Where are the Women of Nativity?

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 24, 1999 by Pat Mings

   Angels, shepherds, magi-majesty
   all recorded in history;
   but annals lack a certain clarity.
   Where are the women of nativity?

   To name one "she" seems
   charity (that none were
   there ... absurdity!)
   No shepherd's spouse
   for hospitality
   or woman of maturity?
   No female hand
   of domesticity
   or midwife with ability?
   No girl-child's brimful
   curiosity to see
   the babe
   in a livery?

   A fertile, feminine
   fraternity
   blessed His birth ...
   compassionately,
   yet, lost are all
   in anonymity -- Oh!
   Where are the women of nativity?

   Sophia Wisdom of Divinity,
   until all recognize our ministry,
   endow our kind with tenacity; for
   We are the women of nativity.

--Pat Mings Idaho Falls, Idaho