In the Chaldean Rite, infants are baptized and confirmed together, as the first two of three sacraments of initiation. In baptism, the child is taken up into the life of Christ and is renewed, going down into the waters and dying with Christ, and coming up out of them, rising with him into new life. The child is welcomed into the Body of Christ and is given the Spirit of God to share in the Lord's life. Chrism, the rite of anointing and setting the child apart as one chosen by God, strengthens the faith of the child and gives him the capacity to carry on Jesus' mission of declaring the kingdom of God. In the sacrament of chrism, the child is anointed, and becomes, like Jesus, an "anointed one," which is the meaning of the word "Christ."

The Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the great Gift that Jesus gives to his church while she is on pilgrimage on earth, journeying toward her Bridegroom in heaven. He gives her himself fully in this great sacrament to unite himself to every member of the church and them to himself, until we reach that full unity in heaven. It is a foretaste of heaven, insofar as we already receive now, in the Eucharist, what we will have in heaven. 

In the Chaldean Church, we call this sacrament the Qurbana, translated as Offering (as in sacrificial offering). Whereas in the Latin and Greek churches, the Eucharist is the sacrament of thanksgiving (which is what the word translates as), among other things, the Church of the East highlights the sacrificial aspect of it. This is Jesus' offering of himself to the Father on the Cross for man's salvation; it is this offering that we celebrate and present again to God, that we participate in ourselves by offering ourselves with him, and that brings us into Jesus' own love of the Father, making us sons and daughters of God in the Son.

Confession was practiced in the early church in a communal way; people would confess their sins before the priest and the entire church. This is because of the dual-offensive nature of every sin: every sin, even ones that no one knows about, is a sin against God, against ourselves and against the entire church, since every one of us are members of the Body of Christ, and the whole body is hurt when one member suffers. The penitent would confess to God, through the priest, in front of the people of the church because sin effects all. However, individual confession has been the practice of the church in the West since the 11th century. In the East, specifically in Mesopotamia, there are indications that individual confession was the practice since the 4th century, with a hymn from one of our fathers, St. Aphrahat, indicating the importance of secrecy which the priest (called the doctor) must uphold in the confessional. 

A beautiful hymn from our tradition describes the theological nature of this sacrament through the imagery of wounds and healings: "He will heal the broken hearted and bind up all their wounds: the balm of penitence, Lord Jesus gave, to the skillful doctors who are the priests of the church, let all whom satan has harmed come and show their wounds the disciples of the Wise Doctor, and they will heal them with spiritual balm."

The sacrament of the anointing of the sick prepares a soul for its departure from this world to God. It is a sacrament of healing because it heals the soul of the effect of sin, which is the death of the life of God in the soul. This sacrament also has the power to heal the body if it is sick, which has been the practice in the church through the centuries. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "From ancient times in the liturgical traditions of both East and West, we have testimonies to the practice of anointings of the sick with blessed oil. Over the centuries the Anointing of the Sick was conferred more and more exclusively on those at the point of death. Because of this it received the name "Extreme Unction." Notwithstanding this evolution the liturgy has never failed to beg the Lord that the sick person may recover his health if it would be conducive to his salvation" (CCC 1512).

The relationship between Christ and the Church is the relationship between the Groom and his Bride; the Church is the Bride of Christ. This union is the model of all Christian unions. Just as the Lord looked at his bride, the Church, with great love and mercy, so much so that he willingly went to the Cross and was crucified to bring her to himself by saving her, so do husbands love their wives by giving up their lives for them. The Church, likewise, follows her Groom in all that he does and refuses to leave his side, and wives who marry in the Church are called to imitate the Church in loving their husbands.

There are three degrees of high clerics in the church which are conferred through the sacrament of Holy Orders: deacon, priest and bishop. The fullness of the sacrament is given to the bishop, whereas the priest is ordained to serve the ministerial role in the church through the administration of the sacraments with his bishop, and the deacon is ordained to serve according to the diaconal capacity. The sacrament can be administered only by a bishop.

Our Lord instituted this sacrament in the Last Supper, the first Mass, when he celebrated the first Eucharist with his apostles and commanded them to "do this" in memory of him, thereby giving them the power to follow his command, ordaining them priests. Thus, the highest dignity of the priest and his service is tied intimately with the Eucharist and the altar of the church. 

The priest is ordained to confer the sacraments in persona Christi, in the very person of Christ. It is for this reason, among others, that in the ordination rite of the Chaldean Church, a hymn is sung which states: "Great is Gabriel, and glorious is Michael, as their names attest; but they are as nothing compared to the dignity of the priesthood."