Hail Holy Queen - Salve Regina

Gregorian Chant Comes Alive

One of my favourite prayers is the "Hail Holy Queen".  I include it in my own personal daily morning litany of prayers.

Here it is sung in a more traiditional Latin version and in Gregorian Chant.



The English words of the prayers are:
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.


The Latin almost exactly as sung here is excludes the final prayer and response:
 
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae,

vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
ad te clamamus
exsules filii Evae,
ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.

Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos
misericordes oculos ad nos converte;
et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.