Bad Bunny & Benedictine Monks: Learning to Listen Beyond Words

Saint Meinrad Archabbey, the music of the monks fills this chapel

Watching Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show reminded me of sitting in a monastery during retreat, listening to the Benedictine monks sing.

What?! How?!?

The monks often sing in Latin. I have no idea what they’re saying.

But there is more than one way to speak. And the soul and body know how to listen beyond words.

Whenever I hear the Benedictine monks sing Salve Regina, I am transported. Tears often come. I sit in the sanctuary and feel my shoulders soften, my face relax, a burden lifted. A language is spoken for those who have ears to hear and a heart to recognize the gift being offered.

It’s humbling to receive and participate simply by being present to their worship.

The monks know the words and their meaning well. These songs are woven into the fabric of their community. This music is part of their ordinary, day-in-day-out life. Routine.

But not for me.

I am a visitor. An outsider. And yet they graciously welcome me in and give me a glimpse.

Sure, I’ve read the Psalms. But it is not my tradition to chant them daily. If those Latin hymns were translated, I might enjoy shared meaning in the lyrics but I don’t want to miss the moment by looking words up on my iPhone. It’s in simply being present — even if awkward at times — that something deeper opens. 

Whenever I take groups for retreats at Catholic monasteries I invite them to "embrace the awkwardness" of feeling like tourists. It is okay be unfamiliar with the Liturgy of the Hours, it might feel uncomfortable but that's okay. I invite them to "just be present and let the Spirit be at work in what you don't understand."

Likewise, I had no idea what Bad Bunny was singing.

I took Spanish years ago — enough to recognize the language like I recognize Latin being sung — but not enough to understand. At first there was discomfort, then relief that there were no subtitles to distract me from what the sounds and images wanted to say.

I was being invited into a world and its routines that were not my own.

Once my discomfort relaxed, I was transported. I turned it up. My body and soul felt the music. A feast of sound and image — I couldn’t help but dance.

And as I watched, I also felt sadness. The images brought forward injustices suffered, alongside the resilience and daily life of a people and homeland that many gathered in the stadium — or around the screen — only visit.

It felt prophetic as the real was named through sound, color, movement… and a game.

“Together We Are America,” the football he held up read.

Together is the only way forward.

But together requires listening — beyond words, beyond comfort, beyond what feels familiar.

Friends, it is going to take togetherness for the days ahead. We must step outside our awkwardness and discomfort if we hope to step outside cycles of violence and structures of power that demean and diminish the collective soul.

Listening beyond words is not passive. It is courageous. It is embodied. It asks something of us.

It asks us to be present long enough to be changed.

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Here are a few ways you can practice that kind of listening with us:

Monastery Retreat | March 26–29
Join Rev. Dr. Amy Steele and me at Monastery Immaculate Conception, home of the Sisters of St. Benedict in Ferdinand, Indiana for Tables of Re-membering as we prepare for Holy Week. What part of you longs to be welcomed back to the table?

The Wisdom of Listening | 7-Week Practice beginning April 7th
With Sr. Mary Rose Bumpus and Wendy Brown, we’ll explore contemplative and active listening that attends to both words and the systems shaping them. This is about presence — not performance.

The Wisdom of the Ordinary | Writing Experience (Tomorrow, Feb. 10th at 11:30 am CST!)
Let your own words and daily life speak. Discover the sacred woven into the everyday.

2026 Fall Cohort Applications Now Open
Applications are open for Year One: Certificate in Spiritual Formation — a standalone certificate or the first year of our two-year Certificate in Spiritual Direction. If you’re longing for deeper grounding in contemplative practice, communal wisdom, and spiritual companionship, we invite you to learn more and begin the journey.

​Learn more & register at www.wisdomtreecollective.com

Come practice a deeper listening.
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With you,
Kasey