The launch of a crowdfunding campaign is actually the penultimate step in bringing your ideas to life. (floship.com)
In one of his novels, The Possessed, Dostoyevsky makes Bishop Tihon say to Stavrogin: «The complete atheist stands on the penultimate step to most perfect faith (he may or may not take a further step). (religion-online.org)
Chief among them was that the pope would no longer celebrate beatification ceremonies, marking the penultimate step before sainthood. (religion.blogs.cnn.com)