Why Is the Salve Regina Sung
after Communion?

Hello,

I came across your website, specifically the Article "Salve Regina - Hail Holy Queen Explanation and interpretation" by Fr. Stephen Somerville," and I was hoping to get some clarification regarding the use of Salve Regina as a post-Communion hymn.

It’s seems that, traditionally, the Salve Regina is sung pre or post Mass. The parish I’m at now has inserted the Salve Regina in the Mass just following the Communion hymn. I find it distracting and strange to sing the Salve Regina, a song directed to Mary, right after I’ve come in full Communion with the Lord through his most sacred body and blood.

If a Marian hymn were to be used at all during this time of worship, wouldn’t the Magnificat, direct to our Lord, be much more appropriate?

I would love to hear your thoughts, and appreciate any direction you can provide regarding this situation.

    Thank you! Respectfully,

    J.B.


TIA responds:

Hello J.B.,

We are glad that you are benefitting from our site and that you enjoyed reading Fr. Somerville's explanation of the Salve Regina.

This is indeed a most efficacious prayer to Our Lady, originating during the Crusades. The Salve Regina is well suited for the Mass as it is a Gregorian hymn and thus sacred and liturgical, two necessary qualities that Pope St. Pius X designated for hymns sung at Mass (cf. Pius X's Moto Proprio Tra le Sollecitudini).

We found no regulations that would require a post-Communion hymn to be necessarily a hymn to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The hymns used during this important portion of the Mass must be subdued and assist the faithful in their meditations. Silence is even preferable to complicated or loud hymns.

As long as a hymn assists in creating an atmosphere of piety, meditation and contemplation, then it would be suitable. Hymns to Our Lady – preferably Gregorian – would suit this time, as it was from Our Lady that Our Lord received His Most Sacred Body and Blood.

According to Mary of Agreda in The Mystical City of God, Our Lord's Body was formed by three drops of blood from Our Lady's heart at the moment of the Incarnation (see The Conception, Vol. II, Chapter XI).

Our Lady herself explains to Mary of Agreda the significance of this truth:

"Observe also that which thou hast added thyself in order to do reverence to the sacramental Flesh and Blood as coming from my womb and as having been nourished and grown from my milk. Ever keep up this devotion; for the truth thou hast perceived, that this consecrated Body contains part of my own blood and substance, is in fact real." (The Incarnation, IV, VII, p. 117)

Thus, the mystery of the Holy Eucharist is intricately connected with Our Lady, for we would not have Our Lord in Holy Communion if it were not for her, and it was through her that Our Lord willed from all eternity to give Himself to us.

One of the favorite Eucharistic hymns of Catholics in the Middle Ages was the Ave Verum Corpus. This hymn, often sung during the Mass in the Middle Ages, begins with the words, "Hail! true Body, born of the Virgin Mary." From this we see that Catholic devotion has always venerated Our Lady as the source from which Our Lord received His Body.

Since you asked for direction, we suggest that the next time you hear the Salve Regina sung, you can reflect on these truths and they will certainly help you to love Our Lord in Holy Communion with a greater ardor. For reflections upon Our Lady always lead to a closer union with Our Lord. If you find yourself becoming distracted or disturbed during your Communion, reflect upon these words of the Salve Regina, "Et Jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende" ("And after this our exile, show unto us the blessed Fruit of thy womb, Jesus").

During Holy Communion, we are united to Our Lord intimately, but we will only see Him face-to-face in Heaven, and it will be Our Lady who leads us to Him, just as Our Lady's fiat was the means by which we are able to have such a union with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. From this we also see that every true Marian hymn is also directed to Our Lord, for the Son can never be separated from His Mother.

The most efficacious manner to receive Communion is by imitating Our Lady and asking her to join us and assist our souls to become a fitting dwelling place for her Divine Son. St. Louis de Montfort speaks of this in the last chapter of True Devotion to Mary.

He writes that before Holy Communion,

"You must implore that good Mother to lend you her heart, that you may receive her Son there with the same dispositions as her own. You will represent to her that it touches her Son’s glory, to be put into a heart so sullied and so inconstant as yours, which would not fail either to lessen His Glory or to destroy it. But if she will come and dwell with you, in order to receive her Son, she can do so by the dominion which she has over all hearts; and her Son will be well received by her, without stains, and without danger of being outraged or destroyed."

St. Louis then goes on to recommend:

"After Holy Communion, while you are inwardly recollected and holding your eyes shut, you will introduce Jesus into the heart of Mary. You will give Him to His Mother, who will receive Him lovingly, will place Him honorably, will adore Him profoundly, will love Him perfectly, will embrace Him closely, and will render to Him, in spirit and in truth, many homages which are unknown to us in our thick darkness."

Our Lady tells Mary of Agreda to imitate herself in order to receive Our Lord worthily:

"I wish you also to hear, my dearest daughter, from my own mouth, what were my sentiments when in mortal life I was about to receive Holy Communion. In order that you may better understand what I say, reflect on all I have commanded you to write about my gifts, merits and labors in life. I was preserved from original sin and, at the instant of my Conception, I received the knowledge and vision of the Divinity, as you have often recorded. I knew more than all the Saints; I surpassed the highest Seraphim in love; I never committed any fault; I constantly practiced all the virtues in a heroic degree and in the least of them I was greater than all the Saints in their highest perfection; the intention and object of my actions were most exalted and my habits and gifts were noble without measure; I imitated my Most Holy Son most closely; I labored most faithfully; I suffered with eagerness and cooperated with the doings of the Lord exactly as was becoming to me; I ceased not to exercise my love and gain new and super-eminent merits of grace.

“Yet I thought myself to have been fully repaid by being allowed to receive Him even once in the Holy Eucharist; yea, I did not consider myself worthy of this one favor. Reflect then what should be thy sentiments, and those of the rest of the children of Adam, on being admitted to the reception of this admirable Sacrament. And if for the greatest of Saints one Holy Communion is a superabundant reward, what must the priests and the faithful think, when they are allowed to receive it so frequently?

“Open your eyes in the deep darkness and blindness that overwhelm men around thee, and raise them up to the divine brightness in order to understand these mysteries. Look upon all your works as insufficient, all your sufferings as most insignificant, all your thanksgiving as falling far short of what you owe for such an exquisite blessing as that of possessing in the Holy Church, Christ my Divine Son, present in the Holy Sacrament in order to enrich all the faithful. If thou hast not wherewith to show thy thanks for this and the other blessings which your receive, at least humiliate thyself to the dust and remain prostrate upon it; confess yourself unworthy in all the sincerity of thy heart. Magnify the Most High, bless and praise Him, preserving yourself at all times worthy to receive Him and to suffer many martyrdoms in return for such a favor." (Mystical City of God, vol. III, XI, p. 492)

Here we see what a great love Our Lady has for Our Lord and how very difficult it is to receive Him worthily if we do not go through her and ask for her assistance.

With these truths in mind, we hope that Our Lady will lead you to an ever great love for Our Lord in Holy Communion and that when you hear a Marian hymn your thoughts will be filled with these exalted mysteries.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk