Supplication  

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1. To humble oneself before another in making a request; to beg.
2. To plead with one's deity.

Supplication (also known as petitioning) is the most common form of prayer, wherein a person asks a supernatural deity to provide something, either for the person who is praying or for someone else on whose behalf a prayer of supplication is being made.

The concept is perfectly at home with secular use. The supplicant may also be described as a suppliant but the former word is more commonly used. The key meaning is of a request by the lesser person in an acknowledged unequal relationship. [1] [May 2007]