OLYMPIA – More than four years after his ALS diagnosis, Father Jim Lee is still celebrating Mass, traveling a bit, serving his parishioners at St. Michael Parish — and feeling blessed.

Although his body has weakened further since Northwest Catholic featured his story in 2018, Father Jim’s spirit remains strong.

“More than anything, I’m grateful and feel very blessed,” the pastor said during a recent interview in his office at St. Michael’s.

“Being a priest offers me so many opportunities to be with folks who are grieving, coming back to the Church, finding Christ for the first time, struggling with their own illnesses,” Father Jim said. “One of the gifts of being here so long [almost 25 years], I’ve baptized children of people I’ve baptized.”

In the years since sharing his story with Northwest Catholic, Father Jim has had to give up skiing, hiking and bicycling. Increasing muscle weakness is a symptom of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a neurodegenerative condition also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“I’m still able to do as much as I can,” he said.

About 18 months ago, Father Jim realized he can’t fly alone — he couldn’t lift his bag into the overhead compartment and couldn’t get up from his seat unassisted because it was too low. Now when he travels, someone accompanies him.

He can still walk and, with assistance, can go up stairs. But he can’t lift his arms much and “I can barely hold my head up, so hence the collar,” Father Jim said of the neck brace that is part of his daily attire. During Mass, he wears a different brace, created for him by a parishioner who is an engineer. It includes a metal bar down his back, a strap that wraps around his forehead to help keep his head erect and a gait belt around his waist.

Father Jim Lee, seen after Mass March 9, wears a special brace created for him by a parishioner. The brace allows his head to be held up while he celebrates Masses at St. Michael Church in Olympia. (Jean Parietti)

Last November, between Sunday morning Masses when no one was with him, Father Jim took a fall that left him with four cracked ribs, a concussion, bumps and bruises.

“It was scary,” he said.

He spent two days in the emergency room before a bed became available in the hospital, said Benedetta Reece, St. Michael’s pastoral care steward. She is also a member of Father Jim’s ALS team — a core group of parishioners who are good friends of Father Jim and have journeyed with him since his diagnosis in 2017. When he was released from the hospital, the team members took turns staying with him for two weeks.

“My team has been so helpful,” Father Jim said. He is also grateful to everyone in the parish who is helping meet his needs, including bringing and sharing meals with him. “Folks are very gracious,” he said.

The November “crash,” as Father Jim calls it, left him feeling “way more vulnerable.” Before that, “I focused on what I can do and not what I can’t do,” he said. Today he realizes he needs to be more attentive to the things he can’t do on his own.

“Because I am an achiever, to recognize my limitations, not just in my head, but also in my gut, has been very sobering and humbling,” Father Jim said. “I’m trying to allow the Lord to work with me.”

Now 74, retirement has crossed his mind, not because he wants to, but “I might physically have to,” Father Jim said.

“What I want to really be able to do,” he said, “is to continue to be pastor” of St. Michael’s, a parish of about 2,400 households. “The time will come when I need to step back from that [but] continue to serve in some capacity.”

Father Jim Lee greets parishioners after Mass at St. Michael Church in Olympia March 9. (Jean Parietti)

After his fall, knowing that his legs were getting weaker, Father Jim decided it was time to “look forward and plan.” He’s been fitted for a wheelchair that he will be able to drive by using his eyes, and he has purchased a used wheelchair-accessible van. “When I need it, I won’t have to play catch up,” he explained.

At the wheelchair fitting, he was asked how the chair felt. “Physically it feels fine,” he said. “Emotionally it sucks.”

During one of his visits to the Swedish Medical Center ALS clinic in Seattle, a palliative care nurse talked to him about the importance of having SPA days — short for “schedule pleasurable activity.”

He’s taken that advice, doing things like visiting Westport, having lunch at a brew pub, checking out a local nature preserve and going to the latest Spider-Man movie with a priest from St. Martin’s Abbey.

“It’s helping me to keep active,” Father Jim said.

He visited close friends in Arizona last fall and went for another visit this month. Earlier this year, Father Jim and two couples flew to Hawaii, where their time included a pilgrimage to the island of Molokai, once home to a leper colony.

“I have a real devotion to Father Damien [de Veuster] and Sister Marianne Cope,” Father Jim said. Both Father Damien and Sister Marianne, now saints, ministered to residents of the leper colony.

Father Jim celebrated Mass on Molokai at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Church, which Father Damien built in 1874. “Being able to pray at that altar, that was really a profound moment for me,” he said. The small group also prayed at St. Joseph Mission Church, built by Father Damien in 1876.

Father Jim recounts how Father Damien was supposed to rotate the ministry on Molokai with two other priests, but just a couple of days after arriving, Father Damien knew that his mission was to stay and serve the colony residents.

While praying one morning in Hawaii, Father Jim had the realization that the same thing was being asked of him: “Just live out your priesthood being faithful, doing what you can. … Just serve,” he said.

“For me, that was the real gift.”