The entire human existence is studded with rituals. To travel, eat, make friends, love, educate, heal, have fun, play: every human act generates its own ritual forms. Likewise, when I participate in religious rites I am the same person that watches YouTube, travels with Ryanair, has met the partner on Tinder, who downloads music and listens to it with earphones while walking.

Now, the question is: do the rites “outside the church” somehow defile the rites “inside the church”? Is there such a gap in the “density of meaning” and “intensity of joy” between religious rites and other rites as to prevent osmosis? The author would like to investigate these crucial interactions. If we live in an era of “sad rites”, indeed, what will be the fate of the liturgy?