The holiest week of the Christian calendar is of life-giving, life-altering significance in this somber, yet joyful, Easter period.

The Easter Triduum (or Paschal Triduum) marks the final days of the 40-day lenten period, which leads up to Easter.

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday honor the days of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Each day holds a special reason to reflect and pray.

1.) Holy Thursday commemorates the day that Jesus and his disciples broke bread during “The Last Supper.” As Matthew 26:17-19 says: “On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Where you you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ He replied, ‘Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, “The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.”‘ So the disciples did as Jesus directed them and prepared the Passover.”

Related: The Four Questions for Passover: A Strong Family Tradition

Jews observe the Passover meal as a time to remember when God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. The Lord gave Moses and Aaron specific instructions for a meal that Israelite families were to eat when they were enslaved in Egypt, according to Old Testament scripture. “This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover,” God told Moses and Aaron in Exodus 12:11.

In Egypt, while the Israelites were slaves, the Lord sent plagues on the land of Egypt. The angel of death “passed over” the homes of those with lamb’s blood smeared on their door frames.

The Lord continued, “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals on all the gods of Egypt … The blood will be a sign for you on the house where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord — a lasting ordinance,” God said in Exodus 12:14.

Today, most Christians partake in regular communion as a remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

2.) Good Friday marks the day Christians observe Jesus’ death on the cross. “This is the remarkable truth of Good Friday: Jesus died, so we don’t have to,” Brian Lee, pastor of Christ Reformed Church in Washington, D.C., wrote in The Federalist in 2015. “It is really the most amazing thing to behold one’s King, one’s Creator, dying on a tree in a most glorious sacrifice: ‘Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends'” (John 15:13).

On this day, authorities and the people condemned Jesus and crucified Him; Jesus died a brutal crucifixion death. “Your eyes may fill with tears, but it’s not sad,” Lee wrote.

This somber day holds much significance for those of the Christian faith. After coming down to earth, Jesus — 100 percent God and 100 percent man — died. “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit,” Matthew 27:50 says.

Related: Palm Sunday: Five Important Facts Worth Knowing

Scripture tells us in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus’ body was wrapped in clean linen cloth and placed in a tomb with a big stone rolled in front of it.

“The Christian pastor Tim Keller has a nice, if somewhat reductive, way of putting it: Every other world religion was founded by a man who said, ‘Follow me, and you can find God’; Christianity is the only religion that was founded by a man who said, ‘I’m God, come to find you.’ And because Christians believe that the very nature of God is to love, according to God’s bizarre, otherworldly logic, the way to ‘come find’ us was to embrace what is most bitter about human experience: suffering, agony, loss,” Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a think tank that applies Judeo-Christian moral tradition to policy issues, wrote in The Week in 2014.

[lz_ndn video=32249785]

3.) Easter Sunday should be a most joyous celebration. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords rose from the dead — allowing everyone a second chance and a new life.

“What’s so important about Easter?” Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, wrote. “It’s important because it proved that Jesus was who He claimed to be. He was God in the flesh, and He came to earth to save us.”

“You know the story,” Warren wrote. “But it’s important to remember that Easter is not some memorial to a nice, good religious teacher who lived 2,000 years ago. It’s a celebration of the fact that He is alive today.”

The story did not end 2,000 years ago in the Middle East. After His resurrection, Jesus told his disciples: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”