/nginx/o/2023/01/03/15059935t1h636b.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "How the nun Mary Elizabeth and the monk Robert met, fell in love… and married")
He explains that his message to Lisa asking if they could get married was almost an intellectual battle with himself.
“When she appeared in the pub, the little demon in me freaked out. But my fear wasn’t religious or spiritual, it was just about how I was going to start a new life at 53,” she says.
The transition was difficult, especially in the beginning. Lisa recalls a moment just before Christmas, just after they both left convent life.
“Robert was depressed and crying. At that point we both hit rock bottom and felt like we should do Romeo and Juliet and be done with it,” says Lisa. “But we just held hands and got through it all,” she says.
What brought them peace was what brought them to the monastery in the first place, connecting with their personal faith.
“Throughout your religious life you are told that your heart must be undivided and given to God. Suddenly I felt my heart was expanding to embrace Robert. But I later realized there was room in my heart for everything else,” says Lisa.
Lisa first found work at a funeral home and later began working as a hospital chaplain.
Robert received a letter from Rome announcing that he was no longer a member of the Carmelite order. He was soon accepted into the Church of England.
Lisa and Robert have married and now share a house in the North Yorkshire village of Hutton Rudby, where Robert has been appointed vicar of the local church. Both are still learning to adjust to life outside the monastery.
Lisa says: both agree that there are three of them married. “Christ is front and center first. If we took him out of that equation, I don’t think our marriage would last.”
