there is some light leave only enough for me to take the next step
O Que Eu Não Posso CarregarWhat I Cannot CarryNot everything that matters is within our control.Read translation
Original title in Portuguese: O Que Eu Não Posso Carregar
A prayer for learning to distinguish what we can do from what we need to release. Not a trust without fear, but perhaps a trust in which fear is not the one choosing for us.
I brought with me too many things questions I could not answer conversations that keep taking place inside my head tomorrows that have not even arrived and fears of things that may never happen
I spent so long trying to foresee every path as though thinking hard enough could keep life from hurting
I held so tightly to what I loved that sometimes I confused care with the fear of losing
Today I want to leave here what my hands can no longer carry
What I can do teach me to do What I cannot teach me to release And what I cannot change do not let it change the best in me
I entrust to You the answers that have not yet arrived the paths I do not know how to choose the people I wish I could protect and everything that will keep happening without asking my permission
I entrust to You as well the need to know how it ends because perhaps living is learning to walk before knowing the destination
Today I want to leave here what my hands can no longer carry
What I can do teach me to do What I cannot teach me to release And what I cannot change do not let it change the best in me
I thought that trusting meant having no fear Perhaps it is only not letting fear choose for me
I thought that letting go meant giving up Perhaps it is opening my hands and carrying on even without knowing what will come next
Then take what is not mine to carry and leave with me what I can still do A word an embrace a request for forgiveness one step then another
If tomorrow I close my hands again teach me again the gesture of opening them
Eu FicoI Will StaySometimes caring means not leaving.Read translation
Original title in Portuguese: Eu Fico
We cannot always lessen someone’s pain. But perhaps we can keep from adding to their loneliness. A song about being present without explaining, fixing, or offering easy answers — and about noticing that sometimes the light we ask to reach someone may need our own hands.
I will not always know what to say Perhaps it is better that way There are pains that grow smaller when they find words and others that need only someone not to leave
I will stay even without knowing what to do I will stay
Teach me not to offer answers to questions I have never had to ask Not to say that everything passes when, for the one in pain, each minute seems not to pass Not to search for a beautiful reason for what simply hurts
If I cannot lessen the pain teach me not to add to the loneliness
Perhaps caring is making coffee opening the window sitting beside someone listening for the third time to the same story without looking at the clock
Perhaps loving is not asking when someone will get better Perhaps it is saying you do not have to get better today
I will stay when there are words I will stay when there is only silence I will stay
And when it is my turn when I am the one who cannot get up when my own words do not know how to comfort me send someone
They need not bring answers Only someone who knows how to sit nearby and share with me the weight of an hour
Perhaps this is how You so often arrive without opening the sky without explaining the pain without making a sound
Perhaps You arrive in a chair drawn near in a glass of water in one hand resting on another in a voice softly saying I am here
Then today if someone needs You and my hands can reach them first use mine
I will stay
Sem Resolver o MundoWithout Solving the WorldHow do we rest when there is still so much to do?Read translation
Original title in Portuguese: Sem Resolver o Mundo
A prayer for allowing something to remain unfinished for one night. Not as surrender, but as the recognition that peace may not need to wait until the whole world is in order.
How do we find rest when so much is still out of place? How do we close our eyes knowing that tomorrow some questions will still be waiting for us?
Perhaps I confused peace with absence the absence of fear of doubt of conflict Perhaps I waited for a life without noise before I could finally hear the silence
Teach me to rest without needing the whole world to be in order first Teach me to breathe while some things still have no answer
There are conversations I still need to have decisions I cannot postpone there are things in me that still need to change and others that may never be as I would like
But tonight for a few hours I can let tomorrow be tomorrow
I do not want to carry into this night everything that has not even happened I do not want to lose what exists now trying to protect what may come later
Perhaps peace is not arriving somewhere Perhaps it is discovering that I can stop even before I arrive
Teach me to rest without needing the whole world to be in order first Teach me to breathe while some things still have no answer
And if something needs me tomorrow let it find me tomorrow
Today I have already done what I could carried what I was able thought as far as my thoughts could reach
Now teach me also to stop Not because everything is well but because for this night I may leave the world unsolved
How do we find rest? Perhaps like this breathing slowly letting go and accepting that some things may remain unfinished while I sleep
Tomorrow I will continue
AmanhãTomorrowNot every prayer ends. Some return.Read translation
Original title in Portuguese: Amanhã
The final song gathers echoes of those before it and ends without claiming that anything has been learned once and for all. There is only a willingness: to return when we remember, begin again when needed, and accept that tomorrow may be another first time.
Tomorrow when the day arrives perhaps I will forget everything I have learned up to here Perhaps I will hurry past the first light and fail to notice the world beginning again
Perhaps the bread will be only bread the water only water and I will look far away again for what was always here
Tomorrow perhaps I will want to be right again Perhaps I will take too long to ask forgiveness Perhaps my hands will close trying to carry what was never mine to carry
And if someone needs me to stay perhaps I will be afraid of not knowing what to say
Tomorrow some question may return and perhaps I will look for an answer that does not yet exist Perhaps the silence will remain silent Perhaps I will want to solve the world before I sleep
If that happens remind me gently that I do not need to understand everything to take the next step
And tomorrow when I forget again receive this prayer as though it were the first Not because I have learned but because I still want to learn Not because I will never again lose my way but because I still want to return
If tomorrow I forget You remember me with the tenderness of our first encounter If I pass by some beauty without noticing do not let my eyes grow accustomed forever
If I close my hands again teach me once more the gesture of opening them If I forget to give thanks leave some light burning in me until I remember
I will return when I remember And until then do not forget me
Tomorrow we begin again