Age did not slow him down

After the episcopal consecrations in 1988, Archbishop Lefebvre did not slow down; more than even, he preached retreats and recollections, especially for his priests and seminarians.

He revealed to them the depths of his thoughts like never before. In 1990, he spent a couple of months writing a short work that he considered his last will and testament: A Spiritual journey in the Footsteps of St. Thomas Aquinas. “With this,” he said, “I have given everything I had to give; I do not see what more I could give.

"The work of the archbishop on this earth is accomplished. Now begins his ministry as intercessor in eternity. He has given everything he could give...the miracle of a new generation of priests."

Fr. Franz Schmidberger
Sermon at the Requiem Mass of Archbishop Lefebvre

We are nothing at all

On his way to preach a priests’ retreat, he asked the wife of one of his chauffeurs who drove him everywhere and who were his favorite confidants:

Do you know what I am going to preach about?' And when she answered no, he explained, pronouncing each word slowly: 'I am going to preach on God, on God…

A short time afterwards, to his hosts who were speaking to him about his work, his Society, he answered in a low voice:

We are nothing, absolutely nothing!' And afraid he had not been understood, he insisted, in the same voice: 'Did you hear me? Nothing… nothing at all!