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“My heart almost stopped when I saw it,” recalls Roberts. “Actually, I was paralyzed with fear, not joy, because I knew in that moment that I had to pretend to be Lisa now, even though we weren’t ready yet.”
“Lisa’s touch changed everything for me. I never thought I’d ever fall so madly in love, because becoming a monk or nun teaches us how to deal with emotions like love,” says Robert.
He also explains that his text to Lisa asking if they could get married was a battle with himself.
Changing my life has been difficult, especially in the beginning. Lisa remembers the moment they both left the monastic life.
“I looked at Robert and he was down and crying. At that point we both hit rock bottom and it felt like we were going to do like Romeo and Juliet — just get it over with,” says Lisa.
“It was so hard because we both felt so alone and isolated. So we just held hands and got through it all,” she says.
“Throughout your religious life you have been told that your heart must be undivided and given to God. Suddenly I felt my heart was expanding to hold Robert, but I realized it contained everything else as well. And I did. I don’t feel any different in my relationship with God and that convinced me,” Lisa says.
Lisa later found work at a funeral home and later as a hospital chaplain. Although Robert was saddened by a letter from Rome saying he was no longer a member of the Carmelite order, Robert was soon accepted into the Church of England.
The two married and now share a house in the North Yorkshire village of Hutton Rudby, where Robert has been appointed vicar of the local church.
