Reviewing Priesthood in Reality in 'The Tablet', Mgr Paul Hypher wrote:
'Fr Tony has set himself an awesome task - to sum up the particular flavour and taste of the vocation and spirituality of the diocesan priest, so that a priest can say, “Yes, that's how it is, I recognise myself in that picture.” On page after page I found myself saying that “Yes”. I suspect that many others will too, as indeed will many lay women and men.'
Thousands of priests did find themselves saying 'Yes' and Priesthood in Reality has pride of place on the bookshelves of many presbyteries around the world.
Mgr Philpot's aim in writing this book was 'to hold up to the diocesan priest an accurate, rather than simply edifying, mirror of how he feels about himself, his vocation and his place in the Church and society, and to suggest ways of making spiritual sense of what he sees'. The areas covered include prayer, liturgy, vocation, celibacy, collaborative ministry, loneliness, authority, the expectations of the parishioners, and the priest's own expectations of himself.
'What I found particularly attractive about Philpot's approach to the life and times of the priest, was the fresh theology and spirituality that underpinned it.'
Fr Donal O'Leary in 'The Furrow'