Hail, Holy Queen (Salve Regina)

An Eleventh-Century Hymn Still Sung Every Night

The Salve Regina is one of four ancient "Marian antiphons" that close Night Prayer (Compline) in the Liturgy of the Hours, rotated seasonally; it is used from Trinity Sunday through the start of Advent. Its Latin text is attested from the 11th century, with authorship traditionally linked to Herman of Reichenau, a disabled Benedictine monk-scholar. It has been sung in monasteries every night for roughly a thousand years and today most commonly closes the recitation of the Rosary.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, who by the working of the Holy Spirit didst prepare the body and soul of the glorious Virgin Mother, Mary, to become a worthy dwelling for thy Son, grant that we who rejoice in her memory may, by her loving intercession, be delivered from present evils and from lasting death, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Helper

1. "Valley of tears" (Latin in hac lacrimarum valle) is not despair — the prayer's whole arc moves from exile toward hope in "the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus."
2. The versicle-and-response (V./R.) form is characteristic of the Liturgy of the Hours — it is a call-and-answer structure, traditionally split between a leader and the group.
3. If you pray the Rosary regularly, this is very likely already the prayer that closes it — worth learning by heart alongside the Hail Mary.