bidding prayer (bidingprar)

[See below.] In England, the prayer before the ser mon. As directed in the 55th canon of the Church of England, this is a form in which the preacher calls on the congregation to pray for the church catholic, the sovereign, and different estates of men. A similar form of prayer preceding the sermon has been in use since long before the Reformation. At first it was called bidding of the beads (literally, praying of the prayers), after the Reformation bidding of the common prayers, bidding (of) prayers or prayer (the last word being object of the first); but after the sixteenth century the word bidding came to be popularly regarded as an adjective, or the phrase bid ding prayer as a quasi-compound, a prayer which bids or directs what is to be prayed for. A collect is now generally substituted for the bidding-prayer (and sometimes called by the same name), but on special occasions, and in cathedrals and at university sermons, the bidding-prayer is always used. Liturgiologists often designate the deacon's litanies of the primitive and the Greek Church as bidding -prayers. See ectene and litany. Our people, as of yore, may all join their priest and say along with him, before he begins his sermon, the truly Catholic petitions of the bidding - prayer . Rock , Church of our Fathers, ii. 354. biddy1 (bid'i), n.; pl. biddies (-iz). [E. dial. and U. S., perhaps of imitative origin. Cf. chick a biddy.] A familiar name for a hen.