Faith in the Presence of God
Sharing the Spirit
Pamela Thomas is a different person today than she was as a young woman. Then, she was in the corporate world, working long hours on everything from public relations and marketing to advertising and producing point-of-sales videos for companies like Gallo, Levi Strauss and Citibank.
She gave up that world in the mid-1990s when she enrolled in the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology to nurture her long-simmering desire to study spirituality and, in particular, the Virgin Mary. Always a "closet artist" who created quilts, appliqués and woven works, she was particularly interested in artistic interpretations of Mary throughout the ages.
Thomas received her master's of theology in religion and the arts and has since taught numerous courses on art and Mary at the same school. She also lectures in various locations on such topics as the Madonnas of Color in Southern France, the Images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Iconography of the Nativity.
For Thomas, Mary is "a real role model" — an inspiration and source of solace throughout her life. Thomas calls herself a "cradle Catholic" whose faith became stronger after she became a mother when she and her husband, Richard, adopted a baby boy whom they named Richard 22 years ago. Her faith blossomed even more through her education from the Dominicans.
"I'm a better Catholic now because I'm better educated," she says.
Her education took an unexpected path in 1999 when someone suggested she check out a job in Campus Ministry at Saint Mary's.
"I never felt called to be a minister, and yet I became one," she says, sitting at a table in her office, which is decorated with paintings of Mary and pictures of students. What began as a 10-hour-a-week job is now nearly full-time, and Thomas loves ministering to students, staff and faculty on campus.
She also teaches in Collegiate Seminar, the LEAP (Liberal Education for Arts Professionals) Program, Extended Education and the January Term, and has led students in meditations. One of her older students, a Vietnam War veteran, said he had killed people in combat and told her "now, maybe I can forgive myself."
Thomas has spread her appreciation for depictions of Mary to Saint Mary's. She has worked with the Hearst Art Galley on some installations and was instrumental in putting together a daylong symposium in 2005 on Women, Spirituality and the Arts. She also wrote a booklet about the Marian windows in the Chapel, and is writing a booklet on the De La Salle windows.
Thomas has also immersed herself in the Lasallian mission. She went through the Buttimer Insitute of Lasallian Studies, a three-year formation program studying the life, work and vision of Saint John Baptist de La Salle.
"I think that solidified my commitment to the Christian Brothers," she says. "It was a beautiful experience, and it gave me a world view of the mission. We're here in this beautiful place in Moraga, but I know there is somebody in Omaha or Oklahoma City or Rhode Island who is doing the same thing that I'm doing."
She is also continuing graduate studies on human development and spirituality through Saint Mary's University in Minnesota.
"I'm a perpetual student," she says. "I really like the lifelong learning philosophy."
Thomas has devoted a lot of her life lately to spirituality.
"Sometimes when you think about spirituality, you think of it as a ritual," she says. "It's not hocus-pocus. It's walking, falling down, getting up."
The college environment is now the perfect place for her, she says. "There's so much going on here. There are so many questions, more questions then we can answer.
"I know I wouldn't have been here when I was 25 or 30," she says, adding with a smile "Maybe I'm a slow learner. Now it does feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be."
Thomas gives both her time and talents to the College, to the Christian Brothers and to other causes. She served on various committees, including the president's search committee, and spent a month in Sao Paolo, Brazil, living in community with the Brothers and teaching adults and children in their school. She also spearheaded a "Bridges to the Bayou" fundraising campaign after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, a drive that spread to the entire San Francisco district of the Christian Brothers and which brought untold donations of goods and money to New Orleans and other hard-hit Gulf states.
Charitable works, she says, can sometimes be easy to put off.
"You think I'm so busy and I don't have time," she says. "Then you get to a point where you make a decision and then you have time."