On the Feast of the Visitation, fourteen people from parishes across Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate and Settle walked the Spring Laudato Si’ Mini-Pilgrimage from Leeds Cathedral to Kirkstall Abbey. A further seven people who had signed up for the walk but for various good reasons were unable to make it on the day were in our prayers as we set off after the Cathedral’s midday Mass celebrated by the Dean, Canon Matthew Habron. A short time later, having safely negotiated the city centre roadworks and the crowds enjoying a sunny Saturday at Granary Wharf, we started along the Leeds and Liverpool Canal towpath towards the Abbey.

Our Pilgrimage was a journey back through our history with a powerful environmental message for our future! As we walked through the streets of the very 21st century city, past the railway station and along the canal which between the 18th and 20th centuries carried goods and coal for the expanding towns and cities made prosperous by their manufacturing, iron foundries, engineering and the wool trade, we saw everywhere the evidence of Yorkshire’s industrial past. The Industrial Revolution may have been the beginning of an age of environmental damage and ‘man made’ climate change – but we cannot go back – or apportion blame for what was done unknowingly. The arteries of industry still radiate from the heart of a city no longer dependent on woollen cloth and engineering; the warehouses and factories are now given over to offices and housing; the canal no longer a busy trade route, but a place for leisure and wildlife conservation.

During this Jubilee of Hope, positive actions outweigh the temptation to ‘look back in anger’ at the causes of climate change. Leaving the canal basin, there are several examples of the willingness of communities to embrace ecology. Wharf-side herb and flower beds provided by the Canal and River Trust are tended by volunteers. What was once a wasteland between the canal and the River Aire is now Whitehall Pocket Park: a ‘green lung’ of trees, biodiversity and wildlife habitats; and much of the area around Kirkstall Abbey is cared for by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

Striving for social justice is not inconsistent with celebrating the creativity of those who, in the past, invented and applied industrial innovations, whilst acknowledging the greed and exploitative practices of some of those who prospered – and the suffering and poverty of so many who toiled to make others rich in what William Blake called ‘those dark, satanic mills’. Some of those mills and the land on which they stood are now converted to luxury flats and offices, contrasting with other less salubrious canal-side dwellings: the tents and makeshift shelters which highlight the inequality which still prevails today.

Our destination after three and a half miles of towpath and footpath was the 12th century Cistercian Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Kirkstall, which flourished before falling victim in 1539 to King Henry VIII’s ‘land grab’: the dissolution of the monasteries. Known for their simplicity and self-sufficiency, Cistercian monks made their habits out of white, undyed woollen cloth; their diet was of fish, poultry, vegetables, and herbs – with the meat of four-legged animals only allowed for the weak and the sick. Living in community and adhering to the Rule of St Benedict, which prioritised daily prayer and manual labour on the land (ora et labora), the Cistercians were adept at ‘LivingSimply’.

These monks took no vow of silence – but they did believe in guarding the tongue and thinking before speaking, using the good judgement and ‘critical thinking’ advocated in our own time by Pope Leo XIV. The Cistercians’ simple lives at Kirkstall Abbey were full of creativity and technical invention. It was they who started some of Leeds’ industries: advancing the use of hydraulic technology and water-wheels to drive their iron-working forges, as well as some sophisticated advancements in fishing and agriculture. Though separated from us by almost a thousand years, the monks’ example shows us that true sustainability is not luddism. It is in mankind’s nature to create, invent and use technology to meet the needs of today’s world – as long as this is accomplished in ways which do not compromise the future.

For pilgrims contemplating the messages of sustainability, the path through Bridge Road into Kirkstall Abbey Park was the obvious choice over walking through the nearby retail park. Our group had contacted the Abbey in advance, and Leeds Museums and Galleries had generously granted us free entry to visit the Abbey Church for a short liturgy. Standing under the vaulted roof of the Sanctuary, we providentially avoided a short, sharp shower: the only cloud on a day of otherwise glorious weather. A decade of the Holy Rosary was followed by the Benedicite, and St Francis of Assisi’s ‘Canticle of the Sun’ in the form of the hymn All Creatures of our God and King (with which some of the tourists visiting that day joined in; proof, if any were needed, of the power of a walking pilgrimage as an act of public witness to the Faith!) In honour of the Queenship of Our Lady, the Laudato Si’ Prayer was followed by the anthem, Regina Caeli to end the Pilgrimage and mark the Marian Feast.

A profusion of plant and animal life flourishes along the canal and river banks, which are once again conducive to quiet contemplation and prayer. Conservation and community volunteering is thriving at places like Hollybush Farm and Cafe on Kirkstall Bridge Road: once the home of 19th century agriculturalist Joseph Whitwell who pioneered the cultivation of ‘forced’ rhubarb. The vision and inventiveness of the engineers and architects who built some of the grand mills and bridges along the canal can be seen in the artistry and graphic design skills of some of the better graffitists – as well as in the elegant piers and arches of the Abbey.

Although some floriate details on capitals and tiles are still visible, the soaring architecture is largely austere. It appears almost as an acknowledgement that in the beautiful Kirkstall Valley, the hand of man could never begin to compete with the hand of God in His creation of the natural world. With the Cistercians of old, through our own ingenuity and creativity – and by even the smallest and simplest actions in our homes, schools and parishes – we too can live sustainably and respond to the Cry of the People and of the Earth, by living a life of prayer and care for all Creation!